It's a beautiful life

Life as it is, not as it could be

The light in this cafe is dim as I trawl through pages and pages of my agreement. I sit here as I have done many a time throughout university, watching the sun go down whilst attempting to ingest thick, thick textbooks on the law. It helps to look outdoors at nature, comforting almost. 

The Icelanders have a phrase for this action I've come to embrace as second nature - gluggavedur - the act of sitting by a window looking outdoors at adverse weather conditions and feeling safe, cosy and sheltered.

Nordic cultures intrigue me, yet my way of living is intense, fuel-driven and neglectful of life’s pleasures.

I also really love Sigur Ros, just to throw in something else Icelandic but I digress.

It has been an extremely busy time, one transaction closing after the other, after the other. 

I have barely had the chance to gasp for air, apart from my 1 day a weekend where I can feel complete and utter freedom and bliss, minus of course the night before and after the 1 day spent dreaming, drafting, or doing some other law-related action in my (apparently perturbed) sub-conscious mind. 

The culture in Asia is so work-heavy, almost masochistic even, driven by a fear of never being good enough. I believe it is deeply embedded within our upbringing since children, where scoring 80 (an A) still invited questions from tiger parents about why it wasn't quite a 90 (or above). 

We are so eager to please, so driven to improve ourselves, so punishing of ourselves that when we fail, our self-worth that which we tie so firmly to achievement falls back into shambles. 

I am giving myself time and the patience to unlearn these self-limiting beliefs and to make room in my life for the act of simply being. 

To savour life as it simply is, rather than for all it could be. 

I am thankful at all that I can picture an alternative, a life of speedy carefree decisions, beautiful imperfections, joyful curiosities and the freedom to be. 

The truth of the matter is, culture and (grumpy, cross) people hinge heavily on how we operate, but they do not dictate us, how we respond, our level of resilience and of our joy.

At the end of the day, we steer our own ships to safety. There are no rules to this but if you are rooting for yourself to victory, then with your heart on your sails, victory shall be yours, howsoever you dream it to be.