Let It Be Filled With More Love - Cordelia Lee

Do you find yourself struggling to cope with life's adversities? Especially with MCO 3.0 in place, I do find more of my friends getting agitated, frustrated and depressed. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the emotions that are bubbling within many of us especially in social media; and without realizing it, many of us are feeding into this turmoil of pain, angst and unhappiness.

Today's blog post, I hope to bring you into the power of positivity by bringing you into the life of a very special someone that reflects strength, courage, determination and hope. I just hope you are prepared for one of my longest post as I feel her story will help open your mind to new possibilities.

I got to know Cordelia Lee (Nickname: Cordy) in 2005 during the first AYA (Asian Youth Ambassadors) Awards. Through a deceased close friend of mine, Yvonne Foong (to think about it... I've been blessed to be around extremely inspiring people!). She was Yvonne's mentor and was giving her ideas & support as Yvonne was writing her life's story as empowerment and ways to share about her condition - Neurofibromatosis. At that time, Cordy was more of an acquaintance as we didn't really cross paths until 2012. [Note: Click Here to watch their interview in NTV7)

Our friendship picked-up in 2012 when I seek her support to find ways out of my misery. By then, she was already a meditation teacher with 3 years of experience. She walked with me through my roughest times and stood by me as a pillar of support when nobody else could hear the immerse pain I was going through mentally. She was also my travelling partner during our trips around peninsular Malaysia and she also accompanied me in Bali. I've always looked up to her as I find her filled with love, wisdom, strength and courage. Yet, everything I thought I knew about her was just the surface of the life she experienced.

Cordy & I @ Bali on our personal expedition

Cordy was at my side encouraging me to start Hantu Is Cooking and to seek funding in any way possible. During the times when nobody believed in me, she was there to remind me that my heart will speak for itself - just stay true and God will be with you. Have Faith.

It was through this entire new journey of rebuilding my life that I really got into a deeper understanding of Cordy's life journey. It was who she choose to be that led me to take action, be responsible and have faith that my heart will guide me through any adversities thrown to me. It's knowing that she's with me in every decision I made that gave me the strength to challenge myself in times I wanted to give up.

My ignorant self had always thought some people just had life easy. However, it was through my own experiences and learnings from others that I realized real strength & authenticity comes when you're able to work with your fears, insecurities and pain to rise above your past experiences. And this is not an easy task.

Cordy's life was never easy. She had challenges upon challenges which was not easy to rise above.

During her younger days, she was molested as a child and an accident on her tailbone forced her to miss school for 2 months. And as the recession happened in Malaysia, she became became the confidant and the person to vent for her depressed mother. It didn't helped that they struggling to cope with the lack of finances & possibility of being kicked out of the house by the landlord. Instead of complaining, Cordy took the responsibility in managing the household chores including being a caregiver to her depressed mother and a younger brother.

It was when she discovered she weighs 33kg with a 5ft frame at 17 years old she felt something was really wrong. She vowed to change her life around and did what she knew - that was psychological & practical reasons such as daily positive quotes, singing positive songs, watching / reading real life stories that portrays resilience, determination and grit to overcome obstacles. She lost her faith in God, she didn't have any friends and she had nobody to turn to.

One may think that changing to be positive is enough to ensure you with a better life. Unfortunately, Cordy fell into another round of turmoil due to life challenges, which includes giving up on motherhood due to the lack of finances and IVF was a risky choice that doesn't guarantee you pregnancy. This time, being desperate yet determined for a change - she turned into meditation, prayers and qigong. This was also when her faith in Father returned.

Cordy started taking responsibility of her life as she continued exploring spiritually. She found her calling as a sound healer and a meditation teacher. She took consistent steps in healing by acknowledging and processing them. Little by little, she came to love nature as her creativity heightens - she started singing, writing songs and more. Here's a song she sang for me during my first i-bazaar with WIEN Group MY on March this year.

