Say or Write

Feelings are tricky.  And this November was filled with many of them - mostly happiness, gratitude, thankfulness, cheer and some tears.  Despite all the crazy rain in San Francisco, November was still that “warm” month.

What I love about November is the gratitude that surrounds us AND the thankfulness in the air.  This year, it was extra warm and cozy because my parents came for a visit.  Hence the blend of many different feelings - all good, except the sadness due to departures.

Their visit reminded me how much better I am in “writing” about my feelings than “saying” them.  Looking into my parents’ eyes and telling them how much I miss them everyday and how much I love them, is hard.  I tend to turn things into goofy comments, tight hugs and kisses and stop the actual words from coming out of my mouth.  However, when it comes to putting these feelings on a piece of paper, I can write books.  For me, written words make everything sound more correct than spoken words - for no reason.  So many times, I wanted to look into my mom’s eyes and tell her how happy I am that they are here.  Instead, I joked around saying that she is doing her cleaning and cooking job right.  I wanted to tell my dad that he was an amazing help in being the kids’ UBER while I was on a business trip but instead I joked about his stress of getting the routine down.  There are times that I hope my loved ones know me well and other times I don’t want anyone to “assume” that my goofy comments mean love.  That’s why I resort to mini notes or surprise messages so my feelings are on the paper and there is no need to assume.

This blog kept getting delayed because I wanted to “write” about the feelings correctly.  I didn’t want November to come across as a sad month because it wasn’t.  But it was a month that represented a lot of feelings, which can be tricky to write about.  As I think back, the biggest feeling was “LOVE”.  The departure tears were due to LOVE, just like the arrival hugs were.  Missing each other is also due to LOVE.  Cheesy but true. :)

The consensus for November was “Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened”…. As I think about that quote, I want to say - just feel the love, because it all happened with love.

What is your preference? Say or Write? Don’t say neither because it is never fun to try to guess the feelings.  After all feelings are tricky.

As we talk about tricky feelings, exercise usually induce those tricky feelings too - typical love and hate relationship.  How about you give the below exercise a try and let me know if it makes you smile when you are done or makes you angry at me (with a followed happiness, of course)

Either you “say” it or “write” it, HIGH FIVE to you all for getting it out!

here is to Happiness and love… ANd Happy birthday to my little baby!

party time for our youngest!

departing eyes do not know what to do