Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

Found the following video from Upworthy.com and thought it was...thought-provoking. Why is it so hard to love yourself? Someone asked her friends a quite unusual question and it seems as though it should be the simplest to answer but most of these women hesitated. "What do you really love about yourself?" We are always quick to point out things we dislike about ourselves and it can be a good thing, for self reflection, for improvement, for change and for a better way to live. But we should also spend some time loving ourselves and acknowledging it. But the sorry situation is that when we do, we are often thought of as selfish, narcissistic, arrogant, over-confident and maybe even obnoxious. So, we think:- Our nose is too big We are fat Always late Lousy cook Messy Too ugly Bad fashion sense Will suck at everything Is the worst mother on the planet Don't deserve luxury I just spent less than a minute to type out 10 of my own worst traits and it was...

I try my best to eat as clean as possible...most of the time, in fact, I was almost vegetarian the entire week, reminding myself that I am doing this for myself and the animals of the world. lol. Talk about OTT. But mostly because I didn't feel like eating heavy meats. There's the occasional clam and ikan bilis (anchovies) in my fried meehoon but I figured it was fine. Eating vegetarian, as you might have guessed, is not exactly very filling and you get hungry like only the whole day after that so, some days I give myself permission to just pig out. Literally. And my favorite way to pig out is....bacon. Pun intended. It is so versatile that you can eat it just like that or add it to fried rice or pizza or just fix yourself a nice little sandwich with bacon and Tabasco sauce and O....M....G.... Of course, I know it's fattening but it is one of the very few guilty pleasures that I sometimes let myself have...and trust me, there are not too many on the list. But did...

Sometimes I need a reminder of this because you, nor I, have the capacity to control the Universe. There was one advice, I can't remember from who, that I will always remember and keep close to my heart at all times. We are not here to control the Universe but we are each given a small piece of the Universe to handle. Handle that well and let the rest go. That's what I need to remind myself sometimes whenever I stress over the smallest to the biggest things life throws at me. I know you and everyone else have the same problem too, sometimes, so, this could be a good reminder for you too. Let it go (and in the least Frozen way possible). lol Love, Marsha

While, generally speaking, everyone tries to be their best self or present themselves in different ways to different people, I find people who are genuine can be detected from a mile away. They are, I think, a smile or a laugh away from your radar. We don't all click with the same people and don't have the same pet peeves so, this is entirely up to you to decide, who is genuine and who is driven by ego and money. I hope you find or have found yours. Keep them. Love, Marsha

Chinese New Year is around the corner and while the little ones are anticipating new found riches, the adults are....well, not so much. lol. Those darn red packets. For those who do not know what the red packets are for and why it is fear-inducing, Google 'ang pow' or 'lai see' or just 'red envelope'. I have to say that one of things that I really dislike about Chinese New Year is NOT the ang pow but the repeatedly-played Chinese New Year songs when you are in a mall. Gawdddddd....can there be less cymbals and less of that annoying instrument, please? I love Christmas songs, though. Chinese New Year is a lot of things to a lot of people. To some, it is welcoming of the new year. To others, it's time to try kissing up to Lady Luck at the Poker table.  To the younger ones, it's just party time !!! And here's what I noticed about young party-goers and older party-goers. THE YOUNG 'UNS 1. Must. Get. Thrashed. Or it didn't happe...