Kidlat would have been 12 years old this June. That is 84 years in human time. But he has always just been a baby to me. He arrived in our home, a small light gray toy poodle, the size of a teacup. He hopped around so silently that we were afraid we’d accidentally step on […]
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For You, This 2022: Clarity
It is amazing what you find when you tune the entire world out. When you hit that mute button for a while. There is so much noise out there. The algorithm, trying so damn hard to carve a piece of your mind space, bit by bit, until it is no longer yours. The birds were […]
‘How fast can you get back to your breath?’ – my favorite yoga teacher would ask this as he ends an intense session, easing practitioners into a Savasana. When your heart rate is up and your muscles are tense, how easily can you go back to a state of calm? We’ve all had different experiences […]
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December: Begin Again
As I write all these, I’m surprised by my positivity. Not all days are like this. There are (still) days I’m madly homesick, days that my heart feels like it’s ripped apart in pieces. There are (still) nights I can’t sleep, worrying about my family back home. At one point I told Paula that I’m […]
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November: Bright and Sunny Days
There are two things that are central to our life at home – the amazing food that is the outcome of Paula’s experiments, and my movement practice that is one of the things I look forward to everyday. In October, I decided to finish the year strong with Dylan Werner’s Total True Strength Training – […]
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October: A Heightened Awareness
Arriving in October is already a win in itself. We’ve all survived through so much. I tried to catch my breath a bit by having my first vacation of the year. Paula and I went on a staycation at W Hotel in Sentosa and Capitol Kempinski. This was my first pit stop from the endless […]
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September: ‘Till I Collapse
September had its own trials. My company went through layoffs. The anxiety in the air was palpable. Somehow I was calmer than I had expected, as if I pulled out an inner strength within me that was there all along just waiting to be used. There is this song by Eminem that I played on […]
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August: One Step At A Time
My challenge for the month is to run 100K by the end of August. Perhaps an easy task for long time runners, but for me, it’s quite a feat. I went through it the same way I went through the year – one step at a time. My body isn’t very familiar with constant long […]
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July: The Struggles We Choose
What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? – Mark Manson The days and hours looked almost exactly the same, enclosed in a small space that is our condo unit. Changing from work to relax mode just meant changing screens – from laptop to mobile phone to television. […]
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June: What We Have Is Time
About to cross the mid-year mark, I pondered through the months that have gone by, and the months to follow. On one hand, there are things that are beyond my control – the situation, my emotions. On the other hand, there are things that are within my control – my attitude, my actions. It’s difficult, […]