Awful feeling...

Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not [merely] his own interests, but also each for the interests of others... [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
Philippians 2:4,13 (AMP)

It's an awful feeling choosing not to lend any more money to friend who repeatedly borrowed money and can't seem to take care of himself. Yet it seems "enough is enough" and there's nothing else one can do except pray.

Let down your guard

"Where Do We Go From Here" (2008) by Tim Rollins and Kids of Survival

Who am I?

Why am I here?

What am I doing?

Why are you here?

Is what I'm doing of any good?

Why am you still here?

Ed needs inspiration

Sleepiness, weariness, heedless.

Routineness, expressionless, directionless.

Naffness, laffness, mirthness.

Fearless, joyous, peace-ness.

Lessons in Leadership

1. Details determine destiny. Familarity breeds complacency.

2. Win over your people and that's probably half the battle won.

3. Lead by example, else you have no moral standing.

4. Address situations and attitudes on the spot.

5. Believe in self, after all, you're appointed by Him.

silence that echoes

Daphnis & Chloe: Frontis Piece by Marc Chagall

Question: Where was Adam when Eve ate of the apple?

If he wasn't around, there's a problem. Or if he was around, now there's a bigger problem. His silence has echoed through the decades of the centuries.

Today, many men are not assuming their positions as fathers. If he's absent, the child is affected. But if he's present yet not carrying influence, the damage is worse.

Let it flow

a la color doodles

Bankruptcy

Tempted to cuss... Yet, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, says He.

Battling tigers of the mind- there they are! Prowling, growling, fouling-

Perhaps, per chance, perceive- more wisdom one needs.

The muscle of determination- contracting, stretching, now stiffening.

Suck in the guts, boy!

Paying Back and Doing Good

陈嘉庚 Tan Kah Kee （1874-1961）和李光前 Lee Kong Chian （1893-1967）集企业家、商业巨子和慈善家于一身，其臻于至善的一生，在过去的百余年间对新加坡影响至深。陈嘉庚是一名民族主义者，坚信惟有教育和现代化方能为中国带来富强和昌盛。李光前则秉承了陈嘉庚促进教育的宏愿，在新加坡走向建国之时，慷慨资助国家的教育事业和其他社会之需，其仁者风范在新加坡社会堪称楷模。

Two great men of initially humble backgrounds-one an apprentice in a rice mill, the other juggling jobs as teacher/translator/surveyor. Yet they were willing to work hard, possessed prudent and effective business sense, and most of all, had a lifelong passion for education and paying back to society.



Tan Kah Kee seemed particularly perceptive: "Our land is still plagued by cumulative evils of autocratic rule, incomplete development of a republican system, inadequate education of the population, and underdevelopment of local industries. The improvement of these four facets relies exclusively on higher education and specialised knowledge."

Truly, it is more blessed to give than to receive, and to sow seeds that will profit countless generations to come.

Check out the exhibition at National Library: http://www.thelegacy.nl.sg

Vision without technique is blind

Keep on asking and it will be given you;
keep on seeking and you will find;
keep on knocking [reverently]
and [the door] will be opened to you.

For everyone who keeps on asking receives;
and he who keeps on seeking finds;
and to him who keeps on knocking,
[the door] will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8 (Amplified Bible)

Do the unusual

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ~Romans 10:10

What do you see? What do you hear?

What do you want? What do you desire?

Speak it. See it. Do the unusual.

Update

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

Revelation 4:1

Was off in China last week, so no email/blog/MSN/facebook/news etc... Woohoo!

Was impacted by how hungry the local people are, not for food, but for spiritual nourishment. And was amazed at how He's with you as long as you're willing to try. And no doubt this applies to everything in life, be it leading in music, speaking in a less comfortable language, doing something new...

What do I see? Love, full in eager hearts waiting to be filled... Lives, full of potential waiting to be released... Leaders, full of futures waiting to be realised.

Truly, all things work together for good to those who love Him. Gotta keep on keeping on :)

If you're into it

*chuckle*

ready, steady

A steady aim, a strong ram,
it's a whack to nail it home!

Faith, confidence and focus,
brings one right on target.

Yet lack thereof,
leaves only wavering and lingering.

Sticks and stones may break bones,
but words and wins will surely build.

Steady, ready, matey go!
And on and on, it goes and grows.

be harry

One wonders if both feelings of being dead sure and being hopelessly in love will ever coincide.

*whistles* it had to be yooouuu...

You know, the passionate pursuit of that which presses the heart no end. The ponderous portion which provides purpose and sometimes perplexity. The precious that one cannot pretend to live without.

Ok, this is plain prattling, isn't it?

Tanned and Tranned

Highlights from Bintan:
- Swimming in the clear blue sea, especially amidst rain
- Finishing My Friend Leonard (who reminds me of Robert De Niro)
- Chilling with cool friends over good food
- Enjoying activities I normally wouldn't do (laser quest & ATV)

What a well-taken break :)

Expect Something

18 March 1965: Russian astronaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov becomes the first man to walk in space

Then Jesus said to the officer, "You may go home now. Your faith has made it happen." Right then his servant was healed. (Matthew 8:13 CEV)

I'm Not Crying

I Want to Stay with the Tree

"Joseph" 11yo, child abuse victim

Do you know how much I long,
For your one word of praise?
Yet everything I did was wrong.
I hear your voice blaring in my face,
The one who loved me was gone.

Oh how I yearned for your touch,
When my body hurts so,
You turned away, didn’t bother much,
My eyes traced your steps, my pain untold,
As you drift’d off with a shrug.

If you can’t have me,
I want to stay with the tree.
Let me go far far away,
I will find a place.
A bright, magical one,
with butterflies dancing in the sun.

How can I talk to you, like…
Before? You’d smiled at me.
When I could sit close by your side,
As you read out stories of Winnie.
And then you kissed me goodnight.

What are they asking me now?
I don’t want to think, please...
But I want it to stop somehow,
God, take me out of these miseries!
I want to shout it out loud!

Don’t you know I still want you?
Just can’t find words to say.
My real needs, if only you knew.
For you to accept me I will pray.
I wish you’ll know how I feel.

Harpsical whims

Joanna Newsom - Peach Plum Pear



Emily

We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey
We thought our very hearts would up and melt away
From that snow in the nighttime
Just going
And going
And the stirring of wind chimes
In the morning
In the morning
Helps me find my way back in
From the place where I have been

And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror

Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Thoough all I knew of the rote universe were those pleiades loosed in december
I promised you I‘d set them to verse so I'd always remember

pas·sion

\ˈpa-shən\

1. intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction
2. a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept
3. the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death

It oft elude, that passion of old... or did it?