How to Spend Winter Solstice: A Time for Reflection, Renewal, and Connection

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A moment of stillness amidst the chaos, a reminder of the beauty of change. This is a perfect time to write my first post in this new-old blog. Winter Solstice: the word “solstice” comes from the Latin words “sol” (sun) and “sistere” (to stand still). This is because the sun appears to stand still in the sky at the solstice.

Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, marking the transition from autumn to winter. There are many different winter solstice traditions around the world.

Winter solstice is a time of year when many people feel introspective and reflective. The long nights and cold weather provide an opportunity to slow down and connect with ourselves and our loved ones.

How spend winter solstice: 

Spend time with loved ones. Spend time talking, playing games, or simply enjoying each other’s company. Don’t take company for granted. Today, I read that relationships drift apart due to a lack of connection, and a big cause of disconnection is micro-rejection (credit to Jillian). It is the small stuff that adds up, like looking at your phone while talking to someone. Some people celebrate the solstice by lighting candles, burning incense, or giving gifts. 

Reflections on the past year. Take some time to think about the things that have happened in the past year. What have you learned? What are you grateful for? 

Set goals for the new year. The winter solstice is a time to start thinking about the future. What do you want to achieve in the new year? Wherever you are in your life journey, know that you can always start anew, in the new hour, in the new day, or in the new year!

Practice self-care. The long nights and cold weather can take a toll on our physical and mental health. Make sure to take some time for yourself to relax and recharge. Identify the things you do that makes you filled with joy and energy, and make time for it!

Get outside. The winter solstice is a time of year when many people feel spiritually connected to the Earth. Even though it’s cold outside, getting some fresh air can be beneficial for your health. Go for a walk, hike, or simply spend some time sitting in your backyard.

There are many different ways to celebrate the winter solstice. Find what works best for you and make it a time of reflection, renewal, and joy.

Where am I this year? I am stepping into my 30s era and am looking forward to it. This year has been an adventurous one with many milestones! We had travels to Vietnam, taking a first cruise with parent-in-laws, a road trip to multi-cities Canada, travels to various places in my new remote job, bought my first car (!), taking some serious thoughts to settling down with my husband, and learning to take it easy and appreciating moments. 

In the next year, I would like to focus my next year on staying appreciative, enjoying moments with loved ones, pursuing hobbies and learning things that suit my fancy. 

No matter what spiritual journeys you are on, from darkness to dawn, take the time to enjoy the slow pace. Enjoy the stillness of the long nights. When the light comes up, enjoy the start of a new season, with hope and renewal.

Spending Christmas in Korea by Myself

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This is a post I started on April 17, 2017.

Christmas in Korea is a couple’s holiday. And to make myself clarify, I wasn’t single. I was very much in a relationship. I was traveling through Southeast Asia during this festive holiday. I had just finished..

…Continued on August 14, 2022.

… my study abroad semester in Singapore. I can only imagine what I was trying to write five years ago (already 3 years after my travel in Korea). Now we are 8 years after my travels to Korea! It’s amusing to read my old writing, opening a window to my past self and seeing my life struggles. 

Anyways, Korea was the next leg after my Japan trip with my then-boyfriend, now-husband (spoiler!), Cuong. We had just gone through 5 months of long-distance relationship, followed by 3 weeks of traveling together in Japan. I felt immensely attached, and then separated from him as I continued my travels while he went back to the United States. 

As usual, I fail at saying goodbyes, and couldn’t function properly, moping around for days in Korea by myself (now in 2022, I am still the same way with anyone I grow attached to).

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Luckily, I had made plans to meet with a good friend I made while studying abroad in Singapore. His name is Timon (yes, I asked him about Timon and Pumbaa). It was an exciting time, with Korea bustling with festive energy. Compared to Japan, Korea is much livelier, louder, youthful, more colorful- kind of like a hipster little sister and Japan an older sterner big brother (with a kinky side- depending on where in Japan you go (ha!). Everywhere we looked, people traveled as a couple. Timon and I bonded over this and complaining about our love life. Neither of us with our couple, and are spending time with each other during the holidays where everyone else was lovey-dovey.

Timon introduced me to his friends Min Hui and Ayden. These three became my best friends for that week in Korea. We ate delicious food (tried cold noodles with ice in the bowl for the first time- opened my eyes!), drank together, karaoke-d all night, visited beautiful Nami Island, went dancing the night away at a gay bar. We had an incredible time!

Visited the famous location where Winter Sonata was filmed.
The scene with the perfectly lined trees.
Feeling young and making memories

Watching all the Asian dramas, this was the first time I felt like I had friends and part of a whole. Since Korea in 2014, I have seen Timon once more in Netherlands in 2020. We have both matured since we last met and are much different from our younger, wilder days. We reminisced about the past and looked forward to meeting each other again, perhaps in Korea??

I am fortunate to have him as a friend and rest in fate’s hand to decide when our next encounter will be.

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Book Review: Fight Club

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January 22, 2020
Fight Club
By: Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk was a dark and deep read, touching on concepts that paints the picture of how dark the real world is. It is a very quick-paced read, about halfway through, it was impossible to put down. Ideas in this book are great reminders of thinking about what is raw and important. In the midst of a rat race, am I working to spend more and improve my quality of material life? Am I really present with the people I’m around? Am I living my life to its fullest? What if we could do anything right now, what is it? Tyler is just a split self within everyone that desires to be LIVING and DOING. This is a great depiction of why the smartest people in the world see the strings of the system, see that they are stuck in it no matter which way they struggle, and choose to leave that world. They either live in solidarity far from the system or take their lives. In the darkness, love is a way to help one stay sane and grounded.

