Day 1 It Starts with The Decision

5 November 2012
Apeldoorn, Gelderland, Holland
(Home for the next two months)

About four months ago, I decided to do an eat-pray-love. And just like in that Julia Roberts movie, it was triggered by some life-changing-epiphany-sorta-thing. That I wanted to have a change, in my environment, in the people I see, in how I see them, and hopefully how I'd see myself.

So I found myself now writing this first entry (after a long time) in Holland, more specifically in Apeldoorn where my sister lives with her family in a nice apartment.

Fighting the jet lag, I lulled my 10-month old nephew, Baby J, to sleep. And I was successful. I sang a lullabic version of "Bahay Kubo". Who'd have thought that'd bring the kid to slumber?

I was happy at this first domestic victory--lulling a baby to sleep. And this is just the first day in Europe. I want to find something of meaning, of relevance, of simplicity, of transcendence, that I may appreciate my life more. That hopefully and eventually, I can settle down without settling. That I can proudly say I have done things well, experienced life's fullness, that making the most of my single life would merit me a good husband and a happy-ever-after. # (abridged)

As the trees begin to shed leaves in winter, I, too, should shed old ways of doing and of thinking, and soon this decade -- with all its mirth and miseries and triumphs and tragedies -- to embrace the third one that lies ahead. But first, winter. I need my trendy coat.