thoughts – Page 11 – trippingdifferently

July 20, 2013

Dear Photograph…

i came across this website: Dear Photograph quite a while back and loved the idea immediately and told myself i should do this. Take an old photo of a place and go to that place now to match it up and take a new photo; remembering the past with the present.

Unfortunately, my birth/home country of Singapore moves so fast and changes so much in a short time, it is quite difficult to find an old photo of me and my family, or a place we have been to, which still sort of matches up today.

This is Singapore's Skyline when i was growing up. Credit: GolferToAxis on Photobucket — This is Singapore’s Skyline when i was growing up. Credit: GolferToAxis on Photobucket

While progress may be a good thing in some aspects, i miss the Singapore i grew up it; it is disappearing so fast. This year we have made efforts to try to show our son where we used to go to school. However, only my husband’s primary and secondary school still stands today. My own primary school and secondary has been torn down and rebuilt or moved.

Singapore's Skyline of the same area today. Credit: Wikipedia, Tourism in Singapore — Singapore’s Skyline of the same area today. Credit: Wikipedia, Tourism in Singapore

Not just the physical buildings have changed but schooling itself has changed too. Demands on kids are so high now, extra lessons are the norm. In my school years, you get extra lessons only if you needed help in a subject and your parents had to hire a private tutor for it. Now, schools provide not just help but even supplementary classes so you can learn extra stuff.

Many other things have changed too. It is difficult to find the old eating places our parents used to bring us to. The friendly neighbourhood spirit seems less now. Public transport is so overcrowded. People notice the people around them less; all absorbed in their digital devices.

i miss the Singapore i grew up in. It was noisy, not so clean and less advanced BUT it was warm, friendlier and comfortable. Maybe i’m biased.

i have, but memories to hold onto…

What are your memories of your growing up days?

syc

July 13, 2013

This Hits Home…

i’m on holiday so i’m going to borrow someone else’s words and picture to spill something which God has been putting in my heart for some time now…

i read this:

A Holy Experience – When You’re Done with Pundits, Soul Wrestling & Looking at the Sky: {25 Things I learned from staying with Katie Davis}.

And it rings in my heart of hearts, it shakes my soul, it lights my thoughts…

Please do read it!

These are the words which hit home the most for me:

How in the world do you keep on living everyday in middle North America when you’re mildly wild to go live something as radical like Katie?

Every day, especially so since the beginning of this year, i have been more and more grateful for the absolute luxury i live in, the amazing comforts i have, the burden-less life i lead. i’m not saying that my life is smooth and without bumps or stress. What i’m saying is God has made me so much more aware of how much i do indeed have and how little so many in this world have.

“Slowly but surely I began to realize the truth,” Katie gives words to all generations: “I had loved and admired and worshiped Jesus without doing what He said … I wanted to actually do what Jesus said to do.”

i need to do something – but what Lord?

We want clarity; God wants us to come closer. Life is always clear when you press closer and see it through the sheer love of God.

So i plan to try my best, with the Lord’s help, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, to draw closer to God and hear; know what His Heartbeat is.

We could write it on a million kitchen chalkboards: You are doing something great with your life – when you’re doing all the small things with His Great love.

You are changing the world – when you are changing one person’s world.

You aren’t missing your best life – when you aren’t missing opportunities to love like Christ.

This is so true – you don’t have to do big things to show the people around you God’s great love, you just have to move to do little things to love them.

Living radical isn’t about where you live — it’s about how you love.

It’s about realizing– Love doesn’t happen when you arrive in a certain place. It happens when your heart arrives in a certain place – wherever you are, right where you are, dirt road Africa or side street America.

Because it isn’t where we love. It’s how we love. It’s who we love. The reward of loving is in the loving; loving is itself the great outcome of loving. The success of loving is in how we change because we kept on loving – regardless of any thing else changing. The value of loving is in the value of being like Christ.

The How and the Who! Loving and loving and more loving; what a wonderful cycle!

Radical isn’t as much about where you move – but about looking into the face of Jesus – and letting Him move you where you are. He may move you to Africa – or across the street. But if the love of Christ moves you – it will move you out into the world. He will move you to tear down gates.

i want God to move me but yet i fear. Dear Lord, help me overcome these fears and be moved by you.

Hospitality is Life with no Gates.

Hospitality means if there is room in the heart —

there is always room in the house.

Amen!

One of Katie’s daughters had whispered it:

“Mommy, if Jesus comes to live inside my heart, will I explode?”

And Katie had said —“No!” and then —

“Yes, if Jesus comes to live in your heart, you will explode… That is exactly what we should do if Jesus comes to live inside our hearts.

We will explode with love, with compassion, with hurt for those who are hurting, and with joy for those who rejoice. We will explode with a desire to be more, to be better, to be close to the One who made us.”

Let’s all explode with the Love of the Lord!

My small step is in continuing to help/advocate for special needs orphans. And to that end, i hope to start a small craft business.

Would you pray for me and this tiny venture i intend to take? Thank you.

syc

June 3, 2013

Don’t Be a Resolution Writer…

Some of you know that i was hit by the writing bug a few years ago when a friend introduced me to Nanowrimo.

i have always been an avid reader and have always loved the world of words; words are very important to me; i love how they can convert an idea, share an emotion, flesh out a character, reveal a secret, paint a picture, create an entire world and so much more.

Nanowrimo made me realise how much i liked to write as well. So i made a resolution to keep writing. Unfortunately, it remained a resolution. i have written in the last 3 Nanowrimos but can’t seem to keep up with writing daily or weekly or monthly or even with finishing any of the stories i have started writing.

i have, however, started following quite a few writing blogs and one of them is The Write Practice. And this recent post, Don’t be a resolution writer, made me sit up and think hard. And i know i am just that, a resolution writer.

It’s the days that don’t inspire that separate an in-shape writer and an unhealthy writer.

So i have been an unhealthy couch-potato writer, sitting in front of my computer reading about writing and about other writers instead of actually putting words down on to paper or in these days, in file.

Why? i was tired, sick, not inspired, too hot, too cold, stressed, too late, too early, wrong music, didn’t feel like it etc… If i am honest, the simple answer is that i have an ideal in my head about how/when i would write; i was waiting for the so-called perfect circumstances to meet that unstoppable inspiration.

BUT…

“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”

The Write Practice is so right! The will of the writer needs to prevail!

And these are the points i will bear in mind on days i don’t “feel” like writing:

Calling yourself a writer is a privilege that many wish to do, but never will. When that privilege is understood, you’ll take a new approach to your writing.
Look at those times you don’t feel like writing as gifts to practice – like swinging a weighted bat before stepping up to the plate.
Writers write. If it’s who you are, you won’t be able to make any decision other than to write.

So i am writer (not amateur writer, simply writer) and therefore i will write!

syc

PS: i’m thinking of posting snippets of what i write… sometimes, not all the time, to keep me on track, accountable so to speak. Would that be a good idea?