Cool Ideas

  • Rules of fight club > Rules of Project Mayhem > Creating the system with which the person who creates it loses his power
  • We are God’s middle children, with no special place in history and no special attention. Ads make us believe that we can be special. Working jobs they hate to get things they don’t need.
  • There a lot of things we don’t want to know about the people we love
  • If people thought you were dying, they will give you their full attention.
  • Other humans made a mess, and we clean up. Why should we do that?
  • Getting fired is the best thing that happens, that way we quit treading water.
  • Getting old is a phenomenon in the wild, because animals get killed before they grow old.
  • Not wanting to die without scars- tired of watching professionals fight.
  • The things you own start owning you. When you’ve lost everything, you are free to do anything.

Favorite Quotes:
“If I could wake up in a different time and place, why not a different person?” (Palahniuk).

  Palahniuk, Chuck. Fight Club: a Novel. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018.

July Resolutions

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July seems to be my favorite time of year to start a new year’s resolution. It has been 2 years since I posted, so I guess it’s time to write again.

We just came back from a long trip abroad and have in mind some takeaways to shape lives for the better.

Pura Vida- enjoy pure life. Go out to nature more. See and do more arts. Be around more people, and enjoy them! Read and write more.

Be kind to each other. Those we love the most will be staying, so have patience and appreciate them.

At the end of the day, what’s most important?

It Just Occurred to Me

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Now that all my followers are probably gone from my blogging site, let me try to write again.

It’s been awhile. And I’m not really sure why, and I have no good reason for that either. There have been some things I have noticed since growing up (yes, I have considered myself growing up the past few years- and possibly peaking… but we’ll see).

I’ve been doing a lot of “soul searching”- to try to find myself and what I want and need to do. At one point, I wanted to launch into a full on website, which I found too stressful and the pressure left me with no creative energy to write. I guess you could compare that to when you work to do the things you love and end up hating it one day? That argument can go many ways, it’s just a feeling.

My last post is a year ago now. I could beat myself up for not keeping up with this, but I have also recently learned that I should be nicer to myself. How about I consider it as a conversation with my readers (if there are any)?

Some things I’ve been working on half-assed lately:

  • Writing a book- “Traveling for Introverts”… which is me in a nutshell. It’s been horrible, so I wouldn’t expect much. I did read Steven King’s memoir On Writing, to draw inspiration, and realize I’ll never be as good as him. So why try? … just kidding, I’ll try a bit.
  • Reading – to fulfill a contract I set up with my sister to be better this year. There’s more to the contract, which I’ll share later.
  • Learning code – something I used to enjoy, but suffered from indecision-itis… so I never pursued.

Probably no one read this. So… I’ll publish and get back to work.

My Bell Jar

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“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantine and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” – The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath

Time Fleeting By

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To put into perspective, I started this blog three years ago. At that time, I was living in Manhattan and Staten Island. I spent my day in the busiest city of the world. Thinking about it now, it sounds more like a dream- a distant memory of someone else’s life. We had so much freedom in the hustle and bustle. It’s been quite a long while since I’ve felt anything like it. I was disenchanted with New York because big city life caught up with me. New York was so… fast. It became like the party that kept on going and I felt stuck. I missed my family. I missed the four seasons of the mountains. Since then, life led me to helping my family at our business, trying a life in Atlanta, and traveling Vietnam. Even though I live each day, one better or worse than the last, somehow time still slipped by. I realize it’s been three years and so much has happened. I’ve tried to keep my blog as updated as my motivation, life, work, travels allows me. It has been quite an adventure, jotting my thoughts down and seeing my developments over the years.

Volunteering With Fardos

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I have grown incredibly attached to my Syrian friends, whom I volunteer with at Catholic Charities in Atlanta. Fardos, who had needed computer literacy help, was my first volunteer case.

She was always so gracious and thankful of my help. She had shared so many of her culture’s cuisine with me. I would have so many foods to bring home to share with my own family. She shared food with me that I would not have known about otherwise.

She is a wonderful woman, with 5 beautiful children: Hanin 10, Nemin 8, Hazem 7, Nagham 5, Reffef 3. These kids are full of energy, questions, intelligence. They love watching Youtube cooking shows and hacker channels.

Visiting her reminds me of my family when we first immigrated to the United States. Seeing her small 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment be enough for all 7 people.

I had loved her since my first visit, how she had learned so quickly. Our bond had grown over the 3 months that I have volunteered with her. We talked about our cultures and our religions. There is still so much to learn. She was a fiery ambitious, life-loving, dancer and it was exhilarating to see her around her children.

They are moving today to Nebraska, where they can make a better living. I’ll miss them all.

Today, I played Can’t Help Falling In Love on the Ukulele

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This song was played really badly, I’ve been meaning to learn finger-plucking, and just did the simplest technique.

I think it goes quite nicely with the song because I’m “rushing in” to playing this song. I’d prefer to not edit it because this would be a good marking point to where I started out playing. I want to see myself get better! But I’m dedicating this to my boo friend <3

 

Today, I drew rain.

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After yesterday’s resolve to post more, I had already almost not done anything for today.

My boyfriend says it looks like a woman with an umbrella head, but it’s okay, because I like it.

Really, it’s not too bad, right?

I like the rain. I like listening to it and looking at it. I don’t like it so much while caught in it though.

I accidentally set off my workplace alarm system by trying to get in through the backdoor. Troubled a friendly officer, having to come check the place out.

In other news, I’m completely hooked on Ender’s Game, a childhood favorite of mine. And, I’m looking into signing up for Krav Maga classes to keep life interesting. Neh?

Cheers!