Cordelia and her husband, Ket was then blessed with a son, Patrick in October 2017. Unfortunately, there were too many uncertainties when it came to his health condition. To simplify, Patrick have a rare condition in which bile builds up in the liver because there are too few bile ducts to drain the bile. This results in liver damage. You see, our liver makes bile to help remove waste from your body. It also helps digest fats and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Both husband and wife faith and convictions were challenged greatly. They learned of the potential future health complications their son may experience - which includes an early death. I remembered Ket's look when I saw him during a meditation session once. He was calm, focused and professional - but I felt heaviness I couldn't understand. I didn't have the strength then to check-up on him as I was so drowned by my own challenges (they have yet to share the condition at that time). I will never forget that feeling of helplessness, fear and shame I felt looking at his solemn eyes.

Patrick had his first operation when was almost 2 months old. This was done during an operation which meant to determine the cause of his jaundice. However, the surgeon suspected it was Biliary Atresia and made a decision to remove his gallbladder to give his liver some time to recover. Since then, Patrick's natural joy and shine disappeared due to the pain from the operation to the extent he avoided looking into Cordy's eyes.

Cordy became determined to to make him smile again. She told herself, "I cannot change the fate of my son. This condition cannot be easily healed overnight. If my son is meant to have a short life, let it be filled with more love, joy, smiles and laughter than his fears and discomfort relating to his health condition. He can still have a meaningful life despite it all." With that, she started giving him pep talks to overcome his challenges and creating songs to sing to him - to encourage him with a mindset to be strong in face of adversities. Below is one of the songs Cordy sang near Christmas when he was just about 1+ years old.

In 2019, the duo (Cordy & Ket) seek funds from the public in hope to be able to save Patrick's life as his liver was beginning to fail. Thankfully with the kindness of humanity, they had enough time to raise the funds required and I'm happy to say that Patrick's now well and healthy. There are still potential health conditions but I believe they will pull through it with the amount of positive values they choose to live in each and every single day

The story doesn't end here (told you, it's really long!). Despite all the ups & downs life had been for her, she had never once stopped herself from giving her best. Apart from being a sound healer, a meditation teacher, singing the songs she written... Cordelia is also a socks doll teacher and have conducted many workshops for NGOs such as World Vision Malaysia, Cybercare Youth Organizaiton, UNHCR Malaysia, Breast Cancer Group JB, The Inclusive Outdoor Classroom, Ronald McDonald House Charities and Refugee Network Centre Malaysia. She also makes and donates sock dolls for to uplift children in need.

Cordelia made 100 dolls recently for the refugees @ Al-Hasan Volunteer Network

She also partnered with Joy Leng and Dr Priya to provide free videos in teaching sound healing and meditative steps.

And this coming Sunday (30th May), she will be partnering with two other inspiring ladies - Ca-ryn and Vic Qi for a special session called Sunday Heart Space. The session is for 1.5 hours (11am - 12.30pm) where you will learn to be present with yourself, to be in touch with Heart Song and to release stress through flow movements. More information and to sign up, click HERE.

*Breathes* Writing this have not been easy. It took me almost a whole day (with various distractions!) to get this completed. There's so much I'd like to share about her but some things will be best keptfor her to share - when our book project is up.

Personally, there's nobody more special than Cordelia when it comes to the impact that she have made consistently in my life. And to be in collaboration with her and Eileyn (you'll soon find out more about her!) in this writing project... it is an honor and a blessing experience as I'm learning to walk beside others who have gone through so much and have consistently rise to the challenges in their lives. It's even more humbling to know that the ladies I'm partnered with inspires to empower humanity and to genuinely play a supporting role in reminding others to make life worth living for themselves.

I hope this will give you a little insight of my partner, Cordelia Lee. The founder of Cordy Creative World. Thank you for taking your time in reading this ridiculously long post (though.. I do hope her story inspires you the way it did for me). God Bless.