有餘 I DON’T DO GOSSIP

And which part of it do you not understand?!  The older I get, the less patience I have for people who just refuse to listen.  Friday afternoon after an empowering weekly TB with my team when I was feeling positive(and grateful) to end a grueling week of meeting marathons, I received an infuriating WeChat from an old business partner haggling over opportunities to gossip about some sordid shenanigans.  After a chain of meaningless exchanges, I decided to bid adieu to such burned out ‘friendship’.  I don’t draw these fierce tiger and tigress for the Lunar New Year for no good reasons :P  

送牛迎虎, 也搬至新辦公室!  臨窗遠眺海灣大橋, 背對紅磚和書架, 隔著玻璃牆盯著團隊, 拂肘當我的南面王.

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嬝裊 Auld Lang Syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?  Don’t be silly.  Old ghosts haunted me left and right from the parting curse of my ex to a miniature Rolleiflex that I spent a fortune on that only made itself useful a handful of times… Dear reader, allow me to reacquaint you with treasures from the past, a retro calendar I designed for the previous brand I served and my bronze leaf tray ‘By The Lotus Pond’.  If you’re compelled to collect the latter, please visit my Etsy boutique :) 

搬回灣區近十年, 家中冗物無上限增加, 2022任務便是去蕪存菁own less, live more.   舊物重見天日, 不免也嘆, LK品味數十年如一, 心頭好始終經典, 古樸, 侘寂; 想想個人風格是如何養成的, 靈魂若參天老樹, 靜謐發芽, 總算活到表裏如一的年紀.

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有情亦老 無恨常圓 Amor Omnia Vincit

2021 is coming to an end and instead of trying to cobble together a new year’s resolution, I decided to jump ahead to the bucket list.  After three intricate but thankfully not lethal surgeries this year, checking off the bucket list seems a very sensible thing to do!

2021年度頭條, LK總算圓童年夢想, 出版童書, 意義非凡為紀念恩師S教授!  希望天上的她, 微笑看著慈善基金會團隊.

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刀焰 My Profound Thankfulness

How would I even began?  Telling the cautionary tale of the deprivation of self love in the wicked and whacked 21st century of capitalist vampiredom?  

I was feeling off for a while but of course, the innate foolishness of prioritizing work, the team… everything else except my own health made me clueless to the silent upheaval inside me.  If not for my BFF, Dr. C’s constant reminder, I might drop DEAD one ordinary morning in the middle of a presentation with the shocking disbelief reflected on my eyes.  Such pathetic martyrdom was OVER.  Between the X-ray and MRI, I smirked when hearing petty issues of how each designer was fussing over the furnishing of our incoming move to a new office.  CHILDREN…

幸好有死黨Dr. C叮嚀, 否則工作狂LK連身體器官默默起革命還不知不覺… 十月底三醫會診, 十一月中進手術房, 快刀斬亂麻, 麻醉消褪意識半滅半明時, 耳聞是Dr. C清澈語音: 手術一切順利!  冥冥中, 2021總總自省, 什麼該放手, 什麼要珍惜.

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年華 The Heart of The Wise

“The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of the fools is in the house of mirth.”

----------  Hebrew Bible, Ecclesiastes 7:4

Ta-da, my reading of the month was The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and as a rebound (don’t ask me why, please) I already embarked on Angela Carter’s The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman for my November read.  Wharton scaffolds the intricate New York high society and depicts the interiority of her characters with a melancholy sensibility.  The protagonist, Lily Bart, is far from likable.  Witnessing her demise, the reader is cornered and suffocated by disillusions in the end.  Edith Wharton too was the product of her society that privileges did not bestow happiness.

初讀Edith Wharton於花樣年華純真年代, 加上Scorsese的經典電影, 她的不回首與他的過門不入, 讓人惆悵.  Wharton寫內心戲真正高手, 十月選讀The House of Mirth 也曾搬上銀幕, 由Gillian Anderson主演, 可惜當年錯過現下也找不著.  浮華人生, 沒落貴族, 花瓶般的女主角Lily Bart有太多的心機, 極度缺乏勇氣, 隨波逐流凋零絕境, 寫實的凄涼.

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