The Pacific Northwest is a beautifully haunting expanse. This collection of national parks, deep waters and waterfronts ferries, bestow upon the traveller and its inhabitants a sense perpetual optimism, rugged individualism, and a vision of endless summer days. From gentile historical inns in the heart of national parks to the leisurely dust-swirl of the roadway motels and their baby-boomer bikers, the…
(Week 6) The mysterious miracle of growth and fruitfulness Another two weeks has passed. Now, there are these giant steps towards starting up the self-sustaining chlorophyll engine. This parable from today Missal, the Gospel of Mark 4:26-34 is so apt “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use…
(Week 4) Another two weeks has passed. The shoots are now proliferating in droves. Already, the first strand of a spider’s web has spun across the fledgling shoots, seemingly unaware of how short-lived the structures will be…… But Life does find a way. Elsewhere in the garden, a rare pink variant of the Peacock Flower…
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was the artist of the gloominess of American urbanization – Here, arguably his most famous painting, Nighthawks (1942), is counter-posed by the African-American artist, Archibald J Motley Jr’s (1891-1981), Nightlife (1943) depicting the rich dynamic culture of the dance halls in the Chicago South side. At the Chicago Art Institute.
(Week 2) Two weeks after a heavy (heavy) prune, new shoots emerging from this Bauhinia kockiana creeper. This climber is a native of the Malaysian jungle, and produces an abundance of orange and re-orange flowers.
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ― C.S. Lewis Lewis’ quote incite in us the strength of God’s voice in the different moments of our life situations. Simplistically, the converse…
What the young ones said when the welcome ceremonies have ended and the regimentation sets in at the end of the first day of NS
“They will rob you of your identity”
“The memory of the time between lunch and this (evening) has been suppressed”
“Merdeka! Reflections on the Padang. Time-stamp: 0541 hr, 27th March 2015 “Merdeka!” the rap guttural urgent cry of post-independent Mr Lee Kuan Yuan, resonating in my subconscious mind, was interrupted by the young man in army fatigues. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” the bespectacled young man in crew-cut shouted “move in and make yourself comfortable! There is…
“A society grows great when old men plant trees, whose shade they know they shall never sit in” From an ancient Greek Proverb Mr Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), First Prime Minister of Singapore. He had never failed to plant a tree every year from 1963-2014 (picture from the Straits Times Archives)
The great Catholic broadcaster and preacher, Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) said this about retirement: “When I resigned, I did not “retire”. I retreaded. I took on another kind of work. I believe that we spend our last days very much the way that we lived. If we have lived with ease, taking our rest, never…