On the wings of trust, the story of a cloudless sky... Ananada. SBM Youth

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Mr DU has given me this extremely honourable task to "blog". in his terms, it's not wild rantings like what i'm doing now, but to inform the beloved members of mine about this week's activity.

Saturday, 1st July
12pm-3pm: Study group
3pm: Sharing session
This week's sharing session is about friendship =]
Ard 5pm to 6pm will be the ORIENTATION...A short one

Sunday, 2nd July
10am-12pm: Report at SBM for birthday celebration
12.30pm: Leave SBM to sentosa, transport will be provided
6pm-7pm: End, transport will not be provided back home.

-marble-

Simplicity overrode @ 8:53 PM
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Sunday, June 25, 2006

Parents' Love

This week's sharing we discussed about parents love and how much we should appreciate them. They are the ones who bring us to this world. They are the ones who gave us a chance to become a human to get in touch with the dharma and generate merits. They are the ones who showed us unconditional love.

From the start, when your mum is pregnant she start to carry extra weight in her womb. She ate nutritious food so that you can grow well inside. Your parents protect the fragile little embryo/ foetus that is inside the womb by not making any vigorous movement. Your father does all the vigorous chores n work. Your mum got to bear with all the discomfort and inconvenience during pregnancy just for YOU… They pray day and night for your safety n wellness...

During giving birth, she suffers lots of pain and uses all her might... Hoping that you come out safe n sound… Her mental and physical strength are depleted. However, upon seeing you safe and sound, she is overjoyed. She seems to be suffering from no pain at all for the moment even thought she is pale from losing lots of blood. You are the lucky ones who have survived. Many have never made it to this stage of life. You should be grateful that you have made it through with your parents’ love and care and that you are still here reading this blog.

Life doesn’t stops there, it continues. Your mum will take months to recover. It is a dangerous period of her life too. There are mothers who never make it to see her child during labour. Some only get the first and only glance. At your first few months after birth, your parents give you love, care and protection. They love u no matter how ugly you are or what deficiency you are suffering from. They show you no less love and care. They send you to specialist when ever you are sick and no matter how late at night it maybe. They look after you day n night. Feeding, cleaning, changing your diapers and bringing joy to you. They give you the best things they can afford giving you nice clothes and bed to sleep in. Some sang lullabies to coax you to bed. They never fail to attend to you when ever you cry. Where can you get so much care and love?

They send you to school hoping that you get educated any become a good person who can survive in the society. They worry day and night about your welfare and academic. They celebrate the first few birthdays and walked you the first few most crucial moments of life.

Have you ever think of what you parents like to eat? Fish head or fish tail? Well guess most of you will think that will parents will prefer to eat fish head. Your parents eat fish head and stomach area because they want you to eat the fleshy and easily extractable meat of the fish. The stomach area has lots of bones and they are dislocated easily. There is a high chance of swallowing them if they are not careful. The fish head does not have much meat as compared to its tail.

Your parents punish you when you do wrong. They want you to be good and be successful in life. You guys may not know that seeing you suffering or crying, your parents are hurt too. When your father canes you, your mother usually cries in pain. When she can’t take it anymore, she will ask your father to stop and help you rub ointments. They ask you not to do it again.

Buddha once said that we can never repay our parents even if we carry them on our shoulder and serve them for 100 years. Not even if they excreted on your shoulders. Not even by giving them all the wealth and treasures in the world would we be able to repay them. We are in great debt. And now how many times have we ever done things that had hurt our parents? How are we going to repay them? The Buddha said that by getting them to practice the dharma we will be able to clear our debts one day. How will your parents practice the dharma? Well, first it will come from you. When they see that you have changed into a better after practicing the dharma, they too will believe and start to practice and follow the dharma.

However, you must know that no one is perfect. There is no son as well as perfect parents. Sometimes there maybe situation that may point to say that you didn’t do anything wrong. Just forgive them and do what they one first. I know it is tough but take it that you are repaying them. You can negotiate later. They are no perfect people after all. They maybe make mistake so forgive them. Show to them that you love and appreciate their presents. When they see that you are so filial child they too are happy and will treat you better and better. When tough times come, forgive and forget, tell yourself that this too will past. If you wait long enough good things will come your way.

