For The Present Moment

As you can tell, I changed the theme of my blog. 

An important point to note: I changed my website address too. You can no longer access the blog through forthepresentmomentqiadan.blogspot.com. 

From now on, the blog will be just be 'Tina's'. 

I have been wanting to revamp my blog for a while now. I have grew tired of the Arial font, the turquoise color wordings, and the background of Great Smoky Mountain. 

My mind still goes back to that magical place sometimes. I can still recall the snowflakes as delicate as fairies. I remember how I leaned against the low stone wall and laid my hands on some moss. It was moist and ticklish. I laughed. 

However, I feel like I have outgrew that season of my life. 

On top of getting a new look, I aimed to make the blog more reader-friendly. I have been receiving feedback from friends who read my blog about how the blog was hard to access from Facebook. The mobile version of the blog looked horrendous too. Even I was not interested to scroll through my own blog when it was displayed on phone. 

I spent the first half of the day customizing a new blog at Wordpress. Wordpress definitely offers better mobile version; however in the end, I still decided to come back to Blogger because of two deal breakers:

1. I can't embed videos in my post (unless I pay to enable more features).

2. The Chinese titles are italicized when they are shown as links. Eww! No!! Just no. 

    

Coming back to Blogger, I reconstructed the link address, changed the theme, fonts, and colors, updated my profile description, and renamed the blog. 

The word 'present' in the blog name 'For The Present Moment' meant both 'now' and 'gifted'. 

Winter 2014. I spent most of my days hiding in the library. I came across the novel 'A Tale for the Time Being' by Ruth Ozeki. 

It was a great book. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down till I was done with it. 

Then the big questions hit me: 

If I died, will anyone remember me? Will my stories be remembered? How can I show my parents what I have experienced at a foreign land?

That was how this blog was born. Drawing inspiration from the novel, I named this blog 'For The Present Moment'. There's a little bit of 'zen' taste to it.

Now, four years later, the idea of 'living for now' and 'living for the gifted moments' was no longer as appealing as it first sounded. The blog has recorded way more than that too.

Tina's is not an ideal name. Neither is the green, bleak background. 

However, that's all I have for now.

This season of my life is rather unsophisticated. There were many nightmares, idle days, insecurity, inferiority complex, and school challenges to deal with. What's ahead, I don't know. 

Thankfully, though I am weak, my savior is strong. My savior delivers and provides. God is truly faithful and good. 

The season has been long. But I have learned to be more patient with the bad days. Having a group of Christ-centered, supportive friends is definitely a great help.

It's late now. I should really be in bed at this time. 

I'm keeping the same Chinese name for the blog though. Maybe in the future, when occasions arise, I will tell you the story. 

Till then, sweet dream.