Fly with Lily

When the plane landed, I looked out the window — That wasn't the Earth I knew. Black volcanic rock. White snow. A horizon that stretched further than imagination. In this episode, I take you onto the flight from London to Reykjavík — and into the moment I'd been waiting six years for. Landing in Iceland for the first time felt less like arriving at a place and more like waking up inside a dream yo...

A single taxi ride cost me the price of a plane ticket. That morning, the London Underground was on strike, and I almost missed my flight to Reykjavík. I flagged down a black cab and watched the meter climb to £90 — nearly the cost of the flight itself. In this episode: is travel really more dangerous, more romantic than people think? Or does it just magnify the things we usually avoid at home? An...

Why Did I Go to Iceland? | Iceland Series Part 2 | EP. 1888 “Sometimes what changes your life isn’t a grand decision — it’s a single moment when you choose to trust yourself.” — Lily Have you ever had that feeling? You’ve waited for something for years… And then one day, it suddenly appears right in front of you— So quickly that you barely have time to react. That’s exactly what happened to me in...

I've traveled to over 40 countries. My favorite has always been Iceland. It started with a movie — and one quiet promise to myself. That promise brought me back four times, for over a hundred nights: through all four seasons, two love stories, and more versions of myself than I can count. Follow Lily: Iceland is a bilingual story series about travel, love, loss, healing, and becoming. Not a travel...

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do." — Mark Twain Today I want to share a story that changed my life. It begins in the spring of 2005. I was twenty-two years old. It was the second year after my mother had passed away. I had just returned to university to finish my degree. I had completed one semester, made it through a wint...

The Most Valuable Things My Parents Taught Me — Presence, Integrity, and Courage My mother passed away when I was twenty. She left in her sleep — no warning, no goodbye. And it wasn't until I was holding her worn, misshapen "I love you" pillow that I finally understood how much time I had wasted in coldness and indifference, when I could have simply loved her. My father was the person I admired mo...

I Never Understood How They Loved Each Other — My Parents, My Family, and What They Left Me My father was a successful lawyer — generous, loyal, admired by everyone who knew him. But at home, he was a different person. My mother was a quiet, elusive free spirit. She appeared and disappeared. I never quite knew what she was thinking. In this episode, Lily shares a story she rarely tells — about a f...

My father seasoned everything with just one thing: salt. And it was the best food I've ever tasted in my life. This episode isn't really about a recipe. It's about the memories wrapped around two simple dishes — the pot of cabbage he accidentally burned, the meal he tried to recreate in Shanghai that never quite tasted the same, and the last afternoon he sat in the kitchen, slowly cutting vegetabl...

如果有人问你，用五个词形容自己，你会怎么回答？ 这个问题，曾让我沉默很久。 我是 Lily，一个走过四十多个国家、在旅行中重新认识自己的人。这个播客，是我和你说真心话的地方——关于乐观、冒险、开阔心胸，还有那个不太敢承认的自信不足。 每一集，我会分享一个真实的故事：在堪萨斯除夕夜弄丢手机却笑了出来、在危地马拉的船上误解了一位妈妈、在萨帕的深夜和陌生人聊出像家的感觉。 这些故事告诉我—— 真正的成长，不是变得更完...

“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.” 你不會成為你想要的那個人，而是會成為你真正相信自己可以成為的那個人。 After I started earning my own money, I truly understood how hard it was to make a living. I worked 20 hours a week at McDonald’s—even more time than I spent in school—yet I could only earn 1,440 NT dollars (≈ US$ 45.6 / ≈ ¥315)   a week. Living in a big city lik...

� Fly with Lily | You’re Not “Bad at It” — You’re Just Not in the Right Place Yet Hey, this is Lily. In this episode, I’m sharing a story from when I was 18 — my first and second part-time jobs. In one, I was told I wasn’t suitable, that I “lacked energy.” In the other, I was seen, supported, and slowly found my confidence. Through these two ordinary experiences, I learned something important: You...

My website: flywithlily.com “The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” — Oprah Winfrey “你能踏上的最大冒险，就是活出你梦想中的人生。”—— 欧普拉 Childhood memories never really feel far away. Even though my body has changed and the years have passed, the soul that carries everything is still the same “me.” As I grow older, every stage of life brings new challenges...

《原谅，是给自己的礼物》 “Forgiveness Is a Gift to Yourself” Forgiveness doesn’t change the past, but it frees the future. “原谅不能改变过去，但能让未来自由。” Growing up, this memory was undeniably the most painful chapter of my life, and it deeply shaped the person I am today. 在我成长的过程中，这段记忆无疑是最痛苦的，也深深塑造了今日的我。 In junior high, I was an outstanding student, almost al...

