Conscious Living letter #6

Making memories, synchronicity, paying attention and a rare feeling.

Dear Conscious Reader,

It’s been two months since my last letter. My past two months were packed—celebrating three birthdays with four birthday parties, Christmas, and a mini New Year. It was tiring, but it was worth it. For celebrate we must, in our attempt to make memories that last—to write the stories of our lives.

My first ever memory is of my birthday celebration at my Lai Ma’s (nanny). It was my third birthday, but I can’t be sure; it could also have been my fourth.

I was running around the wide and airy living room, giggling. Sunlight streamed through the many panels of windows with narrow glass slats swung open by a lever, its beams broken into delicate patterns. Shimmering dust particles danced in the streams of light. I looked up at the ceiling, towering ten times my height, and felt the rough lines of the cool marble floor beneath my toes. Together, they kept the house comfortable even on the hottest tropical day.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw my Godsister taking off the cover of a nameplate holder on a video player, much like the ones on apartment mailboxes. She replaced the paper with a new one. She told me it said “Heng’s Birthday”. I stood there for a long time, staring at the scribbles I could not read, but in awe that it was meant for me.

In this way, as we celebrate all these birthdays, I hope I am creating lasting memories for my children. My youngest just had her first-ever friend’s party with two of her best friends from daycare. The day before, we celebrated with the family. Perhaps a snippet of one of these occasions will remain in her little brain, marking her first-ever memory.

May this year bring you many moments to cherish and memories that last a lifetime.

Your conscious friend,

Rachel

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Here are a few things to share; it's short as I prepare for my upcoming trip back to Malaysia for the Chinese New Year¹. I will share more about it!

For conscious living

Synchronicity

A few days ago, my best friend wrote to me, “Check out the word Yutori in Japanese. It means spaciousness. I like it. Isn't it great that some cultures have certain words because they value it?”

Later that day, I opened a letter from Kana Chan, who writes from rural Japan, with the title Yutori for 2025.

Yutori is a noun that means having room to spare, not being cramped. Room to breathe. Rest. At its core, yutori translates to "spaciousness", and the concept extends beyond physical space, encompassing mental and emotional space as well. - Kana Chan.

Having space physically and emotionally opens up to the external, allowing us to embrace and connect with others and the natural world.

On a lighter note, I read about an adorable out-of-this-world-looking animal called Axolotl from Adam Tooze, and shortly after, my daughter received a birthday gift called “Axolotl Magical Putty.” These wondrous small animals inspired the creation of the putty, which can melt into a puddle of glittering mess or be shaped into a ball that bounces! Now, wouldn’t that be a good skill to have?

These synchronicities reminded me of interconnectedness, opening up, curiosity, and wonder. I would love to invite more spaciousness and magical wonder into my life!

Axolotl in an aquarium. Photo by T K on Unsplash

For writing

Paying attention

I’ve been following Jeannine Ouellette in her writing intensives in Writing in the Dark for a few months, and though I lack the time to complete them, I am intrigued by her insistence on the importance of paying attention as a writer. Immediately, I knew this to be true, though I could not articulate it.

…I believe that the number one most helpful practice you can take up to improve your writing is to pay close attention to the world. If you do this consistently and record your observations meticulously, your writing will explode with a realness and a vividness you cannot achieve any other way. - Jeannine Ouellette in Pay Attention…

For sharing

Analog sea

I discovered this offline publication in my local library and was slightly thrilled when I read that they are not available anywhere online. That’s their ethos. This website is probably the only information you can get from them online. Some pages of the publication have a lot of white space, with only a carefully selected quote and excerpt from other works and poems. There are also interviews with various artists and random letters to the editors; one from a prison inmate intrigued me. And, of course, there are submitted essays specifically for this offline published format.

I once got hold of their call for submissions pamphlet, but I have since lost it and do not have the option to search for it again, unlike its online counterpart. I am not even sure if I imagined it because of my eagerness to pitch to them. I do quite like the rare feeling this “offline situation” invoked.

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In case you’ve missed these essays in the past two months:

Finding connection in a divided world

It is written in the stars

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Check out my inaugural Conscious Living practices—I’d love for you to try them if you haven’t already!

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Share with us

What is your first memory?

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1. This is a common term used by the Chinese diaspora, including those in Malaysia. It is for celebrating the first day of the lunisolar calendar year or Chinese Calendar. Other terms used are Spring Festival and Lunar New Year. There are also different terms used for other cultures that also celebrate. [1]