love.

I am drafting this at my departure gate at Changi waiting for my flight to take me home to Toronto. The past two weeks have been weeks of great gratitude that have felt long overdue. It is a somewhat fitting close to a year that has felt more like a marathon than a brisk jog to the finish. Coming home was more therapeutic than I could hope for, and catching up with good friends whom I have not seen in a very long time was beyond icing on the cake. 

With as much frustrations as 2022 carried, I know it was easier than it could have been. There have been so many things that I am beyond grateful for coming out of the pandemic: continuing appointment at work, growing friendships with people that I have wanted and been diligent with for years, and new found courage to chase things that I have only just given myself permission to chase, or found the courage to pursue. 

I always try to sum my hopes for the new year in a single word, and as cliche as it has been finding it with friends and family this holiday season, is one that is familiar to me. A world I have likely reused and recycled every now and then to push myself to do things I am uncomfortable in doing. But in realizing and finding closure for the last few years, I have come to realize that the simplest thing (oxymoron I know) for anyone to do to change the world where they are is to love.

Being back home has reminded me of how community oriented South East Asians are, and how everything we do revolves around the people we love and the people we care about. Life becomes less about us as it is about those we love. While I have experienced the extremes that are triggered from putting others first before yourself, sometimes it is good to remind ourselves that there is always a space we belong to, and where we feel we do not have those spaces, may we each find the courage to create it for ourselves.

So with whatever the next 12 months has in store, may I promise myself to walk through them with a continued gratitude and earnestness with love. May 2023 be a year where I continue to be kinder to myself in continued introspection and newfound courage. Of falling in love with my community, family and self once again. That even as it hurts to lead with love, may His perfect and honest love continue to point me home.