My wildest dream :)

Photo source: telegraph.co.uk

Only in the darkest sky

I could see the brightest stars

Millions of it shone dazzlingly

All looked so near, dear, and brilliant

All surround me was the big patch grass

The paddy, wheat, and some areca nut trees 

Towering the blanket of fields

As I walked into the soil

I could feel it’s wet, humid and warm

After a day of the sun bath

As I looked down into my two barefoot feet

They were brownish in color

Beautified by the splash of mud

I never felt so close to nature like this

It was like a beautiful dream that I never wanted to wake up

The feeling was simply wonderful

I wanted to sit on it instead of walking ahead

I wanted to lie on it and lay both my hands and feet freely

I wanted to just be there enjoying that present moment

Kept looking up high, high and high

Forgot everything 

Who I was?

Where I was from?

Why I was there?

What made me being there?

How long would I stay?

Just emptied my mind on it

Just let go all other things that made me on who I am

Just opened my eyes and kept looking, looking, and looking

Until I fell asleep and continued on 

My wildest dream

I'll always miss and love you

I miss
I miss that
I miss that sunset
I miss that sunset at
I miss that sunset at the
I miss that sunset at the end
I miss that sunset at the end of
I miss that sunset at the end of the
I miss that sunset at the end of the road

I know

I know that

I know that it

I know that it will

I know that it will disappear

And turn my day into the dark

But
But I
But I will
But I will still
But I will still love
But I will still love it
But I will still love it forever...

San Bu Yi Bai or Three Steps and One Bow 2014

Happy Vesak 2558

This morning we woke up at 4.50am and got ourselves prepared. My two friends fetched us using cab and we reached temple at 5.40am. We reached quite early. The sky was still quite dark. We supposed to start at 6am. However, there were lightnings decorated the sky and the wind blew the brownish leaves from the trees quite strongly. Seemed like raining was coming.

The organizer asked us to find shelter nearby the area and rested for some time. The situation was not possible for us to go ahead at that kind of weather, very dangerous. We sat down and waited.

While waiting, I looked up onto the sky. The sky had slowly started changing its color. From the dark blue, it turned to reddish color (as sun started to rise), then to yellowish orange color, and finally a light blue color.

Chanting before started :)

Students and teachers were gathering inside the Praying Hall. The teacher asked them to calm down their mind and started to chant Namo Amituofo while holding their two hands in front of their chest. The chant was proven to change the drizzling weather into a dry one! At about 7.30am, people started to queue in line. Priority was given to fellow volunteer who would help up during the actual day followed by fellow students and their parents and/ or guardians.

Gratitude to all sentient beings

When my bestie and I started, time had already shown 8am. Last year we finished at 8.40am. And I managed to finish at 9.40am. Quite fast though this time. As usual, my muscles pained haha.. and I suffered mild headache too due to bowing frequently.

3-Step 1-Bow

My son joined the early batch with his classmates and teachers. He finished much early than me and immediately headed to Cafetaria to have his meal. Lolx! We were all hungry, thirsty and exhausted, but we felt a sense of achievement, that we made it again! I'd almost lost count on how many times I participated this activity. Perhaps this year would be the last year we joined as student's parents as I might ask him to continue to study at another temple that located nearby our house. We would have to join as public in years to come :( so sad... It wouldn't be held in the morning but in the evening instead, just like when I first time joined in year 2009.

Delicious vegetarian meals warmed up or stomach :)

So, we too headed to the Cafetaria after washing our hands and face in the toilet. We had a cup of soya bean, a small bowl of beancurd, a cup of plain water, took a big bowl of vegetarian noodles, "fa gao" or lucky cake and ate until full. We took a rest at the same time. One by one the other friends finished their journey too and we sat down together.

San Bu Yi Bai success!!! :)

After some time we went to different halls to pray and then went back home. Thank you SB for the good karma given to all of us so that we could attend and finish this journey again. May all sentient beings be happy. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu.

P.S. Click here for the upcoming 3-step 1-bow.

Love and Respect; Respect and Love

Every morning after reaching my office, I have a habit of making a nice cup of coffee plus two slices of bread with butter and jam in between - sometimes toasted - sitting down comfortably on my office chair with computer turned on, reading the local newspapers online. It’s a refresher for my brain to keep myself update with things that going on currently within and outside the country. That’s why I always make an effort to reach office early.

McDonald’s Bubbly World Series 2014

You know, things such as the upcoming McDonald’s Bubbly World Series collector’s set that available online since yesterday, suddenly after about 75 minutes, it had to be suspended due to the unexpected overwhelming responses from its fanatical supporter plus those who wanted to make a quick buck from selling it in ebay.sg with a bid as high as the expected of S$160-$200 per set, which was sold at original price of S$80 per set. Phuffff….. With that amount of money, it can save people at the other side of the world who were dying from hunger and thirst. But don’t be surprised huh, there will still people who are willing to pay that price for that stuff.

