Drifting and Stillness

Another Life at 40s  by Sio

I left home young to study abroad — changing flights, carrying luggage alone, learning to live with myself.

The older I grew, the more I loved being on my own — free, untied, answering to no one. Counting stars in the Sahara, watching sunsets in the Amazon, every breath with the world was mine. I thought ticking my endless bucket list would keep me happy.

At 40, the pandemic froze everything. I was grounded in Macao for three years — no flights, no foreign air.

Yet I wasn’t uneasy. I enjoyed breakfasts with my family, dramas at night, small staycations now and then. The quiet repetition felt like happiness I’d never known.

The pandemic taught me impermanence — people and moments can vanish without warning.

I no longer want joy alone — I want someone beside me to live it with me.

Those years quietly changed me. I began to forget drifting and learned to love stillness.

Now I don’t rush or chase. I stay — long enough to learn the streets, feel the seasons, and let a city become part of my life.

Now in Osaka, I love lying on the grass in Tennoji Park, listening to music in Nishi-nari cafés, soaking in Spa World before a massage.

The same days, the same faces — repetition brings me peace.

Drifting once showed me how vast the world was, endless and open. But stillness reminds me life passes in a blink — every moment matters.

After walking the world, I finally see — the view I longed for was never a place, but a moment shared with someone I love.

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Sio

Resetting life in Osaka after years in the UK, France, Spain, Canada & Argentina. Seeing Japan from the outside, living it from the inside.

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