Wrap Up the 2023 and Welcome the 2024

 

:) (Pic source: wonder_doodles)

Today is the last day of the year 2023. It has been a great year for me. A year filled with time enjoyed with my dear families and friends. A year filled with so many travel and to many new places. A year filled with so many beautiful moments, especially it marks a transformation of my dear son entering the adulthood. I could see how people surrounded me changed too, many for the better and some for the worse. 

This is a year when I join the work life back. Not just any work, but relates to what I have learned and experienced before. Fate plays a big part of it because I work back with my Boss from my first job here in Singapore.

The job and environment are still felt like a dream for me. Not many people are having this kind of job. Back to office hours and five-days a week. Strategic and good location. With one very good and understanding Boss to report to. 

Somehow, it changes me. With most of the time working alone, it has transformed me to enjoy my own accompany more. It gives me room to learn and do what I love doing. 

Never stop being grateful :)

In less than 24 hours, we will embrace to another year. There are so many things I feel thankful and grateful for - all the time that has transformed me to where I am now. 

I want to thank everyone who ever been part of my life journey, for their love, friendships, time spent, and things to learn from them.

I want to thank those who choose to leave too, because from them, I also learn many things in life - impermanence, human nature, and so on. 

On friendships (Pic source: innergrowthreset)

With the experience, it teaches me that not everyone is treating friendship the same way I do. For those who knows me well or long enough, I was the type who try my best to maintain friendship by keeping in touch often (no matter where my friends are - near or far), because I feel grateful for their presence in my life. 

I am no longer treating it the same way now. I take this matter easily now. If people do not wish to part of my life, I will be happily let them go. Why make life difficult? I will treasure those who stay and who treasure the friendship back.

Earlier on, I planned to travel only to new places and less to those I often travel to. However, my priority changes now. Time keeps going. We are getting older every seconds every minutes. My parents and siblings are getting older each day. I myself am getting older too. I just think that I want to spend more time with them, especially we live in different countries and my time to travel is limited. I hope we will spend good time together.

Law of attraction - money affirmation for 2024
(Pic source: financial_wanderlust)

I know it seems a bit late for me to start thinking about retirement. Many of my friends had started it much earlier. But I believe that everyone has their own time for what they do. And I have positive thought about this. At least it gives me motivation and short-term goals at least for the next 5 years :D Hope the above money affirmations, will help me to achieve my goals, and yours too :)

2024 Resolutions

My goals in life is still the same: to be healthy and happy, in peace, and blessed with loving people throughout my life. 

Life, no matter how rich you are, how you are able to travel to many new and wonderful places, but if you do not take care of your health, you will lose the joy. As I get older, I learn more from people surrounded me. And I learn from myself too.

When I was sick, even just a mere fever, flu  and cough - not a life threatening disease - it made my life miserable enough. Everything felt cold. I had to wear winter sweater in such a tropical country like Singapore. 

Non-stop cough disturbed my sleep all through the night. Packets of tissues were used to clear my mucus and made my nose red and dry. Tasteless bud and not being able to smell ruined even the most delicious dishes in front of you. 

Weigh loss that in the beginning seemed to be a happy thing, became something that I got worried of. 

With more variants of Covid and lung infections spreading, I pray that everyone will be free from it.

I wish for more exercises and eat a balance and healthy food intake in order to maintain a good healthy. 

Don't worry, be happy :)
(Pic source: doodlesndreams)

And as I grow older, I realised that mental health is very important too!!! I truly wish and hope that everyone could be free themselves from such suffering and rest their mind in peace, so that they can focus on their life goals - mainly for their happiness and health being. 

Find your happy place :)
(Pic source: doodlesndreams)

I always see my life like a book. I imagine my past as the chapters that has been written and flipped. And I keep writing with a new fresh of paper, the empty and blank one, with the ongoing life that I will live through. 

It consists of good and bad memories. Some chapters are worth to read through again, while some, I never wish to remember. Always remember: we are the author of our own book. Write the way we want it to be. Live from your own heart, not by the expectation of others. Keep it in balance: not too extreme at each side. Most important, fill it with happy memory that one day, you may want to look back and smile reading it. And never give up, when life gives you a hardship to overcome. You are not alone. Share your sadness with anyone near you. Do not keep it to yourself. 

