When things go well, we are happy. Yet, if you pay attention, there might be a little voice telling you something (is wrong).This happened to me twice recently. In the first case, I didn't listen, and I paid for my mistake dearly (both physically and emotionally, plus the monetary cost). In the second case, I fought with that voice all night long, and that voice actually won!

To expand those brief summaries, here are the two stories.

I used to have acid reflux, so I was careful about my diet. Then, the problem seemed to have gone away. The month of November is always full of sweets, in preparation for the Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was in heaven! I had cookies, cakes and pies, almost daily. Many times, I wondered (yes, that little voice appeared) what happened to my acidproblem. Well, good things don't last long. The weekend right before Christmas, I was hit really hard by stomach pain. It was so bad that I nearly had to miss Christmas Eve dinner! The emotional roller-coaster ride with the possibility ofall kinds of potential illness (ranging from gallstones to pancreatic cancer) was taxing, in addition to the physical pain (that affected my breathing and sleeping). Thanks to ObamaCare, I have medical insurance with Kaiser. I went to see my doctor and had blood tests and ultrasound. Thank goodness, so far allthe test results are pretty good. So, the doctor asked me to take some medication to control the acid for two weeks. The lesson here is to listen tothat little voice, and stay away from sweets (in my case). (Ok, I can’t stayaway from sweets forever, but I will think about stomach pain when I reach outfor that piece of chocolate!)

The second story has no physical pain, and no extra cost of medical bills. It was about checking translation of a chapter in a book about water (Water 4.0). After days of efforts (yeah, real efforts,including consulting a native speaker), it all comes down to one sentence about a professor becoming a detective. It’s a complex sentence, with the first part about challenging his students, and the second part about him becoming a detective. It puzzled me, and it puzzled the translator. We went back and forth a few times, and I thought I was done just before midnight. But, that little voice won’t let me have a peaceful night of sleep. I woke up so many times, thinking about how to connect the students with the professor. When I got up in the morning, I went to the original text and stared at it again and again, until I came up with a translation that makes sense to myself (hopefully makes sense to all readers who will buy this book in Chinese).

The lesson I learnt in the past two months is that one needs to slow down, and listen to your body (or mind). Life is to enjoy; rushing is not a good way to go through one's life.

Happy New Year!