Received a very thoughtful Christmas mail from a very sweet friend in Canada early this past week. Another friend in US asked for my updated address to send his yearly greetings. I’m truly grateful to be in the mind of friends during the holiday seasons. Without them, I may have forgotten it was already December!! Asked my colleague to check the post office for the last day to send off Christmas cards to Canada and US, she found out it was mid-Nov. and added that I had asked that same unpunctual question last year.

My mood had been rather low these days. There just weren’t much to be happy about seeing how the marathon pandemic was evolving and persisting and how our city was deteriorating from a once prosperous, free, just, and relatively democratic metropolis. Greetings from distant friends certainly lifted my spirit somewhat. I was reminded once again to live so that others would see the Christian hope in me. It’s not easy to shine in our darkening city, but at the same time, true stars shine the brightest in the darkest of nights.

With the little positive energy that I gained, I managed to arrange and meet up some old friends on Tue, Wed, and Thur. The positive energy was pretty much used up by the time my family gathering tonight was over.

Planned to meet a few more friends on Mon and Tue to store up some additional social energy before re-entering my social-distancing mode. Will likely dine out a lot less after Wed when the city enforces the mandatory use of a tracing app across all eateries.