I just went to a Thai pagoda in Woolwich today.

I was going to go to a Vietnamese one in South London yesterday but it was quite far away. And I was very drained and low in energy these last few days.

Someone I know and is quite close to me is going through some rough stuff and they planned to go with their family to this Thai pagoda to hopefully find some peace.

So I asked if I could tag along.

It took us half an hour to get there. I didn’t know Woolwich is this steep. It’s quite dangerous around here by the look of it.

When we got there, the people were praying because it’s the return of the moon next week. But I guess it’s a Sunday. A lot of people are off work today so they decided to come here ahead of time.

I learned that twice a month, they would fast, only eat 1 meal a day and only consume vegetarian food for the day. And they would come to this pagoda and pray.

They were so lovely.

I donated £15 to the donation box while the people I know donated a little bit more. This is all I could afford at the moment but I thought – it’s still something. I will return soon and donate more when I have a chance.

The people who look after the pagoda spoke to us a little bit, even gave us water and fruit to bring home. I thought to myself. There are still some really good people out there. Despite the fact that they don’t even know us. It just happened that we come here for the very first time. We’re not even from the same country. But we, as a whole, have one common thing – we believe in buddhism and good karma. We do good things to other people so good things can come back to us, so to speak.

We were there for about 45 minutes. The people at the pagoda gave us some candles so that we could do some prayers. I’ve never done this before so it was an experience. But a good one. And I feel grateful and thankful to have had this happened to me. Actually, not only this but a lot of things besides this.

I am still lucky, a lot luckier than a lot of people. I keep telling myself this. Be grateful of what you got, it doesn’t matter how hard you’ve worked towards it. Just be grateful. There is no point in believing in personal entitlement if it doesn’t give you any peace. If it does, then maybe it works for you. It doesn’t work for me unfortunately. And I will continue to believe this.

I have also realised that as time goes on, you will realise that your situation changes – which would require what you look for in life also changes. You need to adjust whatever is good for you and your new situation and get rid of whatever is no longer good for you. I still believe in a better scenario where we can go back to the way we were – what makes us happy, what brings us joy, and happiness. But I could be wrong. Only time will tell.

Also, it’s the summer now. It’s getting very hot. It’s good to enjoy the summer and the sun and spend valuable time with your loved ones. But it’s also important to keep yourself hydrated, try to avoid the heat as much as you can. The risk of stroke and other health problems may increase during this period of time. And it doesn’t matter how old or how healthy you are. Eat good food, try to stay off alcohol and other substances if you can. I’ve been trying to do this too. Let’s keep ourselves healthy because you should put yourself as the highest priority that you ever know and all the time!