While everybody celebrated the new year Eve, the entire family fell asleep before 8pm. hahaha… I guess that’s what all the travel did to us. I got up early and want to reflect 2021.
Memorable things in 2021:
– i got COVID and experienced “long COVID” for 2.5 months. Learned and experienced mind body connection.
– last minute “escape” to the US after feeling overwhelmed by the pandemic.
– a trip to el nido with my favorite peoples in the Philippines
– the day the girls returned to school
Things I learned:
– live in the moment. Never in my life I feel like life carries its own course and I’m just riding along. The pandemic made planning impossible and i was forced to give up. Yet I learned to live day by day and extremely grateful for small progress.
– I can live without running. For over a decade I was identified as runner. This year I was forced to take a break from it. First because I twisted my ankle then it was COVID. I thought I wouldn’t survive without it as it served as therapy for so many years. Yet I survived and fell in love with gentle exercises like Pilates. I continued to exercise in a daily basis, got the mental benefits, and my body got more tone. It was a lesson about balanced approach to exercising and being flexible in all aspects of life.
– I learned to love my husband in a new way. Won’t go too much in details but I feel like I got a new appreciation of being in love.
– I was reminded to live by my values, and not to be distracted by noises around me even though they came from people who cares about me. Nobody knows better what I need than myself. This applied to my job search case this year and I’m sure I will revisit it again and again when making tough decisions.
What I let go this year:
– wanting to control what’s happening and what others are doing. Pandemic forced me to let it go and feels liberating. I even let go of trying to control myself.
What am I thankful for this year?
Being together as a family. Our good health and the fortune, to be able to travel and enjoy our last year in manila despite the pandemic.
21 things I am grateful in 2021:
- small gestures of love from husband
- new friendships: Leia’s family (our favorite travel and exercise buddy) and Yiyi’s family (they are just so kind a fun to hang out)
- girls’ teachers
- our beach trips
- sunsets at the beach
- chatty walks with Lizzy
- morning hugs with the girls
- the feeling after meditation
- my mentor who guides me along the transition
- my mom who’s thriving life alone in shanghai
- our helper who’s not the smartest but definitely the kindest
- virtual connection with my team. it will be hard to find it elsewhere so I’m super grateful to have found them
- quiet morning for meditation/reflection
- our new member of the family Cookie that brings so much joy to Sofia
- seeing the girls to grow and mature this year
- Sofia’s questions that made me pause
- running with Sofia
- reading good books (will recap my favorites)
- meeting kind people during trips. Kindness is hard to describe but easy to feel when we encounter it.
- learning about new topics. Keeps me excited and let me grow mentally.
- finding the joy to blog. It creates space for reflection.
Our New Journey 
Congratulations on a great year. I know it wasn’t perfect, but you really made the best of it. I admire you so much as a hard working, caring mom who is so reflective, introspective, and thoughtful about everything. It’s so fun getting a peek into your brain through your blog and I love following along with your family’s adventures. I like your calm, level approach to life and it’s an inspiration to me. I look forward to your new posts showing up in my email inbox most days! Happy New Year!
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thank you Kae for your kindness. I feel like we are better “friends” than many friends in real life because we are quite honest what’s going on in our lives and minds in our blogs. 🙂 the pandemic brought me back to blog more often than before, and I’m glad I did. Looking forward to 2022 with more learning, growth, reflections and fun.
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