Original poem - Gifts from God

God's gift to us: the lavender and

the bee

I'm not much of a poet but sometimes I just like to express myself and my thoughts. So, here's my meager effort to share...

Sunrise and sunset,

time is a gift

that rarely one appreciate

until it is too late.

No service is done

by our headlong rush,

For God's gift of beauty

shall we likely miss.

Every breath is a gift,

A gift of life, of moments,

For who knows

when the journey's end.

Looking out, searching within,

To seek the Truth,

A precious gift

for those with understanding.

The ultimate prize,

so illusive is it,

that rarely we attain,

God's gift of peace.

Long Overdue Visit

This afternoon, I paid a long overdue visit to my mother's grave. It's been at least thirteen years since I've been there. While the Malay culture "encourages" us to visit graves of our beloved dead, I grew up in a family where such a culture is not strong...but then, my family is not the typical Malay family.

My father encourages us to think for ourselves and question cultural norms. Grave visit is not really necessary in order to pray over the dead. In Islam, grave visits are encouraged only so that we, the living, might be reminded of our own imminent death. In death, only three things do any of us take with us; our good deeds, the knowledge that we passed on to others, and the prayers of our children. As children, we should ask God for forgiveness and His blessings for our parents. But this need not be done at the gravesite itself but constantly in our prayers.

So anyway, what made me go? My late mother's relatives, my Aunt Helen and Uncle Allan, asked if they could pay respects...so my dad, step-mom, and I went there this afternoon to ensure that we got the right grave and to do a bit of cleaning around the grave before bringing them over next weekend.

Well, its not an exciting weekend...next weekend would be more exciting, I think, since I will start my scuba diving lesson. Really looking forward to that.

Peace,
Sid

Long lost relatives

Yesterday, I met my mother's family for the first time! For the longest time, I wondered if someone I met on the street could be my uncle, aunt, or cousins. Now, that questions is resolved.

To explain things properly, my mother, who was Chinese, was adopted by a Malay when she was one. The two families did keep in touch when she was young but lost touch after the racial riots in Singapore in the nineteen fifties. She had tried to find her biological family several times but unsuccessfully till her death. Similarly, with her family's efforts.

However, last Monday, a newspaper article appeared in the Malay newspaper in which her brother appealed to whoever has pertinent information of her whereabouts. My father later managed to speak to my cousin regarding my mother's passing. She (the cousin) decided that it was better to keep quiet about it during the Chinese New Year period but to my surprise, yesterday, about ten of them came over to my home. My eldest uncle and his wife, younger aunt, their children and two other cousins, children of my older aunts, all came. Seems like my mother had 6 other siblings, her being the 5th. Another surprise is that my family has a history of twins - my younger aunt has a twin brother living in Bangkok.

They were quite sad not to be able to meet my mother but I think they were happy to have met my siblings and me. My uncle did say that they would be organising a get-together with all of the relatives there since there are several more cousins who couldn't make it.

Anyway, I really am glad that I got to meet these long lost relatives. God is great.

Last week of classes

Whew! It's finally the last week of classes and exams will be here. I know students hate exams, well, lecturers do not either, since we've got to go through so many markings. But I am definitely looking forward to the long break mainly because it's been an exhausting semester for me.

I'm hoping to sign up for a scuba diving course...any one can recommend a good instructor in Singapore? I went for a introductory lesson and it was great fun. So I'm definitely looking forward to learning scuba diving. Also, got to do a bit more research work which I've shelved for the past several months. A new research fellow has just come on board on my supervisor's team and perhaps we can work on new topics.

Well, that's it for now...nothing exciting so far. Oh except that I will be a judge for a science competition held by the Science Centre. Will be interesting to see what the competition is like.

Peace.

Happy new year

Well, though it is about 6 days into the new year, I thought I might still wish everyone Happy New Year. May it be a blessed year for all.

I just got home from watching "I am Legend." Wow! I really think that Will Smith has a chance at the Oscars for this movie. It is scary to think of that kind of a future; where we become little better than animals...Smith said something about how their humanity seemed to be loss in one scene. So what defines our humanity? Is it our intelligence - "Cogito ergo sum" or "I think therefore I am" as espoused by Descartes. But somehow something still lacks and this is clearly seen in the movie where the pack leader managed to use his intelligence to lure Smith and trapped him just as he had trapped the woman of the pack.

So I wondered if the movie might offer an answer - and the answer came when the woman saved Smith. There was the dialogue where she implied that Smith might also have lost some of his humanity. Their argument when he clearly stated his disbelief that there was God. Faith and hope were things the woman had and Smith lost along the way. Faith and hope in God, that He is there to guide.

Anyway, it was a good movie if a little scary.

Peace,
Sid