Well, I wish everyone for a wonderful year ahead. For your new beginning in life, and for the continuation of it. All the very best!!! :)

Realisations

Daydreaming

Realisation #1

Long before mobile phone existed, I believed that everyone's most favorite pass time was daydreaming. That was when many poets, writers giving birth to many creations that mostly based on their imaginations ratherthan their experiences in life. Well, at least for me. Daydreaming was my favourite one!!! 

We could daydream just about anything!!! About our singer idols / movie stars, about boy or girl that we secretly had a crush with, about our perfect date that never realised (because it was just too beautiful and perfect to imagine), about having lots of money that never finished, about having perfect figures, beautiful face, long silky hair, and so on. Well, I was too young to daydream something more serious like becoming millionaires, directors, but would not mind of daydreaming about having a dream house / castle-like with maids and butlers ready by our side at any time. Lol!

The beauty of the daydream was that, there was no limit of what we wanted to imagine. As long as we had spare time to waste (like being stuck in the traffic jam, no school next day, even when we pooed inside toilet), we could take our time as much as we wanted. 

We did not need any device for daydreaming, just a head full of imagination, with blank eyes that could stare at anything around. Any place would do too, no need to be in certain place or special ones. Be it at the side of the bus window or car (my favorite ones), at the school's desk, on the bed, and so on.

And the best thing about daydreaming was that, it was free of charge. No monthly subscription to pay (Internet, electricity, mobile plan), no expensive mobile phone required, no computer or desktop required, simply nothing!!!

Do you agree???

Realisation #2

Last time, I used to wonder. In such a small country like Singapore with a population of only around 5 millions people, how come it was very difficult, or hard, or rare, the chance to bump with anyone that I know whenever I was inside the public transports, in MRT or bus station, inside shopping malls and other entertainment complex, as if the number of people that I know over the two decades of living here in Singapore was really small or even non-exist. It couldn't be, right?

We were not living in country like Indonesia that consisted of 18,000 islands (big and small), and over 270 million population. Therefore, the chance to meet someone we know was definitely much lower.

But as I grow old, I realised one thing. Even when we bumped in somewhere, first, the person might not be able to recognise the other party (although most of the time, I could recognise them, even after not meeting for many years). It might be due to the weight gains or losses, aging, make up, plastic surgery (although lesser cases), and so on. 

And even when we might recognise each other, the other party might be in deep thought about anything that happened to them that day (maybe unhappy encounters at work, feeling tired, family problems, money problems, etc.) Therefore, they might be unaware of my presence. 

Second, even when we looked at each other and talked, many times we forgot the name of that person as we might have attended many schools, courses, training places throughout our lives, we might have worked in many establishments over a period of time, and so on. 

Even gathering with so called relatives were usually limited to only once per year during Chinese New year (provided you attend it yearly and not find any excuses to purposely save the angpao distributions), or unless there was any wedding and baby one-month celebration.

You might not be able to keep up with the children growing up faces too, unless you stalk them over Facebook or Instagram accounts. 

And lately, I actually felt very grateful with the rare chance of bumping, because not everyone wanted to meet and greet everyone they knew and bumped into. That was why sometimes, even they knew each other, they would act as if they were stranger. They purposely walked into the opposite direction, stuck their eyes and attention deeply into their mobile phone, closed their eyes when they sat down in the mrt as if they were sleeping, stuck their ears with their ear piece or headphone, acted busy with their laptop, and faster walked as if the loan shark was chasing into them, and so on. 

Many reasons could rise from it. They might not friend anymore due to any misunderstanding, clashes in opinions; they might be facing life difficulties that they were unwilling to share with others (getting retrenched, unemployed, divorce, breaking up, having major sickness, and so on); or people just simply did not like to have such superficial friendship. Well, if you think about it, many friends in our Facebook were people we did not know, had not met before, strangers. But why we keep such friends?

Well, perhaps one day I would come up with realisation #3 regarding that. Hahaha....

Anyway, it was a lovely morning. As I breathe in fresh air from my balcony, all sorts of thought appeared. Wish everyone a wonderful Sunday!!! Please take good care of yourself wherever you are. Flu, cough, lung infection happened everywhere around the world. I am still fighting it and wishing myself to recover soon. Hope all of you are in good health!!!