-VC-

Vincent

Simplicity overrode @ 11:29 PM
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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Yo.. this week sharing will be on Saturaday(24/06/06) at SBM temple at 3PM.. :D

C U there:D

-VC-
Vincent

Simplicity overrode @ 9:56 PM
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Friday, June 16, 2006

Yo... Sad to say i m a anti-climax.. haha.. :P This Sat got no sharing.. BUT!!! SUNDAY Campers are coming to collect their certs.. YEA!!! R u all ready? Pls Be at SBM temple by 10am.. Wear the GREEN Camp shirt.. C YA.. :D

VC
-Vincent-

Simplicity overrode @ 1:02 AM
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006

sitting in front of this laptop, i start to stare at the screen, with impatience creeping up on me while i wait for the entire page to load. the internet seriously goes at an abysmally slow speed. but i should be grateful i can actually use the internet here.

life in thailand has been rather interesting, have seen a lot that i've never seen before. i can say that it is definitely tough to communicate with them and it takes pretty much patience for us to speak the the people ad vice versa.

i admire the sales people. really, despite the fact that they do not understand english and we don't understand thai, they still try their best to serve us. and i would say that the salespeople here are much friendlier than those in singapore with very little exceptions.

every single day i await for the moment to make use to the laptop so that i can communicate with my friends via MSN. then disappointment overwhelms me when the people whom i wish to talk to are not online. meanwhile while i talk to some other people, it feels like i can't understand them at all. however it's not the simple kind of confusion. it feels as if there's a serious communication breakdown and i can't even catch what they are trying to tell me, like me not understanding thai and them not being able to understand us. feels like a friend lost, yet i don't feel exactly sad and i don't know why. maybe i' ve given up in a way. yet within me i still feel a slight tug in my heart, telling me to salvage the situation. but i still tell myself: leave this matter till i return. maybe u just can't understand twittish typings. weird. i think im blabbering nonsense here.

then the smses. people sms me but a sense of helplessness creeps into me when my friends need my help and i can't reply due to the phone bills.

and i feel like i'm out of touch, not knowing what's happening in the outside world since im simply living in a world of four people whom i know, ie, my family members. i was shocked to hear about maddie's granny.

gtg. bye! (wild rantings that dont make sense, i realised. -.- oh well)

-marble-

Simplicity overrode @ 11:46 PM
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Food For Thought - Anandians Speak Up.

U know, sometimes we people need to speak up more about our reflections in life so that we could gather valuable lessons to grasp life in an even better way. There is a way to learn, and that is thru blogging. Although there are many renegade bloggers out there who really ain't using the blog to its true purpose, i trust that this house is the house of thought, so we don't need to go under the table with some stuff.
The reason for this FOOD FOR THOUGHT - ANANDIANS SPEAK UP is to give u peeps, yes, anandian peeps, the really great opportunity to open up to the rest of the house members ur daily happenings in ya school, love (if convenient), life, family etc. An avenue for u to express yourself in words, if u cant do it verbally.

For Starters, i shall start this solely-Anandian Journal of food for thought.

The lesson of promoters in retail shops:
Do u know the purpose of really selling your products in your shop? u need sales, and thats possibly the only thing on your director's mind if u really want to survive in that environment, everyday your job is threatened by that decision of sacking you.
Well, it sounds really sick. but somehow, u gotta get thru it. And yea, fortunately, it wasn't me. It is my supervisor going thru the current situation i've just described to u about.
These days, working in Hang Ten shops are tough. so yea, what did i do? i had to treat my supervisor with welfare, as he din get any from his superiors, shame on u bosses.
He did get back to work, and yes, din get so much flak as the sales increased gradually.

Thru promoting, u get to know situations in different customer's families too! Like a very old aunties just squeezing out enough of her cash to provide 3 t-shirts worth $5 each to give to her grandson, and 2 days later, the old auntie comes back crying saying that the shirts weren't attractive enough to him, and rejected it wholesale. I mean, only Satan will do that to his grandmother. Its tough to satisfy a teenager nowadays, but really, when someone buys that special something with so much sincerety, u need to know: she gives it to u cos she really loves u, as a grandson, as a mother, or as a father, a granddad. peeps, treasure the old people, for in a wink of an eye, u never know where this valuable and caring folks will ever be there for u again. Like how i lost my grandparents to heart bypass surgery failure and kidney rupture. Its a pain to feel that way, however, during that period of time when my grandmother was slowly fading away into oblivion after the 3rd bypass, i knew i was there to accompany her all the way.

