17.2.25 - When we were young...

-

I've been going through songs which mean something to me. In 2019, I started making a list of songs I loved on Sportify and they were all songs which meant something to me, or new songs.

This is Granuille's Tower in Achill Island. Achill was the base of a pirate - and she was part of the O'Malley clan. She ended up heading the Irish Armada, as it were, and giving English ships hell on the coast. She was know as the Pirate Queen.

I have been to Achill three times. It is a ridiculously beautiful place. It is only saved by having the Atlantic bathe it. The cold, clear waters deter the idea that this is a place which giant resort complexes, or even small bougie ones, will fare well. No one wants to come to a place which will probably be raining, grey and wear cable knit sweaters while having the salt blasts of the oceans streaming on your face. BUT clearly I did - three times. 

Toiday, when I was listening to When We Were Young, I promised myself that I would not waste the rest of my life. That I would honour memories and friends, that I would not waste my life in any sense of bitterness. That when we are able to choose we should choose the beauty and the pleasure of being alive. That while we are able to choose, we should choose to be awake and aware. 

While we are able to choose, we should be grateful. We should be content with what we have. Everything else, as White Lotus demonstrates, is maya. It is peak pretelligensia. Peak hypocrisy. There was nothing wrong with what we had. Nothing. Sometimes, you cannot account for the choices of others. You can't. Sometimes, it will never make any sense. It can't.

It won't.

So, today, I promise to live the life I was meant to live. The life which was planned by life for me. What is that life? A life which is awake every moment, to every moment that exists. That's what.

And I'm going to start by reminding myself of the planning and the days and the structures which I should have. To look after this body. This spirit made matter.

This beauty and wonder. This is all we can do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geylang sepaku Geylang

-
Image
Geylang Serai is the place i feel most at home in Singapore. Possibly because a vast majority of the population are still Singaporean and i speak the language they speak there - Malay. Also, it hasn't changed that much. OK, it has, but i'd like to think it hasn't. We ate at the new market there which used to be a little better than an open sewer. But it was our open sewer and we loved it. Geylang was heaving with people getting ready for Ramadan. On the table we have sup kambing, otak-otak, nasi padang and rojak. Drinkswise we have lime juice, Kickapoo and teh. It is hot - really hot. We are all pespiring and we can feel our clothes stick to our skin and bellies and thighs. Our hair is continuously in our faces, dripping and sticking too. The only thing that brings relief is a soak in the pool or a shower and an airconditioned room. No wonder when the boys came back, the first thing they said was, ah, it's great to be back in th cool weather again!. Singaporeans love th...
Read more

19.3.26 - 74 - Eulogy: What will survive of us is love

-
Image
I wrote and read this for Pa at the service. It was in long hand, but I have it here typed out now. It is peppered with verses from the New Testament, because I was asked by the priest to refer to Jesus occasionally, so I made that concession. Big shout out to Ben and the Christian Community whom I spent many a delighted evening reading and discussing the Bible during Bible study class. =========================== Thank you everybody for coming here to honour the life of husband, father and legend which is Eric Sim Chin Seng. Pa crossed over on the 16th of March at 7.30 am. He went peacefully and gently. He breathed his way slowly past this life and on to the new one, leaving his bark, his body, which carried him and his indomitable spirit and endless capacity to love, for 81 years, to say farewell to one last time. This tribute is to you, for you, Pa, who always walked in the sacred steps of Jesus Christ and lived the best life which could be lived. Part I: John 1:14 "The word be...
Read more

6.6.26 - 152 - -70

-
I should try and love Singapore. And I have really tried to love it. Really. But life in Singapore is not real life. Sadly. The only thing which is real about it is my relationships with my family. I understand we lead very privileged lives. We live in a beautiful house and we live in Serangoon Gardens. I get to swim everyday. We never worry about where the next meal's coming from. Very importantly, we have our health and we have each other. These are all very good things, nothing to be sneezed at. But Singapore itself ... that's a different story. Where to begin? I cannot complain because we actually live in a very nice part of Singapore. It's it unique in all of Singapore. There is no other place like it. In fact the government should slap a preservation order on the place. It is an actual village. Ring fenced by the houses and the roads, it was possibly designed by the British Army as a defensible position. Maybe they didn't mean to do it, but it is that way neverthe...
Read more