Parents
I have been busy with infotainment video shooting this weekend. Many colleagues of mine helped. As parents, we found the best subjects of our conversation being our children.
We don't know when we first discovered that childhood goes in the blink of an eye. So much so that we all start to miss the opportunity, one way or another, when our kids grow out of something now and then.
I know exactly how it feels when Fredrik Backman writes about a father driving to his daughter's new college
Downtime
I'd spent almost one whole day at a public housing estate shopping mall as volunteer to talk to the public. By the time I returned home at evening, I felt guilty for leaving my daughter alone.
In no way did I think we should talk about her homework. We all need unstressed periods of downtime every day. "I love you too much to fight with you about your homework." This is the title of a chapter in the book The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of
Transformation
Repose
Much as thought-leaders had described, travelling opens our mind. We slow down when we travel. We open up when we slow down.
That’s what I did after I’d taken a week off. Of course, a family vacation during Chinese New Year means opportunity to relax with far fewer unread work-related emails.
The first thing I notice is the number of blog posts written. Next, I watch myself shaking things off like Taylor Swift’s hit song “Shake it Off.”
Swing
Snowboard
Who doesn't hesitate to try something new?
No one is born a skier. We are all, at one time or another, going to stumble before getting used to the ski. Now that my daughter is pretty comfortable on ski slopes, her next activity would be snowboarding. It isn't easy. Landing on the butts again and again can be achingly frustrating. That requires patience. And perhaps a mindset to stay low.
In our quest to encourage her to learn snowboarding, we have bolstered learning by
Ski Pole
I don't think I am a good skier, and even more so after our family encountered heavy snowfall in Japan this week.
Skiing in a cold snap has cost me heavy lactic acid load today after repeated falls and pushing up from snow.
For a novice like me, learning to ski is tough. The older you grow, the tougher it is. I struggle to remember ski technique 101: learning which leg I have to put my weight to make parallel turn, to lean forward but not back
Taylorism
Goat Cheese
We are the proud record holders for the most teen sleepover parties during this pandemic. Mentally healthy as it may seem, gathering activities like sleepover are often skipped when Omicron strikes us. Our family, and that of my daughter's classmates, are heartily convinced by what Priya Parker has written in the book The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters .
We didn't want to deprive our children of chance to meet friends. And then, wonder of wonders, we had invited one, two
Journey
Few things in the animal world fascinate us quite like bird migration.
The feathered globetrotters' journeys are packed with energy and stamina. My recent reading about bird migration includes classic annual outward and return "flyways", "loop migration" with a different return journey, or even "migratory divide" meaning more than one route for some species.
One of the evolutionary eurekas that go with migratory journey is the advantage of moving. At a glance it might seem that the exhausting migration is hazardous. It's hard work