November 2022
Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance.
Morgan Freeman
Oh my, it is November already. The holiday season will be upon us and before we know it, the new year will be just around the corner. They say that life goes by faster as we get older. So being a curious person, I ask myself why. Is it because life is a novelty when we are young and therefore likely to be aware of and celebrate more events? The first award, the first kiss, the first child, the first of so many other occasions. Life seems more eventful when we are young but as we age, almost everything has happened already. We are less aware of time as it flows from one day to another, one meeting after another, one memory after another, one season after another. Or is it because as we age, we have a more tempered perspective, one in which we believe that everything will be semi-okay? Time does not stop as long as it did when we experienced our first heart break, when we heard the bad medical news, when we experienced the loss of our loved ones. As we age, we understand that this is life, full of joys and pain and stillness all at the same time.
I’ve had many lulls in my life, one where my life seemed to go absolutely nowhere or worse, just downhill. Like every human being on this earth, I’ve seen my share of plateaus and valleys but also mountain peaks. Yet in whatever season I find myself, I know there is a reason or perhaps no reason for the season. It just is. Whereas in my youth, I have struggled to make sense of the season, looking and perhaps forcing to make meaning out of everything, but lately I do not struggle against but find myself being still in the season. I am learning to respect the what is of the season and being grounded in my body and mind.
Again this is all to say that progress and momentum may seem to be lacking at Platform. But I want to respect this lull, the inertia that I have feared in my youth as stagnation or worse, failure. I personally do not know what to make of this lull, how to make meaning of the stillness, but my body is at peace. Does it mean that there are exciting events in the upcoming year? Does it mean that the organization will shut its website for good? I don’t know and I am comfortable in not-knowing.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not how I usually operate. God, no. I am up and moving, with a list of to-dos and plans galore. And I will soon but not now. Not today. I have no plans for Platform except to write this newsletter and perhaps reach out to a colleague with whom I wanted to connect but couldn’t find the time. But if I don’t, it will be okay. I will be fine with the lull.
Sam Joo
CEO and Founder
October 31, 2022