The Paradox of the Cross

          If I may ask you a question, " How would you perceive the image of the cross? Is it a sign of victory or a defeat? Is it a sign of hope or a sign of failure?" These are but some of the questions we can raise in our mind in relation to the example of our Lord Jesus Christ when He offered Himself to die on the cross. 

         Personally I would say that we should always be grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ for His preparedness to sacrifice His own life to merit our salvation. With this in mind and in heart, I unceasingly put my prayer that may our minds be enlightened by the power of the Holy Spirit, the source of truth so that any decision that we will make especially those which will affect others could be honest and sincere.

Photo credit

If we can live by the principles of truth then we will be able to contribute to the peace and harmony in our society no matter where we are in. 

         Consequently the image of the cross is a paradox of what it meant to be for others. The cross where Jesus Christ died becomes a complete manifestation of His triumph over our wickedness and sinfulness. When humanity suffers insults and rejection because of the desire to follow Jesus Christ, the image of Mary comes out as a spiritual mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who while witnessing the humiliation of her son, pleaded to God the Father for the forgiveness of His executioners and also for our own conversion. 

         As a result, the cross at this time becomes a symbol of good being triumphant over evil. May we then continue to imitate all these examples in our life in spite of all the odds out there, witnessing and believing in the concrete sacrificial act done by our Lord Jesus Christ this day. 

                                            

The Agony of Waiting

          My wife underwent thyroidectomy last Monday at Austin Hospital. Before her scheduled surgery, I was already trying to anticipate what will be the various scenarios on her big day. What I perceive was just a simple surgery then maybe after an hour or two, everything will be alright. 

          However, on the day itself, it was a long wait for me and I was filled with mixed emotions as I stayed in the hospital waiting for her to complete her procedure. What was perceived as an easy ordeal became a long and tedious waiting. We arrived earlier at Austin Hospital (actually she was expected to arrive at 11 am but due to our excitement, we decided to go to the hospital earlier). We went to the information booth and were  instructed to proceed to the 3rd floor for her initial steps prior to the surgery.

          At the waiting room, she filled up paper works and got ready for her knife appointment. Past 1pm, 3 personnel talked with her and told her she needs to go into another scan for they detected something on her last scan result which they were not sure what exactly it is. So she had her scan and luckily at 2pm, she was given the go signal to proceed with the surgery. Hence from 2pm onwards, I was left on my own since I was not allowed to go with her on the theatre. I didn't exactly know what I really feel by that very moment that she started her ordeal. 

imagecredit:

          The fact that I had no idea what was going on at the theatre was the thing that gave me that sort of "agony". The waiting period was seemed eternal. First hour quickly passed and I was still feeling alright. However at six in the evening and I still had no idea what was going on with her, I started to have that feeling of anxiety and worry thus I went to the information centre and enquired of any progress but the nurse in charge was clueless also. Eventually, at quarter past six, her surgeon passed by the waiting area and I wasted no time to converse with him about my wife's progress. And I was relieved of my agony when he told me that everything went well. 

          I finally saw my wife again by half past seven and even with all those instruments attached to her, I was still feeling relieved and grateful that she passed her surgery. At times, when we are in a situation wherein we seem to be helpless and clueless, there is no one much greater to comfort us except Him Above.

PS: 

Special thanks to the following people for their assistance during that journey:
Harvey, Dundee, Marilyn, Dr. Allan and his team, nurses Meghan, Kelly, Carissa and all those who have wished me and my wife the best of everything. All your support and prayers allowed us to have peace of mind and harmony on that difficult time of our life especially Myra. Thanks in a great way to HIM Above.



                                          

T.G.I.F......What's in a Friday?

          It's Friday once again. It may not sound true to you but it is just a personal observation that when it is Friday, the atmosphere around and everywhere is that of excitement and thrill. I know that it is probably a matter of mindset but for many people, Fridays means time for break from work, time to spend with loved ones, opportunity to relax after spending much time in offices, shops, workplaces etc.

          From a woman's point of view (my wife), it sounds though much similar to mine like Fridays and weekends are days to spend for bonding, relaxing, having time together for activities that could build further the relationship as husband and wife, as friends, as ordinary people.

          In my workplace, when Friday comes, people are so excited in coming to work and in ending their respective responsibilities also. This is contrasting to what Monday brings to people. Mondays are the opposite meaning some people seems to be still floating in the air having the after effect of the weekend's activities. Others are feeling sluggish coming into work. 

          Anyway, whatever our motivations for Fridays, may it always be for the betterment of our being and that of our relationships with others. To spend quality time with people dear to us is highly priceless. So come..... let us spend this day and the coming weekend in a way that both we and our loved ones will share alongside each other moments of togetherness and oneness. After all, life is meaningful when it is shared with others. 

