Author: Angelina Lee

I met with a client the other day in order to do some Estate planning. During our meeting, he said that he wanted to direct his wife to give her property to their granddaughter. As I explained to him that he could not make such a direction in his Will since he didn’t own the property, I shared with him a very simple tenet: we cannot give what we don’t have.

Since then, I’ve started to really ponder these words outside of the legal context. They appear to be a powerful guide for almost every area of our lives.

Continue reading “What do you have to give?”

We went to my parents’ home for a quick visit the other day. Within minutes of arriving, my littlest love asked earnestly whether we could go to a nearby park in the neighbourhood to jump on the trampoline. When I told her that I didn’t think it was a good idea she got visibly upset and retorted her famous phrase, “Because why not?”

“Look at what you’re wearing!” I replied. “You didn’t come prepared to go out in the park.”

Clearly my littlest love thought that I was being difficult. I begged to differ.

Continue reading “Heels by the Trampoline”

My little love bounded into the living room this morning full of excitement. She had written a short piece and wanted to share it with me before her online classes began. I have witnessed this budding writer grow in confidence and clarity and I have always treasured the thoughts that she commits to writing.

She sat across the room from me and readied herself for reading. “While I’m reading,” she said, “I want you to count how many adjectives I’ve used.”

She began to read. As she spoke, her words fell onto listening ears and enveloped an attentive heart.

The story was filled with much more than just adjectives.

Continue reading “Planted”

“You came here with nothing, and look at what you’ve left behind.” These words were spoken through tears as a loved one ended the eulogy he wrote for his grandmother. They were so poignant and spoke to my heart immediately. 

Since then I’ve been thinking: what does it mean to be a person of influence?

Continue reading “Spheres of Influence”

Have you ever felt this way?
Like you’re drowning, but there’s no water.
Like you’re continuously paddling, but can’t reach the surface.
Like you’re striving, but see no results.
Hold on. Hold tight.

Continue reading “Hold on. Hold Tight.”

The last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle. I feel as though every time I find my footing, something else comes and sweeps me off of my feet. Rising case numbers; renewed lockdown measures; looming deadlines; another term of distance learning; back to back bad news from my most cherished. The offenders have been varied and plentiful and I was starting to feel their impact physically. A quick test confirmed that while my spirits were low, my pressure was high. A little too high.

Continue reading “Tree Pose”

I had an amazing opportunity last week. I was invited to be the on-air guest on a popular US based radio show to chat about this blog and my journey thus far. Needless to say, I had been the perfect mix of excitement and complete trepidation in the days leading up to the broadcast.

To be honest, I had a few concerns.

Continue reading “On-Air/ Off-Air Advice”

I recently received this picture from an old friend with the following note, “My partner and I built this vegetable garden box in April. We used only scrap pieces of wood we have lying around and I decided to use some pieces of logs that were chopped and waiting in the bonfire wood pile to create supports for a small sitting ledge on the edge of the box. To my surprise, wedged into the ground the log started growing. What I thought was a dead piece of wood had life after all and persevered to return and grow defiant against all odds.”

This touched me deeply.

Continue reading “Life Repurposed”

In all our years of living in our home, we have never done any significant work to the area surrounding our house. Our back porch has always lead onto a sorry looking patch of grass. There used to be a big almond tree behind our home and so this area never used to get much natural sunlight. Even after the shadows of the almond tree were long gone, the grass never quite took to this part of our back yard.

Continue reading “Leave Your Mark”

I’m trying to put a name to this feeling, but I can’t. I’m sure there is one… I just don’t know what it is.

After almost three months of no new community cases of infection in our country, this virus is rearing its ugly head. Whereas our case numbers have slowly increased over the last few months, we took comfort in knowing that all of these cases were imported on repatriation flights and were carefully isolated in State quarantine facilities. In the last few days, however, we have heard reports of at least two new cases in persons with no recent travel history. This news comes despite our borders being closed.

All of this, however, is not the cause of whatever it is that I’m feeling; it’s simply bringing it to the surface. 

Continue reading “Just a Feeling”