Year-end reflection

 Hello all. Have you done with your reflection? I'm using this egroup as my reflection outlet kaa! Please see if some match with yours or not na ka.

Highlights of the year include:

'Fun' is a group show (singing, dancing, and acting) for the 80th birthday of our dear friend's sister. 

'Inner Peace' is when I attended  a training on 'Facing deaths'. It gives more meaning to think even more seriously about relationships especially with family and best friends ka.

'Academic success' is from organizing two events, one for Fulbright-Hays with 16 high school teachers, and the other was for Thai and Indonesian University Presidents Associations. Much less successful was the keynote I delivered about DEIB.

'No yet good to know stats' is what Spotify has identified for me......I spent almost 50,000 minutes listening to different programs and songs ka......true yet untrue in a way. True because I listen to learn ka..... world trends and AI as well as personal development. Untrue because some programs are for me to listen to when going to bed, meaning not much attention paid kaa:))! ..... can refer back to the book 'factfulness' and how much we can rely on stats ka.

Key learnings I got consist of the following:

- Team design that caters to detail helps so much with the smooth operation and increased learning about the work, teamwork, and about my own self ka.

- Ability to adjust ourselves is really high these days and working on new challenging projects, both for fun and work, enhances this side mak and so I feel blessed to hold tight with the podcast show every Tuesday ka.

- Me and my relationships is what has always been so close to my heart and this is what I need to continue to strengthen with the ones I love and those I wish to keep closer ka.

- Health can go without saying but I have to be true to my own physical and mental states to be sure of my healthy aging with the least to trouble others in much older age.

One word pops up about me and that is 'วินัยชีวิต' my life discipline from my daily routine, projects, and preferences ka. This will be the term that I'll carry with me along with the learnings in 2024 into next year to have a more proper balance in work and play with happy learning and living ka.

I'm sure we all have got some real joy this passing year and wish you all an even more joyful life in 2025 na ka.

What is happiness?

 Merry Christmas na ka, everyone!

To celebrate Christmas, I've come up with this word, 'happiness' as I just got an article about it from my friend ka.

Ajarn Varakorn Samakoses wrote it under the title, 'What is happiness?' 

These days, I think I've heard this question raised very often and it led me to think of an article I read almost 20 years ago about what the future would look like in 2015. One of the predictions was that people would ask about 'the philosophy of life'....why we were born. I was thinking then that it must have been from the pressure and stress in life. 

Looking back it was quite true but it is even more so when we're getting closer to 2025 with the challenges all around from climate change, wars, geopolitics, economic slowdown, and widened inequality.

Back to Ajarn Varakorn's article, I find the following quite interesting to share ka:

- Some psychologists say that New Year's resolutions cause unnecessary stress.

I won't have any for next year 5555! Actually, I haven't set any for some years now ka. 

- Several suggestions that I like include: 

           - asking deep questions, e.g. 'What makes me proud?', 'What to let go?, 'What to make me happy?' I'd go for the second one. You?

            - list down what experiences we wish to have or do without setting any expectations.......I seriously think that many more people, especially our younger generations tend to have more expectations that make them feel much less happy ka.

             - write down 3 things we're grateful for every day. I think quite a few people do so. I do too but for 5 things daily which helps me feel how good my day is....normally more good than bad ka, thank goodness.

             - intend to learn at least one new thing in the coming year. I think of it seriously ka....love going to some workshop(s) though I haven't registered for any one short course yet. 

His last sentence is great ka....'be happy with what we have instead of being unhappy with what we don't have yet!'

Do you think these 4 points will give you happiness mai ka?  What else has brought or will bring joy to your life ka?

English proficiency: trick and treat

Hello all. I wasn't in hibernation na ka. It seems life has been added with little things to do, which turned out to take up some time lae ka.

One task has started for one week now and may go for a little longer is to help my youngest nephew with his English.

He wants to enter Mahidol International College and the prerequisite is to pass English courses required. He also aims to take the IELTS. If he can pass it successfully, he'll be able to enroll in the regular program right away ka. He chooses to write an essay every day which may be assigned by his IELTS teacher.

The daily essay turns out to be filled with more (and intentionally more) comments for him to learn. It doesn't stop with that ka. To make sure he reads and understands the comments, I ask him to draw lessons from them ka.

In addition, I urge him to read a one-page article out loud without any need to understand what the text is about. He agreed to do it right away. and sends his reading clip to me without fail. Can you guess why? 

I told him that if he sends his read-aloud homework, I'll give him 10 baht and if the article is kind of difficult, I'll give him 20! He sure picks the hard ones and already completed 6 days of reading to earn 120 with some more tips about reading from me.I hope his reading aloud activity will become automatic for him to remember some patterns and vocabulary for his writing and silent reading....similar to how I learned my English.

Any comments about this story shared mai ka?

Watch 'A Man on the Inside' mai ka?

I finished watching one Netflix series called, 'A Man on the Inside' and wish to encourage you to watch it too ka.

It's about a retired professor in engineering who decided to answer an ad from a private investigator to go undercover inside a San Francisco nursing home, trying to identify who has stolen a ruby necklace. This 8-episode series goes for half an hour each so it won't be too long for you ---cheer na doo ka! 

A few thoughts I've got and I'll try my best not to be a spoiler:

- I feel quite connected because of a few reasons ka: my age to understand much better how the elderly act, my direct exposure from visiting my friend's parents at the hi-so nursing home, my years at Fulbright with increased experience about American culture, my own routine like playing 'Wordle', my empathy for those suffering from Alzhiemer's and their caregivers, especially spouses.

- It's so challenging in many ways to manage and work for a nursing home, facing many issues and many stages of sickness including deaths.

- Promise, when it can't be kept for any reason, could hang on our minds ....and may stay with us till the last day with regret for not being able to fulfil it.

- After all, relationships particularly with our family members and good friends, are essential. Despite some hard or awkward time, better straighten them in a straightforward yet heart-led approach.

- I think even more about life, my own and my caregiver in case it has to go for too long! How to get prepared and feel ready.....hard na ka....learning more about Buddhism sure helps.

Watch loei ka sanuk and funny too na ka!