A good goodbye to 2025
I. Growing calmer: understanding myself As a strong believer and a fine (ownself say) graduate of school of hard knocks, there is no better way than moments...
Of friendship in your 40s
Vignettes (mine & yours) (I don’t know how to make the rabbit face non-opaque..) These days, friendship looks like: Messages that go straight to the point,...
To all the things that seem to matter
“I have been learning the ways of the world for 40 years. It’s time the world learns my way.” It was a sentence said in jest, but when these words left my...
On a May day's wedding
It’s the morning (rather, noon) after my only sister’s wedding. I’m sitting here on my father’s couch, wondering how time flew by like that. It helps that...
Of life through writing
Thank you / Get well soon / I miss you When was the last time you received anything handwritten? Mine was last year’s birthday wishes, on the front page of a...
When the body remembers
If you miss someone, do you tell them? Yesterday as I took an escalator up the mall, I saw an older lady heading in the other direction and thought of my ma....
Ginza life, interim
Sakura in full bloom above a “bread box” car typically seen in Japan 2024 in full bloom It’s already the end of April, and I have been deliberating how best...
Hey 2024, let's get lucky
A quiet moment in 2023 It's only the fifth day into 2024, but I'm still trying to shake off the last bits of languish even as I welcome the new year. Perhaps...
Of life at 0.75x
Stawamus Chief, First Peak - October 2023 Climb ev'ry mountain, ford every stream The highest hill in Singapore is 164m tall, so I am pretty proud I made it...
20 on 40
..because 40 life lessons were just too long a list 1. Judge less, and your heart feels lighterI still do; it's hard to totally switch off this muscle but...
April showers bring May flowers
Un-busy your days It's been a good 10 years since I was recommended Quiet by Susan Cain, to understand the power of introverts, and to appreciate what I...
Less expecting, more accepting
Breathe in, and let go I read this phrase aloud, and felt a slight lifting of heaviness from my mind, as I acknowledged that the expectations I bring to any...
Of music and memory
Hey Mr DJ, put a record on I grew up in an age when music on demand had yet to exist. Except when you called the radio stations to dedicate a song to your...
Something in the rain
Image credit: @resetnyc Thank you so much! When someone praises you, do you shy away, or belittle what you just did? That's an automatic knee-jerk response...
Being present with tea
Greeting the New Year with tea "When you pick up your tea, you breathe in, in order to bring your mind back to your body, and become completely present in...
2022: A year in review
The joy of now Dec 2022: Strong gusts of wind blew against my face as I stood watching the waves crashing against the shore, the bite of sand hitting my feet...
When the child becomes the caregiver
How to stop worrying about things you can't change @NewHappyCo has a wonderful knack for distilling life concepts into simple steps - bringing a wider scope...
Being in your own season
Breaking a relatively long writing drought with a beautiful and gentle piece from @rainbowsalt on how alone doesn't mean lonely, and it is a season of...
The anxiety of the left-hand drive and fleeting mortality
Timeless sea breezes, that for aeons have blown ancient rocks, you are purest space coming from afar… (Rainer Maria Rilke, Song of the Sea) What's on your...
What if we are merely triaging?
2003 was my first interaction with the term "triage" SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, hit Singapore really hard, and some university friends and I...