Settled in
Hey all, i'm so sorry not blogging, if anyone has still checked regularly. The reasons are manifold - laziness, the computer being in Pa's room while in Singapore (and i was only coherent enough at about 2am - and still am), it would have been a bit much to knock on their door and gone, hey guys can i use the computer? - and then back here, well, it's only now that some kind of routine is beginning to kick in.
I spent a most charming evening with Oisin and Ghin yesterday. After having Nathan over - and we went to Stormont where there is this huge lifesized spit it! kick it! play thing - we came home to to some spiced roasted veggies from John's farm, of course - and bacon from Alan's. Ah!!! Somehow, it was wonderfully comforting. It was oddly better than all the char kauy teow in Singapore - ok, i cheat cos i dont really lie char kuay teow, but as good as the sushi there. After dinner Oisin reminded me that we had to write to our local MLAs about the greenway being turned into a road. And so we did. Here's the results of our efforts.
Awwwww!!! You must say. However not to be outdone, Ghin also sat and wrote.
Here he is deciding that sprawling on the floor would be more comfortable.
About Singapore
Well, what can i say about it? I did enjoy it, but because i'm no longer part of the place, it was a shallow, not very meaning ful existence personally. I enjoyed being with the family - tremendously. So tremendously in fact that i did think, if the world did end today (due to the replication of the big bang in CERN today), i said to myself as i ran up the hill at Stormont to a spectacular sunrise, i would be so very happy. I love my family, my parents, my children, my job, if they take me back, the communities i belong to, i bear no one any ill will, and i have and continue to enjoy the struggle with self discovery and honesty.
Last night Oisin also drew a picture of St Michael and his dragon. What would St Mike be without the dragon huh? Just about layabout knight. We'd not celebrate him in drama, sculpture and painting. No one would remember him. And why do we remember him? It's interesting, the school opens with St Michael, who symbolises challenge. Oisin's drawing is also very interesting. Here it is.
I said that i loved the fact that the dragon was not only very sweet looking, but also drawn like naga and the same colour as St Mike. Why asked Oisin. Because it shows that the dragon and St Michael are the same. The greatest battle i told Oisin is the battle you do with yourself. It is the struggle to be honest and truthful about yourself to yourself. And this picture shows that. St Michael and the dragon and locked in a holy exchange, all around them is the excitement of the fire of purity that the dragon emits and the horse, although present as a faithful companion, is also excluded from the exchange. St Michael, stays on the ground, instead of overpowering the dragon because that's the human condition. The dragon flies overhead, impossibly powerful, but also illusory. It is transparent, a creature of the air and of the imagination. I loved it. He did get a few ideas from me, like how do i draw the dragon's head? But everything there is his own.
There were a couple of other things i learnt as well while running in Singapore. While i ran, i discovered what it was like to be in the present moment. To not run towards a goal. I don't know about most people when they do an endurance sport like running or swimming, but i generally kept the end in mind, which made where i was mostly hell - or just about tolerable. This time, when i ran however, i really entered the moment. I wasn't thinking about losing weight, or beating my time, or even getting to the top of the hill, but looking at the trees, feeling their presence, the presence of the gardener, the women who washed the driveways, the trucks that passed, the clouds overhead. This is probably why i loved running to begin with, but somehow, that was always at the back of the mind, rather than the front. And staying in the moment oddly enough, made the run seem like no time at all.
The other thing i realised was that we 'suffered' all the time. When i first began practising about a year ago i think, or maybe a bit more, i used to use it in moments of great stress. And they'd be silly moments. Like waiting at traffic lights, or being in a queue, or having to deal with someone who i thought wasn't being helpful, or racist. But what i've realised is that the truth is that we 'suffer' all the time. This means that we have this inner dialogue which we constantly deal with - it's a lot like white noise - and as a result i am slightly off balance all the time. I can't help it. I think it's called the human condition. But because i am unbalanced (hee hee) it means that i am invited by the universe to practise constantly - and paradoxically because i am called to awareness all the time, i am called to both relate to everyone else - being slightly out of kilter - and to practice the paramitas. (In Buddhism, the Paramitas refer to the perfection or culmination of certain virtues.) And i will always be called to practise because i will never be perfect - but this keeps it all in balance - and it has done wonders for my patience.
I still do have outbursts and the occassional tearful event, as Peter would tell you, but by and large, this, i have discovered is bliss. Bliss is being in the human condition and being called to practice and knowing that this work will never end. This moment is then eternity. And the next one to. And our loves are infinite.
Here are also some pictures from Singapore. I'm hoping to blog more regular now. I am trying to come up with the schedule that lets me run, blog, be mom, active citizen and a good natured so and so. I sleep at 9 with the kids, and wake at 4 - do some writing and then at 6 go for a run. The rest of the day is filled with housework and running about. Don't know if that'll work. Fingers crossed!!!
Crraaaazy kids.
The kiam chye teng that Ma made.
Ghin at Seletar, enjoying the sunshine - yes it isn't a figment of my imagination.
Auntie Jacq and Ghinny.
Ling Kwang home therapy session with children.
Oisin enjoys a bus ride.
Ang Mo Kio ave 3 - i love the way the angsana trees have all grown up and created this wonderful shade.
Mama and Ghin enjoy the Olympics and home made keropok.
Cho cho and Ghin discuss the merits of fire fighting as a vocation.
Ghin tidies up in Sungei Buloh.
The mangrove at Sungei Buloh is dying. It is also really disgusting compared with the mangrove on Bintan which we went to and stayed next to. However, that said, it was one of my most favourite places in Singapore. It was quiet, uncommercial and filled with all kids of things from mudskippers, to jewel frogs and smooth otters. We saw the otters again when we went there!!! That would be three out of four times.
