Gloria's Blog

I have written a series of six blogs related to the happenings in Christmas 2017. This is the second one. This piece is dedicated to a good friend, Li, and his girlfriend, who actively and tirelessly organize activities for the Chinese community in Seattle. You are sharing your love to each other to warm and light up the community. Thank you! *** I have a friend in Seattle. His name is Li. We are not super close (yet), maybe a bit more than colleague. Li and his beautiful and sweet girlfriend are good people, and, very social. They love to organize drinks, dinner, all kinds of fun activities for the Chinese community in Seattle. I have been to a few. Usually, I need to try very hard to enjoy “just for fun”, unless I am under alcohol… I tend to seek meaning before and when doing things, maybe too much. Going to parties and talking about general, daily, random things, are not my favorite things. But sometimes life can be hard. For example, during Christmas. I have b...

I have written a series of six blogs related to the happenings in Christmas 2017. This is the first one. *** Christmas is a holiday meant to be spent with loved ones. It can be hard for people who are not surrounded by them, and didn't plan the travel in advance. On Christmas Eve, I didn't go to my friends' place to eat and hangout. I don't like being with people for the sake of being with people. I learned to say no. Recently I am reading the book Originals by Adam Grant. I was thinking, how to spend Christmas in an *original* way. Christmas has been a sad holiday for me. Six years ago, my mom passed away shortly before Christmas. I lived in Shanghai. At the time, the most painful things were the joyfully festive decorations and cheerful faces on the streets, when I was feeling absolutely lonely and lost. So I went to Yunnan, a remote area by myself. I realized all the emotions are following me and from inside, and it's probably better idea to be s...