Oh my

I saw this on my friend's blog... gasped, then chuckled.

GOSH. I slept exactly in the last two postures when i was in Architecture school!

And remembering this brought fond memories of my studiomates during those days. If i slept like in the very last picture, bent over the keyboard, there would always be someone who would come by, gently nudge me and persuade me to lie down to rest instead....

.. yes, on our makeshift beds under the drawing tables - simply a platform created by winding raffia strings over the parallel bars of the table legs.

Not much better, but at least in my dear friends' term 'at least your back is not strained'.

Did i just make the life of an architectural student sound miserable? Ha.

Catch up dinner with my ex-Coachees

From left: Ainiah, Amy, Belinda (coach intern), Ronghui, Yati, me, Elizabeth

Call it occupational hazard or 'trying to be difficult', even during my catch up dinner with my first batch of life coachees last night, I could not help but ask them these leading questions:

* How do you think you have grown in the past year?
(Most of them entered a new stage of life into the Polys last year, one of them emerged through the O'levels, and another began working for the time being)

* What do you hope to work on in your personal life that will make this year better than the last?

The truth is, i wasn't trying to be difficult. I believe in the power of speaking out your growth journey and personal goals. It is always different when we hear our own selves articulate these, especially the affirmation of our growth.

So there i was trying to 'poke' into their lives though our official life coaching journey ended more than a year back. But it definitely paid off to be meddlesome in this case. My heart leapt with unspeakable joy as i heard each of them share from my questions above, especially when some of them expressed that they had overcome certain issues that were brought to light during the coaching journey!

I guess the best answer that i had gotten to my first question above was: moustache.


Shereen and Asyiqin, you were missed! =)

A song that i'm looking for now

Find Us Faithful - Steve Green (People Need The Lord)

We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

Chorus:
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift though all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find

Repeat Chorus

Ahh-choooo-ing

i knew something was wrong when i woke in the middle of the nights to... 'ahhh-chooooo' continuously recently.

Haven't felt really unwell since a long time ago. God, heal and strengthen me!! i am holding on.... to You for this busy period!

Big Picturing

My boss 'forced' me to be on full day time-off on Monday. I hopped on a bus towards City Hall, hoping to spend the afternoon with God at the greens at Chijme or SMU. But when my bus approached the Singapore Art Museum, i thought, why not there.

The signage for 'The Big Picture Exhibition' caught my attention (i am usually very much a big picture person), and i headed for it. My heels were not a tad shy in announcing my arrival to the paintings. It was definitely an experience walking through the galleries, hearing their chirpy knocks against the parquet floor. In the stillness of the air, i anticipated not just every big picture that enfolded, but also the dance of my heels.

I had one favourite painting in this exhibition, which made me pause a couple of times, even making circular and back-and-forth steps as though dancing before it. It was like, the moment you intended to walk away from the painting, the corner of your eye would catch another detail, another dab, another corner of it that made you want to ponder more again.

Finally i settled down at the bench before it, and read my Bible in which God interestingly brought me to Ecclesiates 2:17-26 on 'toil is meaningless'. I thanked God that i have His 'wisdom, knowledge and happiness in my work' (v.26a), and these gifts of God had become more and more evident in my present job.

Looking up, my eyes roamed the picture before me again, and the writing below birthed forth from my soul:

it was almost like by divine appointment
that i stepped into 'the Big Picture'.

i felt a little small inside,

especially in front of this gigantic depiction
of the Grand Canyon.
i was thinking,
probably i am that dot at this corner,

probably i'm the little speck of brown
on top of that peak,

probably i'm at that faraway corner,
too small to even pinpoint where i am.

Yet the picture uplifted my soul.

it was a juxtaposition of colours of the land,
brought forth by the breaking of dawn
or set lighting over the land.

(even the spotlights above it
cleverly converged their rays upon the source
of the breaking light
-dramatising it)

How great is our God,
my soul sang.
Yet it wasn't its original tune,
but a new one of cheeky playfulness,
as though i was
leaping from peak to peak in the picture.

(The picture is a 199.2 x 435.8cm 'Colour Melody of the Grand Canyon' (1997) by Pratuang Emjaroen, Thailand)

beaming bricks

I have been in such a good mood, especially today,

that i noticed the rows of little bright orange bricks at my flat

beaming at me cheerfully in the sun

And my heart returned with a little song of joy.




Thank You Lord for restoring Your joy in my life! It washes me over. again. =)

When buildings glow

SNAPSHOTS FROM MILAN




.. and form a backdrop of such awe that you think it could be a painting.

My favourite picture from Pisa

Not the tower.