A remark came up during a recent conversation with a friend: “I feel like ‘so-and-so’ is stronger than me.”
That is not an uncommon feeling that we sometimes do feel like someone is stronger than us. However, on reflection, what does it mean by “stronger”?

Perhaps we can look at the word “STRENGTH” which is closely related to the word “strong”.
In another word, what are your strengths? Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. It is rarely that one person has absolutely all the strengths while another person has none.

A person can be strong in loving others, caring for others and encouraging others. Bringing joy and happiness to others people’s lives is also a strength. Being kind and generous is a virtue as well as a strength. For example, a mother is a strong person because of her love for her child. That is a very powerful and strong love.

I would say we are all STRONG (have strengths) in different ways. Look up and open our eyes.

Though I am not French, I am a strong supporter of the economic reform led by Macron. It is currently a full-on “face-off” between the Macron-government vs. the unions in France, in particular the SNCF (train) union. I will spare readers of (in my opinion and many others) the “out-dated” employee benefits of the train workers is a key focus of the issue.

I hope the common people will rise (I know it is a huge pain and inconvenience with the strike) and support the reform. It is TIME for a change and move on. The past is to help us become better and stronger; however, holding firmly to it will hinder us from our progress.

Yesterday I went to a French restaurant in Paris for lunch. When I surveyed the menu quickly, I saw “Rognon de veau” on it which looked interesting.
I asked the waiter what it was. He replied with confidence, “It is a part of veal and it is very good. You should try it.” Then I ordered it.
When it arrived, it looked like beef stew. I was so excited and had a bite. It tasted and smelled funny. I goggled it and found out in shock that it was actually Veal KIDNEY :s

I could not finish it (I did make an effort to eat more). I brushed my teeth twice immediately and swallowed many mint drops :s

Last week I invited a friend over for a coffee to catch up. I asked him if he would like to have instant coffee with or without coffee mate (I ran out of milk on that day).

After confirming that there are no other choices of coffee available, he in turn asked for a glass of water. I offered him tap water, filtered water, hot water, cold water, water of room temperature, water with ice, warm water and with or without lemon (I just happened to have a lemon in my fringe on that day). He was “impressed” by the number of choices on water that I was offering and suggested to me the business idea of opening a water-shop instead of a cafe.

To conclude on this topic, I am going to be a bit unorthodox and controversial here . I hope that it won’t cause too much of a turmoil among my circle of friends and family.
I would suggest making peace with the person who (in your opinion) has wronged you if all possible.
Firstly, it is very hard on yourself not to forgive and not to let it go. It actually takes a lot of your energy to hold grudges against someone (I am sure most people can attest to it). Secondly, sometimes (not always) relationship is more valuable than justice, money or your pride. Lastly, an apology (if it is the ultimate “fire extinguisher”) costs you nothing. You are no more nor less dignified after offering an apology (on the part that you might have done wrong). You are as strong as what you think you are, not based on other people’s opinions on you. This does not apply to all cases, but just in case it may be an option. One never knows :>

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

In the year of the dog, may your life be:
As extraordinary as a Husky;
As energetic as a Jack Russell;
As solid as a German Shepherd;
As adorable as a Terrier;
…
…

Besides stepping away from the situation, it is also crucial to stay neutral and separate opinions from facts. As someone once said to me, “Our thoughts are not necessarily the reality.” Often time, our minds play tricks on us in a negative way. We make wrong assumptions and create scenarios in our imagination that are far from the reality. We end up “working ourselves up” for nothing,

Talk to someone totally unrelated to the situation may provide you with a more objective perspective. In addition, analyzing the situation by writing it down on a piece of paper may also help.

A friend of mine was unfortunately involved in “a storm in a tea cup” situation which at times seemed to go out of control in a disproportional way.
It affected him adversely and he asked me for advice on the right mentality and attitude in such a situation.
What popped up in my mind is the term (based on a TV series) “Grace under Fire”.
Let us explore how to handle it.
First, keep a distance from the “fire”. A bit of a common sense similar to facing a real fire. Get away from it!
Here I meant to take a step back and “breathe” a bit. At the heat of the moment, we tend to make the wrong decisions out of our emotions (mostly hardwired to the negative energy unfortunately).
Move away physically or go to a place with minimum association with the situation so we can be calmer to think it through.

Does time have quality?
Many people heard of the concept of “quality time” as in “I want to spend quality time with someone.”.
In general terms, it means giving someone the FULL attention during that period of time including listening and caring about his/her needs instead of getting distracted by other things that are going on.
Apply that concept in a broader sense, we can enhance the quality of our time by being more MINDFUL of it. It may mean enjoying the presence and fully living in the moment. As some people put it differently “stop and smell the roses along the way”. It may also mean making an effort (I am afraid that does not happen naturally) to spend time with your love ones and/or do things you love. It may also mean gaining new experiences and venturing out to new horizons in life. As we all know, we only live once and let us live a life of high quality!!!

Is the measurement of time objective or subjective?
From an objective perspective, it is defined as “In common usage, it is either an interval equal to 24 hours or daytime, the consecutive period of time during which the Sun is above the horizon”.
On the other hand, there are expressions such as “Time flies when we are having fun!”,
“I have not seen you for ages”, “It feels like a life time!”, and “It was such a long day!”.
All these suggest our minds can “play tricks” on us by creating a subjective element that change our perspective of time (for better or worse).
Some people say “How you live your life is more important that how long your life is.” Many influential people died when they were young including Jesus, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Junior, but their impacts last forever (“forever” another difficult concept of time).
Food for thought.