365 Inspirations—45: A Letter to my Husband on Valentine's Day

On our Wedding Day in Korea, May 10, 2003

Dear Yoon,

Valentine's Day is just another day, right? Still, as busy as we both are, I want to take some time to tell you how much you mean to me.

I haven't always been the easiest person to be married to and have gone through my share of ups and downs. Lately, I've been more down than up.

For almost eighteen years, we've always found our way back to each other, even when things seemed shaky or like they might break apart.

It hasn't been an easy road for us. You're from the East, I'm from the West. You were a monk when I met you, I was a crazy American girl with wanderlust traveling around trying to find what the meaning of life was.

You left everything to be with me. You left the monastery, your country—pretty much everything. When you arrived at my apartment door in Korea, all you had was a tiny backpack and the clothes on your back.

You had never known a life outside the monastery, yet in that very first year of living with me, you had set up a yoga business in my living room. I came back from Christmas with family in New York City to find a bunch of people in stretch pants on yoga mats saying, "Ommmm..."

You had a knack for teaching yoga and had lots of training in the monastery and in India. You brought so much experience with you.

I can't forget the day you said, "I found a building!" I had no idea how we would pay for a building or a sign or everything else that came with forming a yoga school in Korea, but you believed it would happen and it DID! Again and again and again....

Fast forward to 2013, and you are the owner and teacher at a beautiful yoga studio near Seattle and have led retreats all over the place! You are my BIGGEST inspiration.

Because of your belief that things would work out, you have encouraged me to fulfill many of my own dreams (i.e. blogging, book writing, etc.).

I know it wasn't easy to hang up your robe and decide to walk a very different path with me. I know it took so much courage. And here you are, still walking by my side, through the thick and thin.

Thank you for being by my side. Thank you for believing in me and loving me even when things seem difficult or hard. Thank you for your gift of teaching yoga. You have inspired and helped so many people, including me.

I love you so much and I am so happy you are still with me after all these years!

Your wife,
Katherine

*To my readers:
I hope you will take the time to tell the people in your life how much you love them. It is so easy to take the people closest to us for granted.

365 Inspirations—41: 56 Up (The Movie)

"Life is what happens while you are waiting for something else."—Albert Camus

Today was the first week of the newest installment of the "7 Up" movies! Have you seen any of these? It's a British film and the creators of the documentary have been following the lives of a handful of people in England since they were all 7 years old. They are now 56!!!

It's very fascinating to hear what these children wanted to do when they grew up and what they are actually doing now. Every seven years, the film crew meets again with this group of people and they get a recap of their lives.

It so interesting how much our early childhood and family situations shape who we become. Our beliefs about ourselves are set very early on in life and if we want to break out of some of the negative attributes about ourselves, we have to work extremely hard at it.

All the people in the movie have gone various directions in their lives. Most of them married, most of them had children, some got divorced, some remarried, some travelled, most held jobs and many actually did the jobs they said they wanted to do as a young child.

I highly recommend this movie. It is such an interesting look at "a life". Even though it is just snippets of a life, it makes you think and reevaluate your own life and the things you are doing.

You realize, from the movie, that time goes by so fast and before you know it, you are 56!!!

It makes me think that I'd like to create a list right now with my husband of things I still want to do.

I'd like to travel a bit more and focus more on writing!

Do you have a bucket list? Are there things you still want to do in your life that you haven't? What are those things?