This is officially my first post of the year.
So much has changed since 2016.
I started the year without Popo, how does it feel when you lost the most important person in your life?
Many has been asking me, how do you find true happiness or even the sanity to be happy in the midst of all the hecticness? Truth to be told, I don't have an answer(?) But I guess true joy comes when you are secured with your identity, knowing who you really are, and the purpose you're born.
To be able to discover the reason you're created, the reason of your past and your pain;
the reason why you are placed at a certain group, with certain skill sets and talent;
the fact that you know you exist to be part of something larger, greater than yourself.
To me, that's pure contentment and joy.
This year, I’ve made a decision to step out and be honest, receptive and responsive to my Father because the ultimately thing I want to do is to represent His heart.
Looking back at my whole life, I was always searching for an answer, constantly asking the universe, why am I being treated like this? Why is my family like this? Why is my life so tough compared to the rest of my friends and relatives? Why am I not as smart? Why am I not as pretty? Why am I not capable enough? Why I can’t just do more? The never ending whys.
It was just the beginning of this year, God accelerated my growth and I don’t know if this makes sense to you but I felt as though I finally know who I am and the purpose of my entire life. The whole picture just resonate so perfectly and all the dots are connected so perfectly :')
The entire journey since I was a baby up till today.
I believe in big dreams, goals, visions and hard work because I believe one shall never settle for less because we are all wonderfully made in the image of God.
We are uniquely created to do amazing things in this life that will bring change to the generation, to the society. I am not saying this as a "Christianity concept" but I truly believe everyone has their passion and calling to do what they aspire to do.
But I have to be very honest.
In the midst of all these, little did I realized, I’ve carried this burden in me, the feeling of wanting to do more with what I have, hence every single moment as I live on the go, I kept questioning myself - did I utilize my skill sets and gifts? Am I doing enough? Could I have done better? Can I give more?
I realized I have been living my life in such pace that I missed out the most important part of life, being present.
But really, What is enough?
I am so thankful because I know my Father loves me so much that he wants me to live in the present and enjoy the process instead of keep thinking of ways to reach the destination faster so I can move on to the next step and do more, more and more.
Life is a never ending journey, there will ALWAYS be more.
We have all heard this before – It’s not just about the destination or end results, it is the process, the journey.
Just few months back in the month of April, I stepped out from my comfort zone and went to a mission trip in Myanmar.
One single trip changes my perspectives to life.
It changed the way I see life.
It changed the way I feel about my life.
It made me understand what true joy is all about.
It taught me that happiness is the simplicity of gratefulness.
It taught me that generosity doesn’t comes from the amount of money you make, but the condition of your heart.
It taught me to see things from my heart, my spiritual eyes instead of my pair of earthly eyes.
It reminded me of the core of our hearts, we are all created by God, having such pure and innocent heart.
Many times living in a big city, we are so busy running from point A to point B every time. Well at least that’s my life on a daily basis. I meet tons of people for meetings and events all the time and because of my nature, I don't like wasting time because I want to be productive. My normal days are packed with back to back appointments, phone calls after phone calls.
There is rarely one moment that I paused and have an empty mind because while I’m doing A, my mind will be thinking and wandering about B and C items.
It is not till this mission trip that I realized I can actually survived without Wi-Fi for more than 10 hours for consecutively 6 days!
It is through this trip to Myanmar, I learned how to be present. Not thinking about what’s next in my work, learning how to give FULL attention to whatever that was in front of me. I learned how to just live at THAT moment. And I realized I couldn’t be any happier!
Going to Myanmar has enlarged my worldview, it showed me how poor these people are physically, yet they are so rich in the spirit. We might not understand their language, but we recognize the language of love.
Their hearts are so rich and open and dependent on God, I reminded myself, God doesn’t see what you own on the outside, but God looked on the inside.
In the spiritual realm, these people are beyond rich that you can never imagine. :')
One of the most apparent thing that locked in my heart is to see the poor village’s kids being so friendly to all of us. We were all strangers, we all had language barriers, but these kids wants nothing from you but just sincerely appreciating your presence in their lives.
They just want to show you that they love you.
They run to you and shake your hands, they smiled at you for more than 5 seconds.
Yes they are poor, they are running around with no shoes on their feet, but they know what LOVE is. There is no other intentions at all. Isn’t that the REAL way of doing life?
Back home because of what we have outside, because we have money and material goods, we are afraid to lose what we have, we are being taught not to talk to strangers, we don't smile that much because we are afraid people will think you are crazy, and we are afraid that people might take you for granted.
As a result we build walls around our hearts. We tend to judge.
We think people are filled with intentions.
Eventually many of us slowly loses that genuine love and sincerity. We lost it not because we don't have it, but fear covers that layer of our pure tangible heart.
I thank God because these villages’ kids taught me how to live a life so simple yet finding joy in the simplest thing because they have nothing but a grateful pure heart.
I told myself, bringing Heaven On Earth is not a religious duty, it is simply just bringing happiness to people around you.
Find a need and meet it, find a hurt and heal it.
Everyone has different needs, some might need food, shelter, and a place to work and grow. Some might have everything externally, but they are lost in the spirit, they feel empty inside, they don’t understand things that is happening and they just can’t be happy truthfully.
Being able to live your life to the fullest potential is a blessing.
And we all have it in us.
To me, it’s not that I have a lot of time to do so many things at one go but I know now, at the age of 25, yes I want to build a career, I want to be successful, I want to change lives, but most importantly, I want to be able to help others to live a life that they will enjoy, and to be fully liberated and secure in their own identity.
True happiness doesn’t comes from owning material goods only, although I still do work hard because I believe in giving the best comfortable lives to myself and my loves ones;
True joy comes from within when you realized life is so beautiful and you just want others to be able to live a life full of their own potential.
I am not a big business player in the market, nor anyone that is super influential but I believe, everyone has something to offer and if we choose to step up, learn to seek and search our hearts, and ask ourselves, what truly makes us happy? You will realized, true joy comes from serving and loving others.
Being able to put a smile on others, that is the best feeling ever.
I’ve always have a heart for old people and one day after hearing a friend’s testimony, I thought to myself, what is stopping me from taking the first step? Why plan so much when all the planning has instilled so much fear from just stepping out?
So I took the courage and gathered a few friends last month and just visited an old folks home nearby my house. It was a simple 2 hours of chatting, feeding and being together with the bunch of old people, it made me again realized, really, nothing is more fulfilling than being able to live out a fulfilling purposeful life.
Being purposeful doesn’t mean you must have big cooperate ideas that can shake and change the nations, sometimes, it is just doing things more intentional, love a little more, smile a little bit more, tell yourself, today I just want to be kind to at least one person, and when you do that, the joy you will experience is beyond all material goods can give.
What a long winded blogpost but yeah, I want to jot these down and one day when I look back, I will remember this current state of my life, and not forget the condition of my heart.
I’ve also been getting a lot of inbox msgs from some of you asking if you guys can join me for any of the sessions, of course you can! I don’t have a specific idea to help a specific group, I just want to take out some of my time, put in some effort, bring smile to people’s faces and of course, have some fun! Be it old folks, kids, refugees, foreigners, homeless, anyone :)
You can always email me at adelechow91@gmail.com if you wanna get in touch!
Last but not least, I just have to constantly remind myself,
Adele, this is a lifelong journey, enjoy the ride, and enjoy it with people you love.
Thank you Daddy G.