I love the month of February. Even in tropical Singapore, I feel the season of Spring in the air. There seems to be that much more laughter, more family gatherings, and more fun dinners with friends. In fact, these 3 months from December through to February were months of fabulous revelry. I celebrated the close of an awesome year in December and the start of an even more awesome year in January with Christmas and New Year celebrations. The good news is that the celebrations continue in February, as we celebrate love, family, and friendships with Valentine’s Day and the Chinese New Year. People have whirlwind romances at this time, I have a whirlwind calendar of never-ending activities ranging from weddings, meet-up with friends, family parties, workshops that I conducted and then some.
However, it was more than just the eating, drinking and general merry-making. These were the months I celebrated my definition of living the dream as the new year opened.
Dad, looked much healthier than just a year before when he had suffered a stroke just before Christmas. He managed to enjoy a glass of wine with me at our family Christmas Eve dinner and was happy to just sit there to take in the cacophony of chatter and laughter amongst our family while my 2 year old nephew attempted to put some christmas cake in his glass of wine.
Mum had been suffering from a painful shoulder but when we had it checked, we were assured it was just a strained rotator cuff which was quite a common ailment for people her age. That was a relief for me. However it also reminded me about the importance of self-care and the need to listen to my body when all that training at the gym plus the late nights of running my consultancy after working hours, could get all too much for me. I was reminded of this yet again, when I got sick with the stomach flu recently for almost a week. I took to catching up on my sleep over a weekend and did absolutely nothing for 2 days just to give my body some rest.
Joel, who had been a pain in the butt for months when he regressed to a stage of teenage rebelliousness at the age of 21, finally saw the light and learnt the meaning of opened communication, honesty and respect within the family. He grew up overnight and became all of 21 years old again when he reconciled with us through a rather public apology for behaving like an ass. All forgiven.
David got finally inspired by my fitness journey to start taking up boxing lessons in December as well as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes in February. That made training at the gym more fun for the both of us. He has not accidentally sat on anyone's head yet, so all seems good so far. We not only share our love for the gym, we have been each other’s moral conscience when it comes to choice of food too. I am looking forward to a healthier and fitter hubby by the end of this year.
As much joy as these months brought us, we also had our fair share of tears. Ozzy passed on a couple of weeks ago and the family was inconsolable. Ozzy had been David’s favourite fur-friend and a very important member of our family. Although he was tiny, his loss just left such a huge and irreplaceable void in our hearts. I believed that the other 2 mutts at home felt the same. Zak and Bailey looked quite confused for about a week or so. We are still grieving but we celebrate Ozzy’s life with us, the fun we had together and the unconditional love that he had given us, and with immense gratitude.
I think the experiences of these few months can be encapsulated into a single message, urging me to treasure each moment, no matter the circumstance. Living the dream means many things to many people. To my friends who are professional Mixed Martial Arts fighters, living the dream means the ability to travel the world to fight on a world stage with highly skilled and experienced fighters. To my friends who are professional Tarot readers, living the dream means quitting their day jobs to focus on a professional career of reading for their clients on a daily basis, teaching the art of Tarot to students, designing and creating their own tarot decks, writing Tarot books and traveling the world to conduct talks and workshops. To a client who was a local head of communications at a big company who got retrenched but was called back by her boss to take on a new role as global head of social media recently, she was living the dream. She packed up her belongings, lock, stock and barrel and made that brave move across the ocean to live in a new country to take up that role.
To me, I am living the dream too and this is how I define mine. I am finally getting much fitter and healthier through my new found passions of boxing and muay thai. I am surrounded by an imperfectly perfect family filled with so much love. I work with a bunch of crazy but fun girls who have been bringing sunshine into the office everyday no matter how difficult our days may be. I am able to effectively run an intuitive consultancy after my work hours and continue to help numerous clients with my Tarot and Numerology skills. I am still writing and contributing articles whenever I have spare time, not out of the pressure of deadlines but out of my love for sports and MMA. I finally found my balance in life that many of my peers are still searching for. Am I living the dream or what?
About The Writer
The writer of this blog post is a Marketing and PR professional for over 20 years. Due to her love for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), she is also a freelance sports writer on the side, contributing MMA-related articles to several sports media. She works in partnership with her husband, David Ash, who is an avid sports photographer from www.singaporemaven.com. She is passionate about Muay Thai and nurtures a dream to fight competitively one day when her coach stops making fun of her. She is also a psychic intuitive by birth and runs a consultancy that does tarot and numerology readings under her brand, Sun Goddess Tarot. This blog is affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" as she is married to one, although she has not yet explained to THE Ang Mo that when translated, he has been labeled “the bloke with ginger hair”.