When i was young, grandma will always bring me to watch opera shows and get me 50 cent ice creams and we would watch the show till it finished. After that she would talk to me in my pram and from then on, every year, she would give me hongbao of a standard amount. When i am sick, she and grandpa will be the first person to arrive at Doctor Wee's Clinic in Bedok as early as - 5am. to get me the number 1 tag. I was really weak when i was young. Used to have jaundice as well as high fever. So yea, also, they would bring me to marketing in my kindergarten years and chat with the aunties in the markets about me and how cute i was. During secondary school, when i was dumped, yes, dumped by my first love, i cried in my grandma's arms. sigh. those were the really enjoyable and nice days cos i know i always have grandma.

However, age had to catch up.

She was down with weak heart and really needa breathe after a few steps down the stairs. As a result, we had to give her a pacer that costs 6000+ to 'mechanise' her heart. She had a chip in her heart placed But guess what? New Changi General Hospital Intern doctors screwed up the process and the chip shifted outta position. Now bear in mind my grand ma is 70+. to go thru 2 operations is madness. But unfortunately, she was unable to recover well from that first.
Throughout the ordeal she has been going thru, i, was actually at that point in time studying A levels. Everyday after class, i would get her porridge, different flavours and travel down from my school in Paya Lebar to Simei to feed her lunch. As u can see, my grandma's home did have 2 more adult occupants, my uncle, and my aunt. sigh, they were going thru immense stress themselves and din even have the time to look at grandma. So i took the responsibility. For 15 yrs she has been looking after me, caring for my needs, and now, the least i could do is feed her food and water, talk to her, chat with her, do my homework and studies by her bedside.

Now there was one day she started to act up really bad and puked all her food.
I had no choice but to carry her to CGH myself. - i was really thin at that point in time. 68kg? she was 56kg.
called my mum and found out that oh well, she had to go thru that elusive 2nd operation. It was inevitable.
She went thru it, and really, i prayed every single day for her health, cos to me, she was my confidante, my pillar of strength, and my really loved grandma.

She came out, bad. The result showed that she could give up on life anytime.
I didn't know about the situation as my mum kept mum about it. rhymes huh? but yea, she kept mum and till the day when she knew from the doctors that grandma had renal failure, of her lower part of her bodies, she called me, whilst i was having my economics lecture. and cried. I instantly gotten stunned, and really, when my chinese teacher, Mrs Heng, came up to ask me what happened and why i am sitting down there staring into blank space for 10 minutes, i cried too.
I really loved my grandma, and she failed to hang on.

I was rushed to the hospital by my teacher, and boy was i praying that there will be miracles.
Budden i faced harsh facts of reality in the hospital. At the surgical intensive care unit, lay my grandma, with my mum crying really badly outside, i told my aunt, who was also there with my cousin, to stay outside while i talk to my grandma alone.

As they left, i glanced to her left hand and held her, due to her renal failure, wherever she was injected (she was injected 10 parts) her blood vessels turned blue-black. I told her - PuoPuo (grandma in chinese), wo hui zhao gu mama gen papa de (my dad suffered a stroke also). Ni fang xin bah. In my mind, i had half the thinking to really burst out crying, but i reckon this would not be what she wanted, a crying loved one. So what did i do? and believe me i did this in the hospital. I knelt down beside her bed, and chanted Metta Sutta. after which, i transferred merits to her. Whatever or whether it has gone thru it din matter to me. I had to help my mum settle my grandma's funeral. As i see her being pushed to the mortuary for further preservation before the embalmer comes, she had stopped breathing. All my heart was thinking: I love u, grandma. BE well and happy. Sabbe Satta Sukhi Hontu.