                                          

New Day Ushers Us Into A New Way

           Glancing at the chance of each new day, opportunities for growth ushers us along the way. As each new day unfolds, we welcome it with excitement and joy for we know that this new day will bring us into more understanding and learnings about ourselves.

          Why then self discovery is very crucial? It plays a vital role for it enables us to perform positively in our various forms of relationship. Along the way, we come in contact with people whom some could give us a threat in which we have no control. Have you experienced a situation wherein you seems to feel uncomfortable or uneasy with somebody whom you just meet recently or even worse, a total stranger to you?

imagecredit: 

          And as you reflect on the experience, you then discover that this person represents somebody in the past who extended and caused you discomfort as well as pain (transference). Good for you if you come into this kind of realisation and bad if you re not capable to do it.  The process then of owning such experience takes a long while. That is why, we need to know deeply each of ourselves so that we will also understand our own dynamics as well as that of others. 

                             

Learn to Overcome Negativity

          Ever since I grew up as a child, little it be known that each day brought us all two possibilities- either good news or bad news. yin or yang, light and shadow. Moments that I cherished the most were those filled with laughters and other pleasant memories while we also tend to delegate somewhere else those not so pleasant ones. You and me, we all have that tendency to cherish the good and reject the bad. However, as I mentioned earlier, life in itself is made up of these two realities- the good and the bad.

          On the other hand, we have various approaches to pain. Others may tend to welcome them and grow positively from them. Some will tend to be overly affected by them that at the end of the day, they seem to have lost their energy to walk "one more mile". Moreover, there are also those who are more inclined to put the blame on others of their miseries. Such trivialities or not as losing one's pen, forgetting one's notebook at home, mindlessly leaving the car key inside when stepping out of it and locking everything etc., they also result to losing their focus and energy to welcome the new day. 

imagecredit: 

          Meanwhile, there are also approaches which could enable us to get up from those tumbled moments:

1. Be open- let it be and let it go. Though by nature, this is not an easy thing to do for we have the tendency to internalise either knowingly or unknowingly every painful event in life. However, in order for us to overcome such pain, we need to go down into ourselves and learn to accept it then let it go. Never let the painful experience lingers more in our mind since if we do so, it will surely affect the rest of our activities and may possibly block our desire to nurture relationships with others;

2.  Be alert- in every event in our life, there is no sense to spend so much time on it for it will lead us to nowhere. Instead, step back and learn to evaluate the event then check what went wrong. Start from there then the next step that you will take will surely lead you to the right one.

3. Ask for help- pride is one thing that can make us down. On the other hand, humility also can be our way to grow and become better persons. It's not really bad to ask for other's assistance and comfort during our trial moments. Rather, we somehow acknowledge our own limitation and at the same time, we tap other people's resources to help us move on. 

4. Finally, learn to pray- whoever is your personal god and whatever name you attribute to this divine being, learn to constantly submit everything to Him and ask for graces so as to grow more in His way. 

                                       

Letting Go and Moving On

            Recently, a friend confided with me that her boyfriend dumped her for no reason at all. Such a terrible thing to happened to her, she felt lost and abandoned. As those two years had passed with her boyfriend, she gave him everything so that he will feel happy and contented in their relationship yet a few days back, he decided to end up their relationship.

imagecredit:

          Until now, she could hardly bear the pain and the heartaches brought about this shocking episode to her life. Days had passed and she continued crying day in and day out. I hope that she will recover soon this bad chapter of her life journey.

          In our life, bad times is a part and parcel of it and no matter who we are at the moment and how we stand in the community, there still are those trying moments in our life. And as each bad day falls on us, all we need to do is let it go and learn how to move on. That's exactly what needs for us to do. However, this is easy to say than done. Definitely true. Seeing other people undergo such stage is easier for us than experiencing the painful moment personally. 

          There comes in the support coming from our family, friends and other people. Lucky are those who have them in their lives. But the biggest factor would be our own capacity to deal with the pain. As we proceed with our life, we learn to adopt to certain situations and we are able to sustain various defences that allow us to stay strong during difficult times. Let us learn to get up and start all over again every time we fall down. In addition, let us also allow ourselves to become wounded healers for others. 

                                                   

SOme Thoughts to Ponder

          Sharing with you today some thoughts to ponder for us as we continue with our various journeys in life. Along with the disparate chapters of our life, we come and encounter different situations and events that some will ask us to arrive at a crossroad then decide what to do next. While these thoughts below may have been carved by distinct individuals yet they all have one thing in common- that is to inspire us all in our daily endeavours.

