Immigrants

Often you will hear it said that travelling overseas may well broaden our mind but it also makes us more appreciative of the home we have left.

There is definitely a real thrill in receiving a text message from home when you are overseas or perhaps getting a note in the in-box when you check your emails. Hearing a familiar voice on the phone, in an unfamiliar hotel room in a far away country, is a joyful reminder that, ‘home is where the heart is’.

In our country today there are many people living here, who for numerous reasons, cannot return to their homeland. Perhaps they live in our street or work with us.

We meet them shopping and on the sporting field, yet do we ever consider how inwardly their thoughts might drift far away occasionally, wondering about their families and loved ones left behind in the country of their birth?

Those who come from war-ravaged or politically oppressed countries often suffer the pain of not even knowing the whereabouts of family and friends, or for that matter whether they are even alive.

How fortunate we are having the freedom of life we enjoy in this country. Perhaps we should take more time out to be thankful for the closeness of family.

I’m Peter Mack and that’s life.

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