For Ida, Who Wishes for Fairy Tale Endings

After lots of disappointment, I've concluded at my late age that we're responsible for our own happy ending.

I was at the doctor's a couple of weeks ago and had my blood pressure taken. We were shooting the breeze about our notebooks, laughing because he was so envious of my MacBook Pro ("Sweet," said he), and my blood pressure was better than normal. Then I started talking about work and deadlines and my blood pressure shot sky-high. I've never had my blood pressure so directly correlated to job stress before. So I resolved there and then so stop stressing about it.

Well, since I wasn't going to stress about work, I decided to stop stressing about other things, which was much more of a challenge. But that's not going to deter me. I accept that I can't change people, even those I love. I can change how I deal with them, change how I show them my love.

I can't change the political situation by worrying about it. I can help to bring about change with my vote. I can wait and in the meantime, I won't stress about the injustices and corruption. My anger may be righteous but it is futile.

I can't change the fact that the climate and the environment are changing for the worse. My fear and outrage are pretty pointless because the average Malaysian is clueless about these issues. But I can change my habits, make better choices and do my part to raise awareness.

What I'm trying to say is, our happiness is all in our mind. We are responsible for our own happiness. And when we're happy, everything else seems to fall in place.

Then we're truly living our very own fairy tale.