L'chaim !

A few years ago, there was once a time that I questioned every festival and every symbol, ritual or occasion. To me, they represented blind-obedience, social servitude, lack of resistance to pressure and weakness. 

To me, every day was just another day - be it a Birthday, a festival, an anniversary or the new year's day. Even though I loved the celebration, I rebelled at the thought of people celebrating just for the sake of tradition.

But with time and age, I am a little bit wiser now. I have come to accept and even like, festivals, special days and occasions. 

I take them now as moments and milestones to pause and wonder, to reflect and retrospect. To celebrate and to thank, to look at the past gone-by and to look forward to the future. I see them as opportunities that can symbolically take us down a new road and help us make a fresh beginning. The food definitely is a bonus !! ;-)

I now realize that life is more than just being in constant state of struggle. It is and should be a celebration (I know I sound like one of those fast mushrooming, self-help books... ;p). But the truth is that I honestly think I should remember that). I grew up learning to prize austerity, modesty, simplicity, suffering, criticism and excellence. Celebrations, satisfaction, appreciation were often seen with circumspection because they made us settle for "less than perfection". But with years, I have learnt that sometimes perfection is just an elusive ideal. It's good to aim for it but it's also important to appreciate what has been achieved.

And so as another year rolls by, I hope that there will be new adventures coming along and that there will be new milestones to be achieved. 

I know that new year's eve is just another day but it gives me an opportunity to just sit down and reflect and hope. Some periods of time are not the most memorable and sometimes even though you make all the right moves, things don't fall in place. So, I wish that for all those people who are near and dear to me, the coming year is better than all their previous ones as it brings them new hopes and new joys to cherish. I hope that it gives them time to pause, reflect and rejoice, because sometimes in our race against deadlines and to-do lists, we forget to live. And then ultimately, when we are forced to stop, we realize that we have completely missed all that we worked towards. 

And so, even though it might be just another day, I hope that as you change the calendars tomorrow, things also change for the better in your life. 

Happy new Year !! 

L'chaim !!!