Click. Click. Click.
That’s the sound of Chinese tradition being played across generations, a game that grandkids can play with their grandparents. A game passed down from their ancestors and their ancestors before them. The swooshing of the tiles on the velvety green table is mesmerizing, as are the hands doing the swooshing.
Mahjong is a Chinese game. But more importantly, it’s a game filled with Chinese heritage and culture. Not many games have stood the test of time like Mahjong. …
“In each experience, we find certain truths we might otherwise miss”
Every day is a new experience in which we can learn something about ourselves.
The smallest task can often teach us the biggest lessons about ourselves about who we are and who we want to be. Pay attention to these small but significant moments.
“Sometimes the route to our purpose is a chaotic experience, and how we respond matters more than what happens to us.”
Things happen to us all the time. Both good and bad. And sometimes to the point where our lives feel totally out of our…
As Belgian psychotherapist, Esther Perel, “the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives.” Relationships are the cornerstone of every person’s life. Your success, your failures, creativity, quality of life, and every in between depends on how you manage your relationships.
I didn’t know how to cherish relationships in my early 20s. I was terrible at maintaining my friendships, I definitely wasn’t the best daughter, sister, or partner. I’ve learned a few things, though, in the last few years. …
After being bombarded by Masterclass advertisements all throughout December, I finally caved and bought a year’s subscription. It didn’t hurt that they were having a two-for-one sale at the time so I was able to gift one subscription.
The first class I dove into was Malcolm Gladwell’s class on writing. Gladwell is the national best-selling author of Tipping Point, David and Goliath, and Blink, among others.
His class consists of 24 courses, ranging from 7–20 minutes long. His class alone is worth the yearly subscription fee of $180 USD ($240 CDN). …
My son turned 2 today. There were a few bumps and bruises on our way to this milestone but he and I made it somehow. It’s amazing how time can go so fast and yet be so slow at the same time. It feels like we’ve had him forever but it’s only been 2 years since I brought him home from the hospital.
When my son was 3 months old, it was also, ironically, my first Mother’s Day. I thought celebrating my first Mother’s Day would finally make me feel the emotions I was missing but I didn’t even know…
If you were born in the 1980s like me, there’s a good chance you remember the Got Milk? commercials that dominated television sets in the 1990s. Celebrities donning milk mustaches and actors crying out in frustration as they ate a cookie only to open the fridge to find an empty milk carton. Even Kermit the Frog sported a milk mustache.
Two major events happened in December. First, my first “viral” article happened. The second, I seriously hurt my back.
Let’s rewind a bit.
I’ve been working from home since March 2020. Even though I was home and in front of a computer all the time, I didn’t get much writing done. Work seamlessly flowed into my home life and there wasn’t much time for anything else.
Come December, I was feeling pretty crappy and disappointed about my whole writing journey. I was averaging 3–4 articles a month, sometimes less. Most of them flopped. …
We’re all born with the potential to change the world. We want to leave a legacy, to have the freedom to live our lives, to be joyous and satisfied with the life we created. But every day, we’re also inundated with stories about global warming, lost lives, and animals being hunted. We get stuck in jobs we hate, lose loved ones, or are thousands of dollars in debt. Atrocities are thrown at us from every which way and we can get lost in the endless cycle of bad news.
Change feels out of reach but knows that it’s not.
Life…
With a vaccine announced before the new year and Biden winning the Presidency, a whiff of hope was in the air. There was hope that this virus was going to be eradicated or at least slowed down and that America would finally see the light at the end of a four-year tunnel.
The photos of the first health care workers getting a vaccine were hopeful. America (and the rest of the world) gave a sigh of relief as Biden gave his first-ever President-elect speech.
November and December were good months.
And then the holidays came and every ounce of hope…
January 6th, 2021 will always be remembered as a dark day in America. It’s the day when the sitting President incited a coup against his own country. Proud Boys, MAGA, and other Trump supporters violently sieged Capitol Hill with firearms. All over the world, the US Senate seen to be cowering under their desks as shots fired on the other side of the door. The whole thing was live streamed, people taking selfies. This was a proud moment for Trump supporters and a total collapse of American civilization. American democracy has officially been cancelled.
We all knew Trump and his…
Living life imperfectly and as creatively as possible. I write about creativity, motherhood and personal growth. Website: www.alicevuong.com