“Love without knowledge can harm more than it helps.” “没有知识的爱，有时会带来伤害。” Since I was little, I have always loved small animals. My home was once filled with fish, ducklings, chicks, rabbits, silkworms, and even cats. Although I was full of enthusiasm and curiosity, I often made mistakes while caring for them simply because I was too young to know better. These experiences left a deep...

“Childhood passions aren’t distractions—they’re the early whispers of the soul.” “童年的热爱，不是浪费时间，而是灵魂的启蒙。” When I was little, I loved spending time playing with my neighbors or school friends. One of my greatest passions back then was collecting stickers. At school, exchanging sticker books became almost like a “social ritual.” During our short ten-minute breaks, we would quickl...

“人生最美的，不是成为谁，而是发现自己是谁。” “The beauty of life is not in becoming someone, but in discovering who you truly are.” When I was little, because I spent most of my time with my dad, I once dreamed of becoming a lawyer — just like him. He was eloquent, sharp, and wrote beautifully. I admired how people respected him. Dad told me he used to go to the library every single day just to re...

Cherish the ones you love, for one day they’ll live only in your memories. “珍惜眼前人，因为有一天，他们只会存在于回忆里。” When I was little, my parents and I had a weekend ritual — we would hold hands and walk together to Shang Ji Cheng, a little restaurant that served the most delicious roast chicken in Tucheng, Tapei. 小时候，我们家有个周末仪式——爸爸妈妈会牵着我的手，一起走到在台北土城香鸡城，...

Hello everyone, Today, I want to share a story from my childhood with you. This memory feels both vivid and blurry — like an old film playing in my mind, with flickering light, faint sounds, and a bittersweet feeling in my heart 哈啰，大家好。 今天想和你们分享一段我童年的故事。 这一段记忆对我来说，既真实又模糊， 像一部老电影，在脑海里有光、有声音，也有心里的一点酸。 When I left northern Taiwan, I...

只要心中有信念，就没有不能愈合的伤。 When there is faith in your heart, no wound is too deep to heal. 童年时期，我经历过许多意外，身上几道明显的疤痕，都是那段日子留下的印记。 During my childhood, I went through many accidents. The scars on my body are the marks left from those days. 但最让我难以忘怀、也彻底改变我人生信念的，是那场“断骨的奇迹”。 But what I’ll never forget — and what changed my beli...

“大自然是所有真正知识的源泉。”— 李奥纳多·达文西 “Nature is the source of all true knowledge.”— Leonardo da Vinci 海边的自由时光 Looking back, I realize that I began living a nomadic life long before I even knew what that word meant. 回首过去，我发现自己其实很早就开始过着“游牧”的生活。 I was born in Kaohsiung, and when I was four, my family moved to Sanchong — now part of New Taipei City — because...

My father played an immensely influential role in my childhood. Shortly after I was born, he founded the Taipei Institute of Jurisprudence, published a legal newspaper, and gathered a group of law students who both admired and feared him. Before I even started school, I often accompanied him to his office: first riding a bike from our home, then taking the bus into the city, and finally walking th...

“There is no such thing as a new person, only a new beginning.” “世上没有全新的人，只有新的开始。” Kaohsiung in 1982 was the second-largest city in Taiwan, with a population of about 1.2 million. It was a typical industrial port city, where the air was always filled with the scent of machine oil and the salty sea breeze. Cranes busily loaded and unloaded containers, while the sounds of factories e...

“Our names are the stories we carry into the world.” “名字，是我们带入世界的故事。” My Chinese name is Li Zi-Jin (李姿锦), and my father said he personally chose it for me. Li is an extremely common surname—you can find people with the same family name everywhere in Taiwan. Yet, as a child, I felt different because of this name, since the great Tang dynasty poet Li Bai also carried the surname Li....

I will never forget that day in Kaohsiung, around 2010, when we held our engagement banquet at my family’s house. A college friend came to congratulate me and said, “You’ve made it.” But in that moment, I didn’t feel a trace of joy. 我永远忘不了那天，在高雄家里举办订婚酒席，大概是2010年。一位大学同学来祝贺我，说我“成功了”，可那一刻，我心里却没有一丝喜悦。 At the time, I was preparing to marry the...

Nothing good will ever happen to you if you never leave your house. 如果你永远不出门，好事决不会发生在你身上。 Before my evening flight back to Barcelona, I also booked several cooking classes making pizza, tiramisu and pasta, as well as a walking tour in downtown Rome. Luckily, the classes connected seamlessly. I had a full schedule and I made several friends who I still keep in touch with till t...