que pasa

I used to not understand what was the big deal about Monet's paintings.  I probably still don't get it, but perhaps I'm a little wiser now.

Today as I walked along the beach in Singapore without my glasses and contacts and looked around, my surroundings looked very much like a Monet painting (yeah my eyesight is bad).  I couldn't tell the individual blades of grass, trace the shape of each leaf, imagine the shape of each cloud to be something else, or clearly make out the features of people walking past.    Took some getting used to, then I realized that it's actually quite pretty to have definition fade and these vibrant colors meld a little.  Surreal, but nice. 

Then I put my glasses back on, and everything came back into focus.  Still very beautiful, but in a different way.

I see that as an analogy to my life.  So many things are unclear, as if I'm walking around all the time without my glasses or contacts on.  But Papa has been working in me and with me, and now I can appreciate the beauty in not knowing everything, and I am increasingly sure that what looks like a blotch of spilled paint on the canvas of my life is gonna turn out to be part of a valuable painting that brings the painter accolades.

I used to want perfect eyesight so that I could wake up every morning and tell the time on my clock at a glance, instead of having to squint, guesstimate or bring it up thisclose.  These days, I'm satisfied with knowing that one day I will have perfect eyesight and everything will be crystal clear.  And then I will see what a wonderful piece of work I turned out to be, and how He has been glorified as a result. 

It's kinda like the verse in 1 Corinthians 13, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." I know if I stick close to Papa, I’ll be okay, and happy, in my Monet world.

Wow, these places look gorgeous.  Suddenly I'm finding all these nice places to go, 2013 feels like such a long time more...

I have to say, this latest ad by Nike is very very cool ad, even funny too.  Love it!

Wow I don't think I'm a train person but these sure look fantastic!

I'm here waiting for my friend to show up, we're gonna have a great
time I know.

But recently I feel like some things are gonna happen, I'm kinda
excited. It's not like I know what these things are, so I can't tell
if I'll like them. But I just have this sense of anticipation building
up, little things in the recent past contributing to this feeling. Of
course, today being new year's eve helps too.

It's pretty cool to feel like this. In a time where many are uncertain
of their path (myself included), I feel ok with it. I have Hope :)

Wow, I thought it's been a much longer time since I wrote, but actually it has only been 2 months.  So here's a progress update on how I've been.

Physical health.  Cough cough.  I'm sick again, but already on the recovery.  Half of shanghai was sick for the past month or so, so I was bound to go down, me with my not so fantastic constitution. But on the upside, this bug didn't take me out that badly like previous illnesses have so maybe I'm getting a little tougher.  Maybe, haha.

Have signed up for a gym and trying to build a regular routine for that, the illness kinda threw me off though.  Also, strange how suddenly my schedule is so packed all the way up to Chinese New Year.  Still playing casual ultimate on Saturday mornings and that has been great.  So glad to have found a bunch of friends who will still come and play in the cold winter so long as it doesn't rain.  Some newcomers have also been joined the group so it's been good to meet new people.

Soul and relationships.  This is where I'm really pleased to share that Papa has been very good to me.  He's given me easy opportunities to seek understanding of my faith, work it out, get more involved in small group, and build up a relationships with a core group of people. 

One of the things I did was to try and figure out my spiritual gifts (using Peter Wagner's Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow that my home group also did), and then test out the results to see if things would just naturally go (for lack of a better word) smoother/easier/more effectively if I used them. It is exciting to do this, you should too! 

The other thing that happened was that my small group split into three because we were too large.  So in my new small group, we've had to share the duties of getting the small group going and the amazing thing is that our core group of folks have been so generous and supportive.  The new friends Papa has brought to us are also an interesting bunch, and they keep coming back!  Yay!

Seriously, if only we would step up and ask for more, Papa has so much to give! In the words of my earlier post “Check up”, I'd say I'm surfing the baby waves now :)

I guess we're good enough friends now with China to receive a pair of pandas, wonder if they'll get any incentives to have babies :) 

Read more here.

My ayi kinda reprimanded a bit today. "Your place needs to be cleaned every week! Too dirty!" This was after not having her come by for a month because I was home for 3 weekends. So she had to work extra hard today. Anyway I agree with her, the apartment is rather dusty despite my efforts to sweep mid-week. But moving forward, so long as I can schedule her to come in every week to clean, my apartment should really be much more manageable for her - cleaning is afterall based on handling incremental changes. I don’t know where all this dust comes from, but there is no dispute that shanghai is VERY DUSTY.

It kinda reminds me of what I'm trying to do, following on from my last post. This one time onslaught of changes I'm implementing might completely overwhelm me if I don’t watch it. I mean, it's easy for me to do start all these things but they aren’t any good if I can’t keep them up. So the key for me is find a way to integrate them into my life so that it's easier to keep the momentum going.