Happy New Year 2019!

This time it took me well into the new year before I sat down and put my reflection for 2018 into words.

I contemplate…
The key word for my journey last year was “change”. Although change is inevitable and the only constant in our lives, the changes that took place were impactful and changed the course of my life in more ways than I could have anticipated.

It started early last year with my mum surviving a major surgery that led to months of further treatments to me getting a new job offer and moving to a new city 2.5-hour of flight journey away, adjusting to a new work and living environment, hanging around with a new circle of friends, facing tremendous challenges at work with major restructuring only a few months into the job to witnessing a new dawn in our Malaysian political landscape when the deteriorated government that ruled the country for 60 years finally lost its power in the last general election. It was life-transforming, and the whole experience caused a change of perspectives and shift in paradigm on how, not just I but many around me see and live our lives.

Last year with all the changes and especially with me moving away, it was a brand new season that I was glad and excited to embrace but as the days turned into months, I realised it was a continuation of what I called my “pruning season” when I continued to be stretched and my mental strength tested. However, as I contemplated further, the list of things that I was thankful for outweighed even the biggest boulder that was thrown at me at work especially during the last quarter of the year.

From the beginning of 2018 with my family came face to face with the cold hard reality of my mums’ health issue to my last 10 months of memory-making in the new chapter of my life, I concluded that there was only one thing that held everything together. This one thing that ranked the top of the list of things I was thankful for truly is worth celebrating, and it is called “love”!

I celebrate…
I celebrate love in the form of friendship of old and new. No man is an island and especially when I uprooted and moved to an unfamiliar territory, the old friends I reconnected and the new ones I made have made all the difference. As for those friends from home who carved out time to catch up with me when they were in or around my new territory, and those who set time aside for me when I made my short trips home, they are truly precious.

happiness is spending time with friends

I celebrate love from the church. Although I am miles away, I am never far from the minds of my brothers and sisters in Christ back home. Their hellos via phone calls or text messages, and their prayers keep me going.

the friends who are compelled by the love of God support you spiritually, cheer you on and encourage you to get to the top

I celebrate the love of my family. Unexpectedly, the bond I have with my family seems to have grown stronger while we are apart. We treasured the time we spent together when I was home for short breaks and the home-cooked meals shared with my loved ones never tasted so good!

family goes through thick and thin together

I celebrate the highest form of love. Throughout the last one year, God’s unconditional love continued to sustain me. In His love I was provided with strength, peace, comfort, wisdom, favour and protection.

in awe of God’s amazing, incomprehensible, unconditional and unceasing love!

I wish all an amazing year ahead. May we all be surrounded by these sources of unending love and let’s make it a year of celebration.

Blessings,
EVON xx

(featuring my “elephantgraphy”, instagram @evon_elephantgraphy)