When I first started working on festivals, it was long hours starting from early morning working right into late night. I really enjoyed the work, especially the people I worked with. There was a site manager Dave, who managed all things relate to the installations and safety of the event. Whenever I ran into Dave, he always asked me “Are you winning?”. My English wasn’t as good as it is now, I had trouble to understand what he meant. Most people greet each other with “how are you?”. He explained to me it is similar as asking are you having a good day? Good enough for you to take it as a win? Even till today, I still sometime secretly ask myself the same questions ” are you winning?”
Today marks the one year anniversary of NZ went into the first lockdown due to Covid in 2020. This morning I watched a Youtube video of this guy who played piano duet with his neighbour. His neighbour was a 78 year old man named Emil. Emil lost his wife in Dec due to Covid, he lived in the apartment temporarily while his house was being sold. He played piano everyday at 2pm like how he did when his wife was alive. Thats how this young guy heard him playing and started their friendship with a wall in between them. They would play piano duets each weekend. By the time I watched this video Emil has left this world peacefully in his sleep. There were so many tragic stories last year moved me in many ways, this story for some reason made me feel both sad and heartwarming. It combined all the elements of human emotional needs, being heard, being seen, being loved and being remembered.
Coming back to the question of “are you winning?”, one thing I took from the past year of magical thinking and deep sorrow was that I learnt to celebrate the little wins in life. Since I was an event organiser, I imagined when we beat Covid, there would be celebrations across the world. Everyone pours into the street celebrating the end of it with music, dance, lights, fireworks and lots of hugs. The reality is this may never happen, as everyone will come to the end of this with different pace, some people may never get over the year of 2020.
Instead what I can do is to celebrate the little wins. It’s the first breath I took with my eyes open in the morning, with strong and healthy set of lungs. It’s having meals with my mum and dad, talk about our daily life. It’s watching my daughter doing a new yoga move she learnt from daycare, sang me her new favourite song. It’s going to sleep next to my husband at night and knowing next morning we will rise together face another day. It’s having friends to spend time with and do silly things no matter how old we get. It’s going to work open my laptop answer emails , solve problems and chat with colleagues while making a cup of tea. It’s taking the moment each day to look up at the sky above my head and stand firmly on the ground below my feet. These are my little wins in life, which can be easily taken for granted. These little wins are what truly matter, without these my life would not be the same.
So are you winning today? I hope even if you are not, you learn to celebrate the little things.
LIYANG'S THOUGHTS 