Happy Father's Day to the fathers and father figures ❤️🪔 May we learn from their teachings, our experiences with them and the relationships that we build.

This year I have been trying to spend more time with my parent (my dad - my mom passed away years ago). We do not always see eye to eye, and my partner would say that we are both equally stubborn, so there are occasional difficulties in our relationship.

Even so there is much to admire, to learn and to reflect on when it comes to understanding my parent, the life he has led thus far, and the life he tries to lead.

I try to remember the subtle practices of yoga, the awareness and understanding, the ethics. How we manage ourselves and the relationships we have with others is also a part of our practice.

As we observe Father’s Day 2025, here are three (3) things I’ve learnt/am learning from him:

1. Be curious: ask questions, puzzle out the things, how does “x” work? My parent is very much one who will take things apart to figure out how to put them back together again - this applies to small material things, everyday processes and life itself.

2. Never stop learning: over the past few years my parent has learnt to play both the keyboard and the guitar, partly with the help of YouTube videos and partly through the help of a friend who is a music teacher. We’ve taken creative workshops together. He continues to want to learn to do things, and there is so much to learn. 

3. Do the best you can with the circumstances you are given: my parent’s youth was perhaps not the easiest one, in a different way from how my youth was not an easy one. Through all of the phases of life he has taken what was given to him and made the best of it - the knowledge, the material things, the opportunities. 

It is interesting to look at the life of my parent as an adult, to observe how he moves through this world, to work with the lessons of our relationship.

Wishing him, and all the father figures, continued blessings for all that they add to our lives.