Throughout the whole funeral i was the organiser and really got myself involved in the events like chanting, and praying, and serving food and drinks to the visitors and relatives.
Everyone came into the void deck funeral, with a mind to cry, and really, mum was really emotional, she cried together with them. every single time.
Even my dad cried.
But i didnt. For the whole process since her death to her cremation, i did not cry.
I wanted to radiate as much metta as possible to her, as well as keeping her well and happy, in wherever she will go after being in the human realm.

The cremation too was a tough process. A difficult one to endure. I needa support 30 crying aunts and uncles as well as my mum, who fainted when seeing thru the glass panels the way grandma's coffin was pushed into the scorching furnace.
Gone is the physical being of grandma, mother of my mum. However, till now, her every caring action given to me as well as the things that she has done to support me lies vividly in my heart and will never leave my soul for as long as it takes. Its her undying spirit that spurred me to get grades from A levels that propelled me to university. The entry to university, is dedicated to my grandmother.

Peeps, if u have a grandmother or grand daddy at home, love them as much as your parents, for whatever kinda person they might be, they are also 'buddhas' in our house.
A source of inspiration, a place of love congregation, a defining solace in life.

Hopefully, with this true account of what i have had, u could learn something from it, and i really wish to see u guys blog more about ya experiences so that we could learn from each other.

IT doesn't take someone older to teach someone younger the steps of life. Sometimes younger peeps could get more lessons than older ones and together, they can share.

So Anandians, don be shy toshare, cos i too, shared my reflection.
Be waiting guys.

signing off.
Captain Ananda - Alvin.

Simplicity overrode @ 1:31 AM
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Sunday, June 11, 2006

finally stupid yt get to post here!

at last our vice-capt is not a blog dumb!
Coli, Fiona & Bertina gained experience through GL role and grow older & mature! well done girls!! XD
Ernest leaving for house of Upali as vice-capt; all the best, yeah??
Capt still thinking of BIRD; the hair like DUCK's butt! *WAKE UP* :D
Mabel still in thailand; missing ANANDIANS~ kekex!

yong ting lehx?? hmm... missing you peepx in a faraway land! busying with her stuff; *haiz* proud of ANANDIANS! 3 cheers for ANANDA!

Simplicity overrode @ 10:55 AM
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Saturday, June 10, 2006

Yo... this week's sharing is at SBM temple at 3pm :D.. Campers will come down on 18th June...:D C ya there

-Vincent-

Simplicity overrode @ 10:43 AM
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Saturday, June 03, 2006

CAMP EHI PASSIKO 06 PREQUEL : OPERATION FOREVER FREEDOM! - AFTERMATH.

Yea la. scary right? so fast the camp is over. What more can i say?

These pple:

- Mabel (Best Group, Best Cheer-Anurudha)
- Bertina (Best Female GL - Kondanna)
- Coli (Last min changeover from organiser to GL, but did extremely well-Kaccana)
- Fiona (Group with misfits but managed to do well.-Rahula)
- Denise (Most disciplined group-Subhuti)
- Meiyi (Best Partnership-Channa)
- Madeline (Best Cheer - 3rd position:Upali)

have done the house proud! *salutes*
Basically, it has been an extremely tough week for u guys and u have weathered thru it!

Of course there are backstage pple who came to save the sound systems:
-Ernest
(leaving to become a HokuTaichio, Vice Captain of House Upali, lets wish him all the best with Metta from Ananda)
- Zhenglin

Thanks so much. Its been a wonderful time with u guys around to hype up the camp!

Ivan, Chee Kwan too..thanks so much!

Oh yea, as reported we will deifnitely have 4 new members coming into our house!
And they are:

- XiaoWei (Besst Female Camper)
- Kian Choong (Best Male Camper)
- Fengkai (Supreme Allied Commander of B.I.R.D at War game)
- Sean (B.I.R.D squad sniper)
haha.. nice nice..more pple, and yes, I feel we can grow even stronger!!!

Jia You Anandians, and if there is anythin u wan blog here, pls!! about the camp!!! shoot! Meanwhile, be prepared for the next sharing to be this coming saturday!!! yea!

Cheers! again Ananda!

Cpt Alvin.
Ananda.

Simplicity overrode @ 11:57 PM
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