And to quote the Chinese, "New Year, everything New!"

Today was my first day back to work in the first month of the year.

I was very sick for the past couple of days, and was thinking to myself "Oh gosh! What a way to start my year!"

It felt long to be away on medical leave including the weekend because as soon as I got back to work today, I had to face my biggest nemesis of all- writer's block!

I find myself staring blankly at the computer screen for few seconds, trying very hard to attend to a write up that I haven't had the chance to complete for some time.

Along the way, of enduring this... this... writer's block! (and I drop it like a hot potato!) I noticed something about myself; I noticed that each time I am stuck trying to complete an article, there's this yearning inside me. I find myself craving to draw, eager to make something, or read a book.

Perhaps this is my body's way of telling me that I don't balance my lifestyle with enough creative juice because even when it comes to my blog, all I do is work, work, work.

I love my work though. Especially this passion turned biz thing. I've done it all my life, and I can never get enough of it, no matter how tough times are, or how insecure I feel sometimes.

But I am a work in progress.

So, today over lunch, I confide in my friend that I am concern about my progress... about my journey getting back into making art. And she tells me that I need to be confident in myself, and believe in my work.

I needed to hear that, that's all I wanted.  Life is just funny sometimes, we have the answers, we just need assurance.

Later on, I tell myself that it's time I set my focus straight again and make sure that I am on track. And I realized that, that's the beauty about life, about being in a Human body; you make mistakes, you missed a chance, but you never really ever did missed it completely because you have the next day to relive it again, and another week, month and finally another year.

It's like a freakin' ball game you know (even though we don't have baseball here in Malaysia), you will never strike out, even though the umpire catches the ball first before you hit homerun because everyday is a new ball game.

I'm mighty proud of myself though. I recently encouraged myself to do the One Zentangle a Day 6-week course book by Beckah Krahula. It's a self-learning course that allows me to do it at my own pace. I've always wanted to take up courses, and I think besides enrolling at actual classes, I would enjoy self-learning courses as much as attending classes too. Helps with establishing some self-discipline and perhaps I needed this to nudge me forward to do the other mixed media online courses that I've been wanting to do too.

I look forward to a better year, a brand new year.