My coach!

He went to my club on a night I had to teach and they sent me the evidence.

My CIA family

Imperfect. Loud. Forgiven.

Age

It's not just a number. I feel old. I feel old in all these ways:

When my friends grow weaker and frailer.

When they die. Or seem like they may die. Soon.

When I start to feel weaker and frailer. Just a little right now. Like when I can't exercise six days in a row anymore. I need to take rest days in between.

When people tell me I "need to start looking now" or I "won't be able to look later." You know what I mean.

When people I meet seem so horribly, horribly young and inexperienced, and I don't want to have too much to do with them because they may hurt my feelings even without meaning too. You know, because they're too young to know any better.

I'm sure this list will grow longer. Soon.

30-day thanksgiving challenge

It's easy to think of three different items of thanksgiving everyday....so long as I remember to do so! The easiest way to get it done is to find three items at the start of the day because by the end of the day, I am not going to remember to record the items. I am sure it is better to remember to be thankful throughout the day, but I will just do what I can.

When I do remember to do the exercise, it's easy enough to find three different things to be thankful for everyday so I must have a lot of blessings in my life!

Auspicious encounters

I bumped into two different friends at the airport! What are the odds??

closed doors

Sometimes, we just have to accept the fact that our friends don't want to let us in their lives when they're dealing with something. It hurts when they do that. But I do it too, and I guess my friends feel hurt when I do it.

I'm so tired today.

rewiring the brain

Thankfulness 31-day challenge has begun. I'm supposed to write down three things I'm thankful for every day, and they should all be different. I suppose being thankful for a warm coat and a warm sweater counts as two items! #3: having meaningful work to do even if I hate waking up on a Monday morning. Prepping a lecture on Schlomo Avineri's exposition of Marx's notion of alienation, and reading it alongside Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener." Not sure if this will work, but it's fun for me to go through both texts again.

just the beginning

I cannot believe that we're at the beginning of a new semester. I feel like I need a vacation already!

Of course, I also did play badminton four times and go to the gym twice in the last seven days. I am glad I have no time to exercise today because I'm teaching my evening class tonight. Cannot wait to be done with class and go home to bed. (It's 9:32am as I type this.)

#veryold
#toomuchexercise

Old friends

Appreciating the rascals in my life 

loving life

Love my new club especially when we have enough courts. I think I'm learning how to slowly make my game better but these changes are going to be incremental. Still, I love it!

Now, I really must work hard too after a very lazy Saturday and badminton-filled Sunday.

starting the year off right

.... with a beautiful, easy hike, with a friend who enjoys hanging out with me even if I annoy her sometimes. (I give her the shitface when she's late, which is quite often, although she was on time yesterday.)

looking forward

I'm thankful that I have mentors in my life. I had Pastor Paul when I was a teenager. Then, I had professors, staff, and administrators in college who mentored me and really taught me to love books and to love people. I didn't have the best mentors in graduate school, but I had great mentors in my graduate christian fellowship. I had a wonderful mentor in my postdoc who continues to mentor me now.

At work....I don't have a mentor per se but I have good relationships with a few more senior colleagues. I also have a funny and kind badminton coach now who is sometimes a little overly emotional--the man loves his drama!--but he has been so generous and has given me a lot of wise advice that I bring to life and work. One of his friends who leads the new badminton club I've joined has taken me under his wing.

I really need to be a good mentor to others because I've been given so much.

Merry Christmas

Promise. Hope. Anticipation. Fear. Doubt. Faith. Sacrifice.

Best Christmas gift a teacher can get

New year's resolutions

I have three of them this year:

1. Better time management at work. I need to prioritize the important tasks.

2. I need to learn to trust the people around me.

3. I want to notice the work God is doing in my life. Faith expects him to work!

Update:

4. I scaled back on my service this year because I felt burned out from the previous two years, but I think I need to scale back up a little now!

p.s. - maybe item no. 4 is an answered prayer to item no. 3? God is already working!

