抓紧时间。 “Grab Tightly Time.”

So.

I was going to start this update with a classic, “Hi friends! Can you believe that January is already half way over?” But then realized - Wait. That’s not my funny, perplexing, playful relationship with Time. This powerful stranger. This curious, humbling Friend. 

There’s a Chinese mantra that’s been engrained in me since childhood. 抓紧时间. “Grab Tightly Time.” It taught me discipline. Efficiency. Intentionality. It’s a constant voice in my ear to move, to excel, to get shit done. Make dreams happen. 

And it has. 

But I don’t know if I think about Time in this way anymore. 

For the past many years now, and especially the last, I’ve practiced and honoured a different kind of relationship with Time. 

A kinder kind. 

Because, like any relationship, it’s really just about love. 

Just like love, and loving, you can’t hold on by grasping tighter. You can’t possess or conquer or control the loving, the beloved. The more desperately you grab, the more they escape you. The more you suffocate them. 

It’s not always about being efficient, competent, or productive. To accomplish something. To go somewhere. 

Rather, maybe we can just open our palms, let whatever it is we love flow and morph and speak to us as it will. Let Time be at times frustrating and elusive and temperamental. Let it live. Alongside us. 

Continue to trust. Trust in the rhythm of each moment. 

And then perhaps we can discover more kindness for each other, for ourselves. For the ‘balance’ we are trying to create between all the doing, feeling, and just existing. 

2023’s word was “trust”. And I thought about what 2024 would be. 

And I think it’s still trust. 

With trust, comes patience, courage, vulnerability. And love. And that’s all. It’s all the same. The same yet endlessly curious and magical. 

And with that. 

All my relations, 

xoxo, 

Tong