Sometimes, finding your way back to something you love begins with remembering why you started.
The last article I published on this blog was my goodbye to my dad.
And somehow, after writing those words, I didn’t quite know what to write next. It wasn’t that had nothing to say. If you know me, you know I always have something to say…
But this time, it felt different… A couple of months ago, I had to go back home (Philippines) to bid my dad my last goodbye, life continued after I returned to Canada. I went back to work, attended to my responsibilities, made plans, and tried to settle into my usual routine.
And honestly, there were a lot of stories I could have shared, including the places I’d visited, little moments worth remembering, thoughts that crossed my mind, and the everyday experiences that usually find their way into this little corner of the internet.
But every time I thought about sitting down to write, I just couldn’t find the energy or motivation. And I kept wondering, how do you follow an article that meant so much to you? How do you go from writing about losing someone you love to writing about coffee dates, outfits, travel, or the random things happening in your life?
I know life doesn’t stop because we’re grieving. I also know that finding moments of happiness doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten the people we’ve lost… But knowing something and feeling ready for it are two different things.
So, for a while, I simply didn’t write.
I’ve always loved to write and share what’s in my mind. If you have been with me, you know that Cup of Tyh (then Momsiecle) started in 2012, longgg before I began thinking seriously about social media strategies, engagement rates, content calendars, or whether a post would reach enough people. And back then, I simply wanted a space where I could share my thoughts, experiences, and stories.
I wrote about motherhood, family life, being an immigrant in Canada, places I’d visited, things I’d discovered, and whatever else I felt like talking about. Some articles were personal, others were lighthearted. Some were written because I had something meaningful to share, while others were simply about the little things that made me happy. And that’s what I loved about this space of mine in the world wide web, I didn’t have to fit myself into one category. I could be a mom in one article, an immigrant sharing her experiences in another, and a woman talking about something as ordinary as a good meal in the next.
Yes, Cup of Tyh became a collection of different chapters of my life.
Over the years, life became busier. My responsibilities grew, my career evolved, and I started pursuing other interests and professional goals. And that’s when I also couldn’t write as often as I used to, but even when I wasn’t publishing regularly, I never really thought of myself as someone who had stopped sharing her thoughts in words. Writing was still part of who I was. Until recently, when even the thought of writing felt like something I had to push myself to do. And that made me a little sad, because how do you lose the motivation to do something you’ve loved for so long?
A few days ago, I came across an article published in 2024 featuring Filipino parenting blogs worth following.
And there it was… Cup of Tyh.
That made me smile, not because it was some grand achievement or because I suddenly felt important. It made me smile, because, for a moment, I remembered the woman who started this blog almost fifteen years ago.
That woman who was excited to share stories, who found joy in putting her thoughts into words, and who didn’t worry too much about whether her writing was perfect. I remembered how much I enjoyed having this little space of my own. A place where I could write about things that mattered to me, share experiences that might help someone, or simply tell a story because I wanted to.
And I realized something, somewhere between work, responsibilities, building a business, managing social media accounts, and trying to keep up with everything else, I had started treating writing like another task on my to-do list. It’s another piece of content to produce, another post that needed a good hook, a caption, and perhaps a few hashtags.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that blogging and social media have changed, and I want Cup of Tyh to continue growing.
However… I don’t want to become so focused on creating content that I forget how much I love sharing life lessons, experiences and stories. Because before I worried about engagement and algorithms, I was simply a woman who loved to write… And I think I needed to remember that.
Maybe I didn’t run out of words after all..
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that perhaps I hadn’t really run out of words. Maybe I was simply tired, maybe I needed time to process everything that had happened over the past few months. Or maybe, after writing something so deeply personal, I wasn’t quite ready to return to writing about ordinary life.
And that’s okay.
I’ve spent so much of my adult life trying to be productive, making plans, meeting responsibilities, and finding ways to accomplish more. Sometimes, I forget that not everything needs to happen according to a schedule.
Yes, even the things we love, especially the things we love.
I’ve also realized that I don’t have to wait until I feel completely okay before I can write again. Grief doesn’t disappear just because we begin enjoying life. I can still miss my dad and find happiness on simple things, I can still carry sadness and laugh at something silly, and I can still write about meaningful life lessons one day and share something lighthearted the next. One doesn’t make the other less real.
And perhaps that’s something I want to remember, not only as a blogger but as a woman navigating this stage of life. We are allowed to experience more than one emotion at a time, we are allowed to carry our losses while continuing to create new memories. And we are allowed to return to the things that make us happy, even if we return a little differently than before.
As Cup of Tyh approaches its fifteenth year, I’ve been thinking about what I want this space to become. I still want to share stories about motherhood, immigrant life, midlife, money, and all the little things in between.
I want to write about the lessons I’m learning, the dreams I’m still pursuing, and the experiences that continue to shape the woman I’m becoming.
Some articles may be deeply personal, others might simply be about a restaurant I enjoyed, a place I visited, something I wore, or a random thought I couldn’t keep to myself. And I want to be okay with that, because life isn’t just one thing. Neither am I. I don’t want Cup of Tyh to become a place where every article has to be inspirational, educational, or particularly meaningful. Sometimes, a story is worth sharing simply because it’s part of our everyday lives.
I don’t know how often I’ll be able to write. Between my full-time job, family, business, and everything else, I know there will still be weeks when life gets busy. And I don’t want to pressure myself into making promises, I simply want to find my way back in this space.
… To sit down with my thoughts, put them into words, and share them with whoever finds their way here.
Sometimes, life just gets heavy and we get tired. Our priorities shift. We experience things that change us, and we need time to find our rhythm again. And we simply need to give ourselves permission to return to them, without expecting everything to feel exactly the way it did before.
So here I am.
Writing again… not with a grand announcement or a promise that I’ll suddenly become the most consistent blogger.
Just a woman sitting down to tell another story.
Maybe I haven’t run out of words after all. Maybe I just needed a little time before I was ready to find them again.
With love,
