Category — A-Z Word of Life™

Survive: It is important that we still survive, and we can continue to explore interesting things in this world. I do not yet have any near-death experience, but if you do, you should treasure every day thereafter. ‘Life No Take 2’, not everyone can get a second chance. There are people suddenly realize what is important in their lives. Some people choose to leave their high paying job and start a new life that is more meaningful to them. My husband always asks me “what is worse than death?” You still have hope if you survive.

Release: Writing is a good way to release your stress. A good example is “to do list”. I feel relaxed after wrote down things that I have to do on a daily basis, and start to prioritize. I need only about 5 minutes in the morning to finish my “to do list”. Writing is also a good exercise for your mind. When you write, you begin to rethink, and reorganize your way of doing things. These days, I also learned to release my grief by crying out loud. When you are getting older and older, you have to accept the fact that attending funerals more often than weddings.

Quality:  How do you define quality? Some people (i.e. home stereo listeners) will spend thousands of dollars for hi-fi equipment in order to get the perfect sound system, and that is how they define “quality”. However, I do not know if the music itself is of good quality though. I am concerned about the quality time that I can have – time that I can really enjoy and be myself.

Perception: I watched this movie ‘Shallow Hal’ in 2001, and it triggers my perception about physical appearance versus inner beauty. In this movie, Hal is a shallow man that falls in love with a 300 pound woman (Rosemary) because of her “inner beauty”. “A woman who appears to him to look slender and beautiful due to her kind, generous nature, but is, in actuality, morbidly obese.” He used to date women who are physically beautiful until one day he was being hypnotized to recognize only the inner beauty of women. In the end, he doesn’t need hypnosis to see people’s true inner beauty. One interesting thing, Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is Rosemary in the film, and she really gives you the perception of a fat person. I have once heard about a woman who was deceived lots of money by a beautiful lady because of her perception of pretty faces will not do ugly things.

Ownership: Have you ever heard that “To own a thing is a burden”? If you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to worry. Nowadays, more and more people choose to buy a house rather than to rent. This is not just about ownership, but also in consideration of the rising home value. People seldom expect that their own houses will become negative assets one day. Lots of people have suffered from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. I remembered my husband has once said that (before the crisis), the house value has increased to a rate that similar of buying a rice cooker at $3,000 back in 1997 in Hong Kong, which a normal person will not do it. Many owners going bankrupt after July 1997; they bought their houses at the tip of the dropping zone.