Once in a while morning breakfast treat :)

There was a gentle warning on how unhealthy our delicious, one of my favorite, the local Char Kway Teow was, with 745 calories per plate, higher than the 500-calorie meals advocated by the Health Promotion Board. Well, who really cares about it anyway! It wasn’t like we ate it every day. Oh my, my other favorite food, like laksa and prata were on the list too!!! Lolx! For me, as long as we ate it in moderation and not that frequent, it would still acceptable plus some exercise done at least twice a week. Most importantly, that unhealthy food could fill my face full of grin and happiness hehehe… :)

I am not much interested with economy, political and sport news though. I often read it as brief as possible and move on to other area. Oh, by the way, Tian Tian Hainanese chicken rice, the stall that I brought Karma and Tashi, Sithar and Palden to eat long time ago, was chosen as the “Best Hawker” by AsiaOne readers at the AsiaOne People’s Choice Awards 2014. Hmm.. After all, the longtime queue was all worth it! ^^

But there was one thing that intrigued me to write this post today. I would love to post the quote written by the famous Malaysia-born shoemaker, Jimmy Choo. He said, “Knowing how to respect people, that’s what is very important… If you love each other, you will be successful. It may not make a lot of money, but it will make a lot of love, and that’s very important to the world, to society.”

Love and Respect

Respect and love are two interconnected thing that human ought to do. These are two beautiful things that if people do it to each other, it will make the world a better place to live in. We can start by respecting and loving ourselves, such as: our own body and mind.

We give our body a nice bath, wash our face with fragrant facial soap, give our hair a nice and tidy cut, shave our moustache neatly, spread some face cream to fight the harsh and dry weather, do facial once a month, pamper ourselves with full-body massage, insert nutritious food and drink inside our stomach, etc.

We also fill our mind with positivity and get rid the negativity that may appear at any time. Do only good things and be good. Develop love and compassion within ourselves. Give our own self a nice and wide smile every morning once we wake up. Remind ourselves to be grateful for another new day that comes.

Only after we fill ourselves with respect and love, we then can feel the fullness of positive energy within us and it’s the time when we can give and spread it to others. Give them our time, give them our listening ear, give them our friendship, give them our love, compassion, patience, support, and so on.

Respect and Love

Actually, I love my working place’s one of its values that stated: “Respect: We treat people the way how we would like to be treated. We respect and embrace diversity in thoughts, beliefs and culture.” And this was how I always remind my dear son about respecting others, which is “Treat people the way you want to be treated,” and he would then realize how important it is to treat others with respect.

L O V E

And as for love, to be able to be loved, you must love and respect yourself as much as you do others. By understanding the effects of loving yourself will only enhance your ability to love others.

You may then ask, “How do we know if we respect and love other people enough?” This can only be felt by the way they respect and love you :) And if you want to be respected and loved by others, you have to respect and love them too. It is ultimately the key to have a great relationship with families and friends.

“True respect for another comes from self-respect. True love for another comes from self-love. True forgiveness for another comes from self-forgiveness.” – Rhonda Byrne from The Magic.

Buttertea at Sunrise by Britta Das

It’s the third book I read written by foreigner who did a volunteer job in Bhutan. The other two were Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming  and Beyond the Sky and the Earth by Jamie Zeppa.

Buttertea at Sunrise is a travel memoir experienced by Britta, a volunteer physiotherapist who was placed at a remote referral hospital in Mongar in 1997. Find out more about the book here and to see many photos taken during her stay that depicted her story in the book.

I could feel what she felt and experienced by imagining the situation that she described in each of her story. The moment illustrated at the end of the book touched my heart so much that I was almost crying.

Although I wasn’t really familiar with physiotherapy and Mongar, each story was described in full details, especially the background of each place that she had been to and the situation that she encountered. It made readers able to imagine the situation inside the story. The patients’ condition was portrayed vividly and it hurt my heart seeing the plight that they came across in their lives and unfortunately, lots of time, due to the situation (lack of facilities, medical supplies, and manpower) and sometime forced by condition to survive or to earn a living, nothing could be done or changed to improve their health.

The condition inside the hospital was something that I’d never seen before in Bhutan. I looked at the outer layer of the hospital once only, when I visited Haa. I also couldn’t remember why I didn’t have the urge to visit the place inside. Not sure if situation had changed now after almost two decades. But perhaps there would be more manpower now (doctors and nurses) plus more equipment and medicine supplies to be provided in the hospital, even in the remote areas - hopefully. More young Bhutanese graduated and trained a lot in medical field, including in physiotherapy, which were the hope of the country and its citizen to get more help and more hope to survive, to recover, to walk, and to live again.

There was a beautiful love story too inside this book that letting people realized that fate existed everywhere, applied to people who came from different countries and nationalities, from different families and religion background, and so on. When the time was right, it would just come and make a great impact into both of their lives. It’s like, if it’s yours, it would be yours. But of course, both parties had to make an equal effort and determination to make it happen.

The story was simply beautiful for me. It reminded me a lot about Bhutan, its people, its place, its festival, its religion, its ambience, its hospitality, its friendship, and so on. I felt very grateful being able to find this book in the library as I never heard about this book before that. And I was equally grateful too that although I didn’t spend a year there, I’d experienced many things there. Thank you, thank you, and thank you for everything! :)