New post for a new year

I have been ignoring my blog posts for some months now. I recall reading about one of the golden rules of blogging and that was to post regularly. Well I have definitely broken that rule. Life often gets in the way and there are times when you just do not feel like writing or sharing for that matter.

It also seems that lately I have been making decisions on the spur of the moment. Coming home to Australia for Christmas was not on the agenda but here I am. Aside from a nasty bout of food poisoning which knocked me out of action for a few days, it has been soothing to be home. The weather has been perfect with warm, dry days, deep blue skies and pleasant cool evenings.

With 2012 behind me, I am now looking forward to a new year with many changes including a new position in August 2013. If you had asked me would I have imagined this change a year ago I would have not thought it remotely possible. I still have yet to sit my Chinese level 5 proficiency exam but all in good time. Contentment is my key this year and I am sure this will be challenged.

Reflecting on the past world events in the last few weeks of 2012, I considered myself very fortunate. The horrendous rape and subsequent death of the young woman in New Delhi along with the dreadful shootings in the US, make me realize what a violent and angry world we still live in. Will this ever change? When I come home to South Australia and wonder at small things like a magpie singing in a tree nearby, it makes me realize what small cogs we are in this huge world. I am then also hit by the massive difference in my second home of busy, cosmopolitan Singapore which is changing so fast (perhaps not always changes for the better) and the world of my family home, the garden that surrounds it and the challenges Australia is facing in yet an ever changing world.

So with all this change surrounding each and everyone of us, I decided to aim to be content was a good goal for 2013. This word came to me in December when I visited the local temple in Yishun with my partner's mother. As a dragon, I was told it was important to go and pray. The last visit was a prayer for thanks and as I stood there, with joss sticks in my hand, the word contentment resonated in my head. Why? Well it seems to be that along with all our materialistic values, that is the one thing we seem to be lacking. Strip away all the items we accumulate in our lives and what is left is the real us. I do sometimes wonder are the goods we collect a means of not facing up to who we really are. 

So here is to a content 2013.  I am sure it will be a struggle. I am writing this on the veranda looking out onto the garden listening to the sounds of nature. That gives me hope.