Happy 2009: The Home-Coming
Well. It's been a crazy roller-coaster ride of a year - one I have learnt so much from. Goodbye 2008, and thanks for all the changes and wisdom I have attained.
Enough pains. Enough experiences. Enough heartaches. Enough love. Enough perseverance. Enough tears. Enough laughter. Enough acceptance. Enough appreciation.
But never enough lessons.
I wonder what 2009 will bring me.
2008 ended with a dip and a high. Mum suffered from severe intestinal infection when she was travelling in Guilin, and was vomiting terribly, and on top of that had bloody stools. The pain was so insufferably intense that she literally thought she was going to die. Poor mummy was placed on drips in two (terribly substandard) Chinese hospitals before she was finally able to secure a flight back home. She spent the last 3 days of 2008 recuperating in Mount Elizabeth Hospital where she got all teary-eyed and thought back on the most important things in her life - Us.
It's amazing what near-death experiences do to people. As she laid on the hospital bed attached to a million and one tubes, she held my hand and cried, sharing her fears of not having the chance to see me one last time. I squeezed her hand in return and wept tears with her. The past year has been a homecoming of sorts for me and my experiences through the community my dear 2nd brother brought me into has allowed me to shed my shallow obsessions and expand my heart and soul outwards. This has changed the way I see and treat my family members and loved ones, and has brought all of us closer together. I am thankful that my experiences from coaching have taught me never to take anyone and anything for granted ever again. I spent 2 days and a night with her in the cold, unfamiliar sanitized ward to ease her discomfort. Thankfully, she was well enough to finally get discharged on New Year's Eve when we had lunch as a family - oldest brother and sister-in-law included.
Yes, things with the brother and sis-in-law have improved tremendously thanks to the realizations I have attained, and we have become much dearer as a family unit. In fact, they have just moved back home yesterday from over a year of detachment and unhappy grievances. It was tough and took months and months of tears, sleepless nights, putting down my ego, baring my soul unabashedly, and expressing my heartfelt love for them in order to move them (in more ways than one) back home. I am proud to say that we are all living happily under the same roof again, with my parents' very first grandchild on the way too. :)
What a year 2008 has been, eh? It started out from a broken distraught family into one that has finally come full circle. From a young, confused, depressed and angry lady into someone who is calmer, at peace, with an inner strength that resonates from within.
So what was 2008 like for you, my friends? Perhaps it's a good time to think back, and I strongly intent for all of you to be bestowed with even more beautiful gifts in 2009.
A few photos of NYE night, into the first hours of 2009. Nothing like great company and old friends to ring in the New Year with. :D
Enough pains. Enough experiences. Enough heartaches. Enough love. Enough perseverance. Enough tears. Enough laughter. Enough acceptance. Enough appreciation.
But never enough lessons.
I wonder what 2009 will bring me.
2008 ended with a dip and a high. Mum suffered from severe intestinal infection when she was travelling in Guilin, and was vomiting terribly, and on top of that had bloody stools. The pain was so insufferably intense that she literally thought she was going to die. Poor mummy was placed on drips in two (terribly substandard) Chinese hospitals before she was finally able to secure a flight back home. She spent the last 3 days of 2008 recuperating in Mount Elizabeth Hospital where she got all teary-eyed and thought back on the most important things in her life - Us.
It's amazing what near-death experiences do to people. As she laid on the hospital bed attached to a million and one tubes, she held my hand and cried, sharing her fears of not having the chance to see me one last time. I squeezed her hand in return and wept tears with her. The past year has been a homecoming of sorts for me and my experiences through the community my dear 2nd brother brought me into has allowed me to shed my shallow obsessions and expand my heart and soul outwards. This has changed the way I see and treat my family members and loved ones, and has brought all of us closer together. I am thankful that my experiences from coaching have taught me never to take anyone and anything for granted ever again. I spent 2 days and a night with her in the cold, unfamiliar sanitized ward to ease her discomfort. Thankfully, she was well enough to finally get discharged on New Year's Eve when we had lunch as a family - oldest brother and sister-in-law included.
Yes, things with the brother and sis-in-law have improved tremendously thanks to the realizations I have attained, and we have become much dearer as a family unit. In fact, they have just moved back home yesterday from over a year of detachment and unhappy grievances. It was tough and took months and months of tears, sleepless nights, putting down my ego, baring my soul unabashedly, and expressing my heartfelt love for them in order to move them (in more ways than one) back home. I am proud to say that we are all living happily under the same roof again, with my parents' very first grandchild on the way too. :)
What a year 2008 has been, eh? It started out from a broken distraught family into one that has finally come full circle. From a young, confused, depressed and angry lady into someone who is calmer, at peace, with an inner strength that resonates from within.
So what was 2008 like for you, my friends? Perhaps it's a good time to think back, and I strongly intent for all of you to be bestowed with even more beautiful gifts in 2009.
A few photos of NYE night, into the first hours of 2009. Nothing like great company and old friends to ring in the New Year with. :D