Ready!

I am a little late getting into the game, but I guess I should start tracking my new year's resolutions. They're prayers anyway, and it'd be great to see if God answers these prayers.

This year, I will continue to ask God to help me trust him. But I also need to learn to trust the people around me. I think it would be difficult to be around someone who doesn't trust you. So, I need to believe that others are competent and capable of doing the right thing. And maybe I do need to be on my guard against some people but in general, I need to trust most of the people I meet.

Let's see if things change.

Our father

This Christmas, hope is for me too.

This Christmas, forgiveness is for me too.

God takes great pleasure in providing for His people. Psalm 104

It has been quite the week. I am incredibly tired. SO DRAINED. But what I'm learning now is that I need to trust others to do the right thing. (Even when I may not necessarily have the evidence that they will!) Sometimes, there really is only so much I can do. And I just need to trust others.

Not being able to make my regular badminton sessions doesn't help either. But, I must say that God is good, and that I have had blessings this week too. I just need to trust God, and like it or not, I need to trust the people around me.

It's kinda like baddy. :) You need to trust your doubles partner even when you don't want to, and if you don't, you risk losing the match at a faster rate. I don't know why that's the case. It just is.

ah hah

And badminton does it again!

Life lessons really stick for me once I learn something on the badminton court. For the past two years, I've been told over and over again that I need to keep my grip loose. Power comes from a tight grip, but you can't constantly grip the racket tightly because your stroke becomes inflexible and your reactions are slow. So the grip should be light and relaxed until the second you hit the shuttle, after which point, your grip should loosen up again. It's hard to break old habits though, so it's been a real struggle to change this up.

Last night, during one of my drills, I noticed that my grip was more relaxed and I wasn't even thinking about it. At that moment, I realized that I was starting to get what it means to hold the grip gently until the opportune moment. And more importantly, that in life, off the court, I need to loosen my grip on things too. I can hold on to God, but everything else, especially the things that make me angry at work, need to be held with soft hands.

Sounds silly, but this is a really important moment for me.

Single-minded?

Waiting for my friends to go camping but all I want to do is play badminton.

Lord, please meet me this weekend.

My head hurts. God is teaching me too much

Sigh

I just realized that when I think of a colleague negatively--even if I think it is justified--I am unable see the colleague as Christ sees him/her. I may not have to trust her but I think I need to change how I see him/her.

Growing

I guess the hardest part of my journey has been adjusting to work culture and the complexities of negotiating friendship in the professional world. On the one hand, we're friends but on the other hand, we are all colleagues even if we don't work at the same institution. Still need to get my head around all that.

rules, or the lack of rules

The university has a lot of rules, but it also seems like rules are often broken or changed at the whim of those in power. Of course, those of us without job security are the ones who have to follow the rules. The people in power don't follow rules; they make them. And sometimes, people act badly out of fear. Everyone's fearful about something. And in academia, the fears are usually fears of not being smart enough, or good enough, or powerful enough. It's just hard on everyone.

There are days when I really hate academia. Today is one of them. And actually, yesterday too.

Update: and yes, I am often fearful too. Fear is infectious!

Surprise

My trainer set up my heart monitor for me. The birthday cake won't go away!

I keep telling myself that I need to slow down. But I still fill up my schedule more than I'd like to and make my Monday mornings so much harder. Last night, I heard life and industry stories from an architecture who heads the HK office of a Chinese firm, a police (woman) officer stationed in Mong Kok, and an entrepreneur in travel retail. I really, really love talking to people who work in different fields. They teach me more about the world than I'd have access to on my own.

Sometimes, I wonder what life would be like if I had chosen a different career. But what??

Gotta love my care group

Fun day

oh, work

I woke up from a work-related nightmare last night. It seemed so real. I don't remember details anymore, but I definitely remember having it.

Hopefully, never again?