The Ritual

My mother told me the secret to life, which was passed down by my late (maternal) grandfather.


Every night before going to bed, he would put his palms together and place them in front of his chest in the praying position and thank God for the good day he had.

Thank you for my great health and good family.

He would thanks God for the day and wish to continue the rest of his journey. Stay healthy and happy.

My mother, on the other hand, chose to thank God every time she wakes up from her sleep in the mornings. She thank God for her good health and wish to have a great day.

So, I told my mother about Thao - a friend I befriended when I was in Macau. She's a Vietnamese born French. Her parents migrated to Paris and she was born there. So, she speak fluent native French, perfect English and of course, Vietnamese. How cool is that?

I love Thao the very moment she smiled at me. She is one of the sweetest girl I have ever befriended. Also, so down to earth and thankful for everything she is today.

I quote her in one of our email conversations:

I am so blessed. Really. My life is full of great people and I feel so blessed just having you as a friend. My husband would be migrating to New York to be with me after our wedding celebrations in our cities. Enough for long distance!! We can finally be together and make pancakes every morning. I hope to see you in Paris! It's OK if you can't make it, at least you tried. I hope to hear from you very soon! We can still meet in Singapore! :)


I love Thao for that. I learned something from her. Every time we write to each other, she'll always be thankful for something. That is when I realize that it is so important to be thankful for everything in life.

I started to understand why my late grandfather and my own mother thank God for their good health and for having a good day ending up safe in bed. It is because they are satisfied.

Nothing more. Just this would be good.

Being happy with what we have achieved is important, accomplishments are as important... but being thankful and grateful is the key to stay happy.

Because if we constantly want more, we would never be happy. As in life, we don't win everything. Sometimes we loose, fall ... crawl and stand up, complain, learn from the lesson and thank God that we survived the challenge.

It is OK to endure/go through challenges, because those who never go through them don't grow up.