Gratitude
Thanksgiving week. A time in the calendar when regardless if you have the turkey or understand the history of the American holiday, it a moment to pause to give gratitude for the blessings for the year passed.
Looking back and at the same time joyfully looking forward to what is to come, it has been not just good but quite great. Today I started with my new job assignment (albeit temporary). A job in a new very different industry which will challenge me to learn a lot of new things, meet a lot of new people and to provide that much needed break from what I have been doing for more than the past four years.
There is so much nudging from a dear friend to study - anything, he insists, just pursue something to development myself. And I gave in in a big way... but I think eventually I will be overwhelmed with my upcoming French classes at the UN starting in January (I did Spanish for 3 semesters then gave up...let's see how far I will do with French). I am pushing myself to go back to school in the Spring 2009 schoolyear. I am also reviewing for a crucial internal exam at the UN which will mark great developments for my career.
And then there are the friends that make up my family in New York who provide me with moral support and unconditional love. I am grateful that my parents are in good health and whose love and understanding are boundless. I am grateful for the four months that Nicole kept me company when she came to stay in New York - a rare chance to catch up on the many years we were apart. I am grateful in general for family that keep me grounded and who make making the most out of my life worth it.
I am grateful for the loves of my life who accept me for all that I am - in the bad and in the good, in the best and the worst of times. The loves who do not draw curtains when we decide that things did not work the way we wished it would.
And then there are many more to list but they know who they are.
Gratitude that I feel should not only extend to people but to the many experiences I had to go through the past months that has helped shape the kind of person that I am now and in the years ahead of me. I am grateful that even at this stage in my life I have come to be less stubborn about the rules of life and that I have come to believe that every single FINAL decision I may have made in the past I can still change. Simply because that is life.
I hope you also pause to give gratitude to life. Happy Thanksgiving all!
Looking back and at the same time joyfully looking forward to what is to come, it has been not just good but quite great. Today I started with my new job assignment (albeit temporary). A job in a new very different industry which will challenge me to learn a lot of new things, meet a lot of new people and to provide that much needed break from what I have been doing for more than the past four years.
There is so much nudging from a dear friend to study - anything, he insists, just pursue something to development myself. And I gave in in a big way... but I think eventually I will be overwhelmed with my upcoming French classes at the UN starting in January (I did Spanish for 3 semesters then gave up...let's see how far I will do with French). I am pushing myself to go back to school in the Spring 2009 schoolyear. I am also reviewing for a crucial internal exam at the UN which will mark great developments for my career.
And then there are the friends that make up my family in New York who provide me with moral support and unconditional love. I am grateful that my parents are in good health and whose love and understanding are boundless. I am grateful for the four months that Nicole kept me company when she came to stay in New York - a rare chance to catch up on the many years we were apart. I am grateful in general for family that keep me grounded and who make making the most out of my life worth it.
I am grateful for the loves of my life who accept me for all that I am - in the bad and in the good, in the best and the worst of times. The loves who do not draw curtains when we decide that things did not work the way we wished it would.
And then there are many more to list but they know who they are.
Gratitude that I feel should not only extend to people but to the many experiences I had to go through the past months that has helped shape the kind of person that I am now and in the years ahead of me. I am grateful that even at this stage in my life I have come to be less stubborn about the rules of life and that I have come to believe that every single FINAL decision I may have made in the past I can still change. Simply because that is life.
I hope you also pause to give gratitude to life. Happy Thanksgiving all!