By Kenny Mah
I am typing away at the keyboard. The words come easily, then sputters to a stop. It’s time to take a rest; I know how to recognise the signs by now.
This article will be my 69th for The Malaysian Insider when I’m done. (The number reminds me of Stephin Merritt’s wickedly eclectic 69 Love Songs, which seems approrpriate.) Hard to imagine almost a year ago, when I was writing my first piece and wondering if I could even finish it. It’s one thing to post blog entries, but to actually write for publication? Words fail me.
2012 hasn’t been a breeze, but truly I have nothing to complain about. I am blessed. I have made new friends and deepened old relationships. I am drinking more coffee than before — and instead of giving me a pounding headache from one espresso too many, it has introduced me to a whole new, exciting world. It’s not just the beans and the brew, but the conversations and the camaraderie. Amazing.
For a while there, we put a pause on our travels. I learn to be economical and prudent, the way I was when I was younger. Patience was rewarded with a once-in-a-lifetime trip to South America, the stuff of our dreams. We are so very fortunate.
Money is a must but as the cliché advises us: it’s not everything. Follow your heart and the bills find a way to take care of themselves. Laugh if you will, but I’ve found this to be very, very true.
And here we are, 366 posts later, and I am astonished that for the first time in over a decade that I have been blogging, I’ve managed to write daily entries for an entire year. Is it an accomplishment? I’m not sure, but certainly it has required discipline I have previously not known myself to possess. It feels good.
Tomorrow is a brand new year. Who knows what it would hold? Not me, and I’ve learn to be okay with that. Come what may, trials and travails, I believe, I know there is a light in all of us that never goes out, and we will be fine.
We will be fine.
I am smiling now, dear friend, dear reader, for if you are reading these very words, I am so thankful for you being here. You are a light in my life that never, ever, goes out. Thank you, beautiful you.