I’m not the one for the New Year’s resolutions. I really am not. But as the year draws to an end they do tend to creep up – those thoughts of how to make the next year better, and the reflection on the year that’s ending.
‘That’s a good year’, – concluded London boy, after I shared with him the highlights of 2025.
I think it’s been an awesome year!
It started with our trip to Sri Lanka.
Oh, how we loved it!.. We still talk about it. My daughter was and still is ready to move to Sri Lanka. Now. She doesn’t mind the different language, the different food (even though spicy is not her thing), she doesn’t really mind anything different, as long as we live in our hotel with the pool, right on the beach…
London boy came to visit twice.
‘I’m visiting your girl’, – he says whenever I ask him if visiting me means that he likes me. The man will never admit it, but hey… quoting the man himself…
Back in April I changed jobs.
That was a big deal. I accepted an offer for a position that was very different from what I was used to. But I’m not the one to let an opportunity pass by. And although the beginning was challenging, now I reap the benefits.
If the above was tough for me, starting school was a big deal for my loveliest baby (yes, she still is my baby. And yes, I will continue calling her that for as long as I want).
Do you remember the anxiety that she had? Well, all that is in the past. Although the homework does not get done by itself and the reading is not her choice of a daily activity, she likes school. Mornings are not easy and she admits to sleepwalking on the way to school, and she only fully wakes up after lunch. She keeps surprising me every day with how much she knows.
And here’s the last highlight of the year – moving to a new place.
This was kind of unplanned and unexpected, but at the same time long awaited and very welcome. I had been debating with myself for the longest time: should I get my own place or continue renting? Should I stay in this country or move abroad? The options are endless. And the indecision was really wearing me down. Until I saw a place which had to be mine.
That was a good year. Things happened the way and exactly at the time they were supposed to happen.
So how about the new year?
The words ‘mai pen rai’ are tattooed on my lower back. It is a Thai phrase meaning ‘it’s OK,’ ‘no worries,’ or ‘it’s nothing,’ reflecting a cultural philosophy of acceptance, resilience, and letting go. I’ve met people who live by this philosophy, and not only in Thailand. Whatever I did, whatever I said, my host family in Santa Ana, El Sanvador would always reply the same: ‘it’s OK, it’s nothing’. At first it seriously stressed me out – how can it be OK? I’m sure it’s not nothing! But they just smiled and repeated – it’s nothing.
And that is exactly what I wish myself for the new year – accepting the nothing. It’s OK to stop rushing and be late; it’s no big deal to forget the gloves and have to go back; it’s no worries if some yogurt smears on the new couch right after I cleaned some cream from it; it’s nothing to get dirty seconds after having a shower. The options are endless. And they are all nothing.