1. "We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt."
Success driven individuals will always aim for the best results in all their endeavours. However at times this will boil down not just by finishing the race but by the quality of the work's outcome. All the successes that we will have in our life will determine how we will manage those life's chapters.


2. " Ability without ambition is like a car without a motor."
Indeed this statement makes much relevance in our life. Hence it is very essential for us to discover our strengths thus when we move on in life,  we have equipped ourselves with the sufficient resources to be successful in life.

imagecredit:

3. " The remarkable thing about most of us is our ability to live beyond our means."
The will to survive- a tool which every one of us must possess so that when we encounter trials and crosses in life, we will also learn how to survive and move on. As they say, life must go on no matter what predicaments lie ahead of us.


4. " Ability is the most important tool in your life."
Learn to discover your various abilities in life and develop your humility also to acknowledge the abilities of others. We are made unique from one another so that we can express our abilities and ask others' abilities also when the situation calls for it.




                                       

Spending Precious Time with Your Loved Ones

          We all have our considered richness in life- health, family, wealth, achievements etc.. And I do believe that one among the stand out among them is the family. Yes we all value each of our families and in fact, that's the very main reason why majority, if not all of us, are working hard and exerting much of our time for the sake of our families. 

imagecredit:

         Indeed, we are unaware that at times, we gain strength and importance from all the significant persons inside our families. How about you, do you spend quality time with your family- with all your loved ones? Moreover we can learn bountiful things from our day to day interactions with our loved ones. All those which we have learned from school about love, understanding, openness, welcoming etc, we can concretised them all first and foremost through the members of our families. 

          How then can we teach LOVE to others if we are not loving all members of our families? How can we speak truthfully about welcoming others when in fact, we disregard one member of our home? To become a worthy example of good deeds to others, we should start first with all the members of our families- spouses and children. And we constantly bear in mind that no amount of material wealth could ever replace the CONCRETE LOVE that we convey to our family members. 

                                           

Generosity Shared

          When disasters strike a place, a community or a nation, I can't help myself but be filled with mixed emotions as I recall how the victims and their families suffer the consequences of such events. I could feel the relief and joy of my heart upon realising how generous hearts extend their resources to those helpless victims.

          In such tragedies such as typhoon, storms, fire, bushfire etc, such huge losses to life and properties are ever extended and befall to the victims. Consequently, I could feel the pain, hunger, meaningless, hopelessness in the faces of these people. 

imagecredit:

          On the other hand, what then becomes consoling is when people of all races, status, denominations and colours join hands together to uplift the plight of the victims. And as the days go by, I am hoping that more people with kind and generous hearts will continue to aid the victims so as to make lighter their plights. 

          After all, we all know that inside yourself and my heart lies the goodness as well as kindness so that we can always think and bear in mind the future and harmony of these innocent people. 

                                               

The Joy Of Travelling

          Are you one of those people who love to travel from one place to the other? What are positive and negative points that we then can get from travelling? In this post, I will share with you my thoughts regarding the idea of travelling since this activity is so loved by many among us.

          For the downside of this activity, one of the important considerations when somebody is thinking of visiting a place especially if it is abroad is its accompanying expenses like the cost of the plane tickets,  accommodation, food, etc. What if you are travelling alongside other members of the family or any group? That adds to the total amount of the budget of the whole travel. Another impediment is what they termed as the "culture shock" and this happens when you submerge yourself in the culture of another country or nationality. Have you heard before of different misfortunes that happened to certain travellers due to this reason? 

                                         imagecredit: Michael Jastremski for openphoto.net

          Enough for those downside elements of travelling, now let us know what are the benefits that this activity can endow to you and me. And with these reasons, those downside elements mentioned beforehand will be delegated to the sidelines. If one's way of life is geared towards his/her fulfilment of all the potentialities as a human being, then let all resources be scrutinised so that more positive things can be realised.

          First, on budget- this could be prepared smoothly if proper procedures would be implemented like making a run down of all accompanied expenses of the trip then afterwards, setting aside extra money from the pocket so that within the desired goal (a year or two), the budget for the aimed travel will be achieved. When it comes to mingling with other cultures, ye it is understandable that frictions can possibly happen. However, if we will take a positive look, this is also the possibility that frictions can be avoided. 

          Instead, the traveling opportunity will allow for those involved the chance to meet new friends and connections. Alongside with it is the richness of the interactions when two or more cultures meet and evolve as one. Thus, I believe that there are more positive points that we can acquire when we allow ourselves to go to other foreign places therefore broadening our horizons and our connectivity with people as well as culture.