Aside from building a brand new life alone after the divorce, one of the most difficult lessons (rather, on-going challenges) is frugality. This is such an alien concept to me because I grew up as a privileged expat child who never had to worry about the cost of things. I learned to indulge in the finer things in life from an early age, as most expat children do, because Daddy could always afford it or the company paid for it. Saving up for something was never in my cards, because if my parents wouldn’t get it for me, grandmother would,…
Category: Surviving loss
Celebrate, not Define!
celebrate instead of define. One phrase stood out this morning during mass: We tend to waste far too much valuable time defining our roles, relationships, personalities, failures, achievements, goals instead of celebrating them. I stared at the Dominican priest as if he suddenly sprouted three purple dragon heads. Those three words hit me right where it needed to, as I have been in an emotional slump these past few days, battling some unwanted demons of my past. He was absolutely right – I have spent the last five decades listening to roles being defined for me, my life being defined…
Let Go of Two Things At A time
What it is about the number two? In the bible, Noah led the animals into the arc in twos, and somehow, everything in our lives is defined by the number two. I suppose it is the concept of establishing equilibrium in whatever it is we undertake in our lives – in order to achieve the perfect balance there have to be two poles. Similarly, there are two sides of the issue. Well, I discovered that letting go of things in twos is not a bad thing either. Last week I was asked what I have let go of recently that…
Are you working on your childhood dreams?
In case you haven’t had the chance to watch this video in the last decade, The Last Lecture of Prof. Randy Pausch is something you need to listen to. There is no guarantee that it will change your life, although several hundred thousand people will attest that it has, but at the very least, it will make you stop and think about your purpose in life, and whether you are doing what you really want to be doing: achieving your childhood dreams. You will need time, and silence, which is why I am sharing this on a Sunday. So grab…
Use It, or Lose It
In other words… declutter your life. I just spent the morning preparing my home for the New Year, placing the coins on the windowsill, completing the abundance table, and touching up the Feng Shui elements for luck and prosperity. None of of these items are any guarantee that the year will be better, but I need something positive to hope for. The past three days I have also been discarding a lot of things, cleaning out my closet and basement. There is one advantage to moving around the world a lot, and that is the discipline of discarding the unused…
Necessary Decisions
There are certain choices we make in life that are painful, difficult, and often times, undesired. But our human limitations leads us to certain thresholds, at which point we realise that we are no longer able to endure the burden(s). Suicide, self-harm and reclusion is the coward’s way out. What takes real courage is walking away, reaching out for help, and fighting back. The mind of time is hard to read. We can never predict what it will bring. Nor even from all that is already goneCan we say what form it finally takes;For time gathers its moments secretly.Often we…
On The Fifth Day of Christmas… Rejoice with Apple Pie
“Gaudete in Domino semper” – Philippians 4:4,5 My mother loved apple pie long before I was born. She developed her passion for it while working in the USA as a young nurse back in the 60s, and later on embarked on a life-time quest of the best apple pie – either baking it or trying it in different restaurants. I inherited her strength, but my quest is for the perfect chocolate ice cream instead of Mommy’s apple pie. Sadly, I did not inherit her patience or humility, but wanted to honour her continuing presence within me by baking apple pie…
