One Singapore Minute

i wonder these pictures count for the onesingaporeminute?
after all we are a Singaporean family living oversea and i took the pictures within a minute...received two letters from home today but not personal one, sob,sob!

faraway from home

alien
out of place
i never fit in anywhere
in my sojurn here on earth

standing on the bridge right now
uncertain of my way
waiting for the right moment
to take flight and spread my wings

homesick/mercy me

i'm so homesick lately -
both Ruby & 3rd sister have August birthdays.
i called and talked to them one week after another.
i talked to Mom too and her first sentence was, " you have not call for a long time"

i'm coming home Mom.
by this time next year i'll be home for good...or atleast for sometime.
i'm done with traveling for awhile.
i'm longing for the sea.

homesickness

1756, translating Ger. heimweh, from Heim "home" + Weh "woe, pain;"

the compound is from Swiss dialect,

expressing the longing for the mountains.

The word was introduced to other European languages 17c. by Swiss mercenaries.

something beautiful

An old tale by Wilhelm Grimm newly translated by RalphManheimand beautifully illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

here's the introduction i suppose:

Dear Mili,
I'm sure you have gone walking in the woods or in green meadows, and passed a clear, flowing brook.
And you've tossed a flower into the brook, a red one, a blue one, or a snow-white one. It drifted away, and you followed it with your eyes as far as you could.
And it went quietly away with the little waves, farther and farther, all day long and all night long too, by the light of the moon or the stars.
It didn,t need much light, for it knew the way and it didn't get lost.
When it had traveled for three day without stopping to rest, another flower came along on another brook.
A child just like you, but far far away from here, had tossed it into a brook at the same time.
The two flowers kissed, and went their way together and stayed together until they both sank to the bottom.
You have also seen a little bird flying away over the mountain in the evening. Perhaps you thought it was going to bed; but not at all,
another little bird was flying over other mountains, and when all was dark on the earth, the two of them met in the last ray of sunshine.
The sun shone bright on their feathers, and as they flew back and forth in the light they told each other many things that we on the earth below could not hear.
You see, the brooks and the flowers and the birds come together, but people do not; great mountains and rivers,
forests and meadows, cities and villages lie in between,
they have their set places and cannot be moved, and humans cannot fly.
But one human heart goes out to another, undeterred by what lies between.
Thus does my heart go out to you, and though my eyes have not seen you yet, it loves you and thinks it is sitting beside you.
And you say: "Tell me a story."
And it replies: "Yes, dear Mili, just listen."

you came

You came often unannounced
like the vine that grew overnight
as magical as the beanstalk
i was the bewildered Jack

the morning glory
trumpeted your love for me
and made my heart
glad

morning glory: any of genus (Ipomoea) of plants of the morning -glory family; esp., a twining annual vine (I. purpurea),
with heart shape leaves and trumpet-shape flowers of lavender,
blue, pink, or white.

30 hour famine

kudos to all who worked hard (and played hard)/
prayed/fasted for 30hr/and raised $1763.00.

back to school day

It’s not even 7:30 am, the house is quiet its back to school day!
I check the phone making sure it’s not off the hook just in case the school call…you never know, being the first day of school.
I remembered in my elementary year few days before school started – I was crying because I didn’t finished my Chinese homework.
It was my big brother who helped me out. He was the one who tied my hair and got me out of the house…
I only have twelve years of school.
My brother Tai and sister Ruby were in college when I finished high school.
My two younger brothers were in middle/high school. Mom was the sole breadwinner.
I decided not to go to college.
I left home before I was 19 and I have no dream and no direction. I wanted to work so to ease mom’s burden.
My high school buddies, seven of them all went to college and are exceptional in their respective fields.
We still get together whenever I make a trip home.
All of them are proud parents now. (Somehow your high school friends stick with you for life.)
So whatever happened to me?
I did not go to college I have no paper qualification to show. I don’t even have good long working experience either.
Would my life turned out differently if I had chosen another path?
I can not imagine other wise and shudder to think what would become of me!
God never shortchange us.
In the world I have no credential whatsoever.
I only love people and God thinks that’s good enough for him.