Westward ho! Changi airport and the airplane....
Back in Tescos Knocknagoney - no it doesn't sound exotic to you? Why not?
I spent a most charming evening with Oisin and Ghin yesterday. After having Nathan over - and we went to Stormont where there is this huge lifesized spit it! kick it! play thing - we came home to to some spiced roasted veggies from John's farm, of course - and bacon from Alan's. Ah!!! Somehow, it was wonderfully comforting. It was oddly better than all the char kauy teow in Singapore - ok, i cheat cos i dont really lie char kuay teow, but as good as the sushi there. After dinner Oisin reminded me that we had to write to our local MLAs about the greenway being turned into a road. And so we did. Here's the results of our efforts.
Awwwww!!! You must say. However not to be outdone, Ghin also sat and wrote.
Here he is deciding that sprawling on the floor would be more comfortable.
About Singapore
Well, what can i say about it? I did enjoy it, but because i'm no longer part of the place, it was a shallow, not very meaning ful existence personally. I enjoyed being with the family - tremendously. So tremendously in fact that i did think, if the world did end today (due to the replication of the big bang in CERN today), i said to myself as i ran up the hill at Stormont to a spectacular sunrise, i would be so very happy. I love my family, my parents, my children, my job, if they take me back, the communities i belong to, i bear no one any ill will, and i have and continue to enjoy the struggle with self discovery and honesty.
Last night Oisin also drew a picture of St Michael and his dragon. What would St Mike be without the dragon huh? Just about layabout knight. We'd not celebrate him in drama, sculpture and painting. No one would remember him. And why do we remember him? It's interesting, the school opens with St Michael, who symbolises challenge. Oisin's drawing is also very interesting. Here it is.
I said that i loved the fact that the dragon was not only very sweet looking, but also drawn like naga and the same colour as St Mike. Why asked Oisin. Because it shows that the dragon and St Michael are the same. The greatest battle i told Oisin is the battle you do with yourself. It is the struggle to be honest and truthful about yourself to yourself. And this picture shows that. St Michael and the dragon and locked in a holy exchange, all around them is the excitement of the fire of purity that the dragon emits and the horse, although present as a faithful companion, is also excluded from the exchange. St Michael, stays on the ground, instead of overpowering the dragon because that's the human condition. The dragon flies overhead, impossibly powerful, but also illusory. It is transparent, a creature of the air and of the imagination. I loved it. He did get a few ideas from me, like how do i draw the dragon's head? But everything there is his own.
There were a couple of other things i learnt as well while running in Singapore. While i ran, i discovered what it was like to be in the present moment. To not run towards a goal. I don't know about most people when they do an endurance sport like running or swimming, but i generally kept the end in mind, which made where i was mostly hell - or just about tolerable. This time, when i ran however, i really entered the moment. I wasn't thinking about losing weight, or beating my time, or even getting to the top of the hill, but looking at the trees, feeling their presence, the presence of the gardener, the women who washed the driveways, the trucks that passed, the clouds overhead. This is probably why i loved running to begin with, but somehow, that was always at the back of the mind, rather than the front. And staying in the moment oddly enough, made the run seem like no time at all.
The other thing i realised was that we 'suffered' all the time. When i first began practising about a year ago i think, or maybe a bit more, i used to use it in moments of great stress. And they'd be silly moments. Like waiting at traffic lights, or being in a queue, or having to deal with someone who i thought wasn't being helpful, or racist. But what i've realised is that the truth is that we 'suffer' all the time. This means that we have this inner dialogue which we constantly deal with - it's a lot like white noise - and as a result i am slightly off balance all the time. I can't help it. I think it's called the human condition. But because i am unbalanced (hee hee) it means that i am invited by the universe to practise constantly - and paradoxically because i am called to awareness all the time, i am called to both relate to everyone else - being slightly out of kilter - and to practice the paramitas. (In Buddhism, the Paramitas refer to the perfection or culmination of certain virtues.) And i will always be called to practise because i will never be perfect - but this keeps it all in balance - and it has done wonders for my patience.
I still do have outbursts and the occassional tearful event, as Peter would tell you, but by and large, this, i have discovered is bliss. Bliss is being in the human condition and being called to practice and knowing that this work will never end. This moment is then eternity. And the next one to. And our loves are infinite.
Here are also some pictures from Singapore. I'm hoping to blog more regular now. I am trying to come up with the schedule that lets me run, blog, be mom, active citizen and a good natured so and so. I sleep at 9 with the kids, and wake at 4 - do some writing and then at 6 go for a run. The rest of the day is filled with housework and running about. Don't know if that'll work. Fingers crossed!!!
Crraaaazy kids.
The kiam chye teng that Ma made.
Ghin at Seletar, enjoying the sunshine - yes it isn't a figment of my imagination.
Auntie Jacq and Ghinny.
Ling Kwang home therapy session with children.
Oisin enjoys a bus ride.
Ang Mo Kio ave 3 - i love the way the angsana trees have all grown up and created this wonderful shade.
Mama and Ghin enjoy the Olympics and home made keropok.
Cho cho and Ghin discuss the merits of fire fighting as a vocation.
Ghin tidies up in Sungei Buloh.
The mangrove at Sungei Buloh is dying. It is also really disgusting compared with the mangrove on Bintan which we went to and stayed next to. However, that said, it was one of my most favourite places in Singapore. It was quiet, uncommercial and filled with all kids of things from mudskippers, to jewel frogs and smooth otters. We saw the otters again when we went there!!! That would be three out of four times.
Westward ho! Changi airport and the airplane....
Back in Tescos Knocknagoney - no it doesn't sound exotic to you? Why not?
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