I’m listening to Sissel, a gifted Norwegian, female vocalist, as background music while I try to tie together a snowwoman and meeting my cousin from AZ for the first time last night. The little snowwoman was built back in Minnesota by my parents who are in their 70s but still very young at heart. My cousin Mike and his wife flew in last night to Almaty from Moscow, Russia for a short stay. They have lived in Moscow for the last 18 months. Ken and I brought them to a Chinese restaurant before we had dessert at our flat.
Norway, NW Minnesota, Arizona, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, our world has indeed downsized. Our connections are globalized in many ways but, unfortunately, I’d never met Mike before because of the distance from MN to AZ . However, last night we were reminiscing about our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins we shared. Mike is 9 years older so he had memories of my grandma that I would NEVER have since she died before my parents were married. Family is important and it is never too late to tap into those roots. Unfortunately for Snowwoman, she will melt away with the first warm rays of sunshine but that won’t be happening any time soon in northwest Minnesota where Mike and my origins began with my Scandinavian grandparents.
