My 2016 “Year in Review”

Dear 2016,

In a few days, I will not be able to enjoy my time with you anymore. However, our time together has given me a lot of invaluable experiences. First of all, it doesn’t seem possible that I had to spend almost 8 months doing rehab exercises caused by annoying sciatica back and leg pain. I always thought that I would be heathy but this seems not necessarily to be true anymore. However, the price of the pain was not paid for nothing.

In Thailand, I spent time teaching in 5 fellowships: GPM 18, Artistic Meditation Retreat 3, AMANI African Peace Fellowship 2, APU Self-discovery camp 2 and GPM 19. In total, 147 people from every corner of the world. Each one was unique. All participants were awesome. It was not easy to remember all the names and faces, but now they are always in my heart. Especially for a friend that passed away, Sael, I have been sending you my peace energy every time I do loving kindness meditation.

Internationally, I have been on an inner peace expedition that lasts for 132 days (whoa! more than 6 months abroad) in 19 countries, 49 airplanes, 46 airports, 30 lodgings for organizing 84 meditation workshops, 5 regional retreats, 2 summits, 1 Global Peace on the Move (outside of Thailand) for 3,292 people around the world. I still feel proud of myself for how much I have contributed to planting seeds of peace to the world. I can’t wait to see how they grow in the near future, it’s just a matter of time.

Dear 2016, you are about to be the past. But, you will become one of my most precious memories. Unlike the periods of my life that I finished with tiredness and lack of motivation, I enjoy staying with you until the very last days. As they say when you enjoy doing something, you don’t want it to end. I feel the same to you. Nonetheless, looking back every single week, I have come very close to becoming the monk I always want to be (well … not quite yet). Each day was filled with an amazing story that connects me with different places, cultures, cats, languages (the translation of ‘hello‘ and ‘clear and bright‘ in each of them) and most importantly people. I hope to see them walk via the path of inner peace. I would like to thank my friends from all over the world for being a part of my life. I look forward to meeting some of them again (and again …)

Now, I can’t wait to meet your successor 2017. I kinda have motivation to make it better. I know I tell people not to have expectations. But I will always want to make the past complete so that I can make today better and tomorrow the best … one day at a time. This expectation isn’t too big too handle I suppose. So, farewell my friend.

Peace In Peace Out as always …

LP John Paramai
An ordinary monk with still … no super natural power

P.S. I have been telling people to write a letter to themselves. I will feel ashamed if I didn’t do it myself.