Beautiful, just beautiful

He makes everything beautiful in its time...

visualise

Hooked - Be Glorified by ALM

Three Cups of Tea (2008)

Hear Bloomberg speak to Greg Mortenson about how he was led by life experiences to build schools in Afghanistan.

John C Maxwell on 21 laws of leadership

Source: http://maxwellavl.com

Thoughts Ahead, Behind

What do you do when a sense of ennui & lethargy creeps up on you?

Do you write? Do you pull out your vision card & 2010 goals? Do you Facebook mindlessly? Do you distract yourself with a lame & barely funny comedy on TV? Do you play that song you wrote 2 years ago & suddenly recall your goal to write a new one? Do you gather ideas for a new writing piece?

What do you do when you see your mom sporting rashes & she insists it's nothing even though it's been some time?

What do you do when you just want a friend to talk with?

What do you do when goosebumps goes a-tingling amidst a conversation?

What do you do when you think you already know what to do?

Seeing & Believing

When I saw the man holding the Wimbledon trophy, I told myself that would be me one year from now. And I saw a picture of myself winning it. ~ Margaret Court, former World number one-ranked tennis player from Australia.

What does it take for a skinny, underprivileged girl to make it big to win 62 Grand Slam tennis titles? What more to take on a calling for ministry to help others find God and overcome challenges in life?

A life of winning, that's what we want.

All Jazzed!!

Branford Marsalis Quarter performs "Jabberwocky"

Oeuvre: A work of art, literature, music, etc. The total output of a writer, painter, etc.

Passion: Boundless enthusiasm. An irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action.

Jazz: Animation; Enthusiasm. Nonsense. Miscellaneous, unspecified things. To give great pleasure to. Excite.

Moral of the story: Be the best you can be.

Who or what occupies your sights...ears...heart?

Attended cousin's funeral wake last night. A cousin I've not seen since little, i.e. when a house seemed imposing enough to play hide&seek. An odd feeling indeed, yet family all the same.

Awoke today to ask myself where do I want to be in 10 years time? Shared this with a colleague during lunch and he told me about his poly friend who long decided to be a pastor and is now en route towards his dream. How admirable.

I thought about this and replied: There are some, like this friend, who knows and are focused what they want. Then there are others who change their minds midway. And then are others who may have an inkling but they certainly know what their strengths are. Of course, there are those who don't know and inevitably drift along.

So...where are your/my/our sights set towards?

Another thought occurred to me mid-morning: Leadership is Active. Received comment that got me wondering, is hyper-active leadership that delivers but causes high stress still good leadership?

So...what really matters at the end of the day?

I say, it's who's got your heart. Are you thinking Who I'm thinking of?

Been listening to this Starfield song - repeatedly. Love the lyrics and it touches me in a special way.

But you know, today I felt touched by Coldplay's Viva la Vida and Dion-Bocelli's The Prayer.

Ah, the power of music.

Who wants to save the earth?

Caught Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth (2006) on DVD last night. Must say, it's stirred me up in an uncomfortable yet familiar way. He's got a book of the same title and a newer title, Our Choice (2009) which supposedly spells out a blueprint for tackling the climate crisis.

I went to bed with this thought, I don't want to go to bed every night with the perpetual smell of haze in the air. I also thought away switching from hardcopy books to e-books.

This morning, I chose not to buy my usual take-away tea a la styrofoam, health concerns on the back of my mind even as I type this.

Then I logged onto NYTimes which reported about car-makers's rising demand for lithium and the accompanying plants and mines to meet this demand - surely the word "mines" raises environmental alarm bells.

As I shared my newfound knowledge in barely hidden We-Must-Save-Mother-Gaia undertones with colleagues over lunch, one wondered aloud, "Going paperless but building more computers and servers, or building solar panels which in turn require energy to produce... Are these things really helping the situation?"

Another manager nodded and echoed, "Are we throwing the problem around?" My mind conjured up images of slash-and-burn deforestation but I didn't reply.

Alright, enough lunchtime blogging for now. Back to my paperful desk.

Be Thou my all

Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me Lord
Thou my great Father and I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one

Riches I need not, nor man's empty praise
Thou mine inheritance now and always
Thou and Thou only first in my heart
High king of heaven my treasure Thou art

Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart
Nought be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light

High king of heaven, my victory won
May I reach heaven's joy, bright heaven sun
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, oh ruler of all

(Ancient Irish hymn, possibly from the 8th Century, tr. by Mary E. Byrne)

不能沒有你

Fall on your knees...

• O Holy Night by David Archuleta

More David Archuleta music on iLike

This is my story!

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels descending bring from above
echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
(Refrain)

Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
watching and waiting, looking above,
filled with his goodness, lost in his love.

Remembrance

Air on G string

Air on G string

Something beckons and it ain't mooncakes...

Serban Savu, "65-0944-2" (2009)

One wonders what difference it really makes, crossing the imaginary crevice that separates one decade from another.

Numerical? Chronological? Well, ICA duly notified me to replace my NRIC...

Biological? Physiological? I ain't got ticking ovaries... Just recovered from a really awful throat inflammation thought.

Philosophical? Hmmmm... Yeah wisdom piles on together with love handles.

Can't say I've much to boast about. Can't say I've little to complain about. But one thing I am determined is to be thankful and grateful for what I have. In fact, a guilty sense that I've been laid back points to the gaps and inadequacies and boo-boos I've accumulated.

So many years on and some idiosyncrasies still dog me. But at least a certain still quiet voice grows stronger and clearer. Might I never lose touch with that which keeps me grounded and going day after day.

You know, if "I think, therefore I am", then I'm afraid there's so much of me that I'm awfully undecided. But again, at least I've realised that my gut has been my best friend. Not for binging but for decision making. And this afternoon, I told this to a colleague.

Finally, sleep. Like oxygen, it's necessary. But like a boy, curious and untried, we try to test how long we can go without it because we shoot off to breathe in slumberland.

Seasons of Love

From Rent
By Jonathan Larson

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love? How about love?
How about love? Measure in love

Seasons of love
Seasons of love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died

It's time now to sing out
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends

Remember the love
(Oh you got to, got to)
Remember the love
(Remember the love)
Seasons of love
(Measure measure you life in love)
Seasons of love
Seasons of love

Be filled