Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

I’ve long given up on drawing up a list of resolutions because I know for a fact that it doesn’t work...for me, anyway. Instead, I come up with a list of things that I’ve learned the year before that has helped me grow. The list is kind of personal and long but I’ll share the gist of it here; who knows, it might help or resonate with someone else.

I don’t like to lie and write about rainbows and fluffy puffs all the time. That’s not the way my life works and if I put up a front here, not only am I not being true to myself, I am also not being true to the people who actually read the shite I write.

There are, of course, filtered things that I think might get me into trouble or cause a rift between people (because this is the INTERNET, after all) but the things I post here are genuinely what I feel, be it good or bad. 
So, what have I learned in 2019? Here goes!
I am Going to be Fine
I think I’ve mentioned this way too many times and people might think I am this deep, philosophical person …

My parents and their siblings are sticking the landing as far as Cuti-Cuti Malaysia is concerned. In their twilight years and after going through some pretty tough life stuff, they’ve decided to embark on small little journeys and road trips to wherever their hearts desire once every fortnight.

The one ‘uns are usually invited but with our little families in tow and own personal commitments, it’s pretty hard to nail us down for their little sojourns. But we try.

It’s particularly hard when we either have little kids with us, work weekends, travel regularly for work as it is (a break from all that traveling is just the kind of break we need, huh?), or when we have no clear working hours.



But like I said, we try.

Their little outings depend on my Google-expert uncle who is the head of the family and mastermind behind these little road trips. So, we could be heading south one weekend, and then north east the next. We never know until a couple of days before the trip when my dad asks us i…

It's a Saturday again and the weekend is always my favorite days of the week. Any guesses why? 👵😜

So, what I am doing here today is I am going to share some of the stuff that I've discovered and saved over the week that I either found to be profound, enlightening, personal, or funny. So, here it goes!

Don't you like it that I always make an effort to keep things short and simple? #pleasesayyoudo
1. Post-trauma: It's not a disorder, it's a response All of us respond to the things around us differently. Some see a spider and become afraid of them for the rest of our lives. Others get intrigued and figure out a way to capture them and keep them in jars as pets. It's all different from us.



View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mastin Kipp, CFTC | He/Him (@mastinkipp) on

As I scurry around from one change to another for the past few months (actually, it feels a lot more like years on end), there's something I really wish I didn't have to forego as much - cooking easy, healthy, simple meals for my family at home.

It doesn't have to be anything that will shake the culinary world nor does it have to be chef-worthy cuisine. It could be something as simple as soup, rice, and two sunny side ups.

Honestly, I've forgotten how much joy it brings to put food on the table.

Minus the exquisite ingredients I cannot afford and the complicated techniques, putting the stove and kitchen to good use actually makes me really happy.

At one point in time, I DID put some thoughts into cooking for a living or at the very least venture out into providing the same kind of simple food for people who don't have the time to.

During the last month, I either stuffed my face with 7-11 food, fast food, or mamak food. I relied so heavily on food delivery service…

If there's one thing I am extremely proud of, and I only have to name one thing out of the intensely long list of things that I could and should be proud of, it would be this: I've managed to juggle the life of raising my kids and making money at the same time.

I think the life of a single working mother is an extremely tough one. So tough, I don't think any kind of writing or speaking can do it justice.

Generally speaking, life as a mother or parent is a tough one.
The journey is not only harrowing, uncertain, scary (VERY scary), full of potholes, filled with closed doors and rainbows (it could both come to you all in one day or a whole year), goes unrewarded most of the time, but it is also the kind of journey that once embarked, you can never disembark.
Sort of like getting on a plane. Once you're in, you're going to be there for the entire journey, like it or not.

"You can survive this, or you can lie down and die," - Surviving (and Thriving) as a Singl…