"Life"

I started by writing about "Death" which I do not think anyone who thinks they are in their right mind would want to talk about. However, I learn from viewing this video that "Death" is very much part of "Life".

The question here is whether anyone knows how to live? And.......

Talking about living..... I just came across this link from a forwarded email which I wish to include in this post so that we can keep this video handy and to be brought up every now and then to remind us how to live........its a lecture given by a man with 3 young children who has only a few more months to live due to pancreatic cancer.... an inspiring true life story.
Click here: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8577255250907450469&hl=en

Appreciating Nature

How does one appreciate nature, enjoy scenery, view natural phenomenon like sunrise, sunset, aurora borealis, midnight sun, clouds formation, waterfall, greeneries, lightning and others and marvel at their occurence; how do we allow it to be percepted by our senses......??I found the way the author of "Daughter of Heaven", Leslie Li's description very extraordinary clear and appropriate .....
How one should appreciate nature:-

I look at them as one should look at a vertical Chinese landscape scroll;
from top to bottom,
from far to near.In the distance,
to the west,
was Folded Brocade Mountain - layer upon layer
of soft greens, grays, and violets,
like so many quilts folded neatly,
one piled atop the other.
To the east,
on the riverbank, the straight,
proud shaft of Wave Restraining Hill
was more than adequate to contain the Li River,
which,
due to the dry season,
was almost at a standstill.
on the river bank

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

I read the book "The Life of Pi" by Canadian author, Yann Martel and I have extracted a very interesting passage on one of Pi's methods of escape; the story is that he being a survivor of a shipwreck on how he (Piscine Molitor Patel) got through his ordeal..... "One of my favourite methods of escape was
what amounts to gentle asphyxiation.
I used a piece of cloth that I cut from the remnants of a blanket.
I called it my dream rag.
I wet it with sea water so that it was soaked but not dripping.
I lay comfortably on the tarpaulin and
I placed the dream rag on my face,
fitting it to my features.
I would fall into a daze,
not difficult for someone in such an advanced state
of lethargy to begin with.
But the dream rag gave a special quality to my daze.
It must have been the way it restricted my air intake.
I would be visited by the most extraordinary dreams,
trances, visions, thoughts, sensations, remembrances.
And time would be gobbled up.
When a twitch or a gasp disturbed me and the rag fell away
I'd come to full consciousness,
delighted to find that time had slipped by.
The dryness of the rag was part proof.
But more that that was the feeling that things were different,
that the present moment was different from
the previous present moment."

WARNING: No one should try this method of escape ... no matter what and we do not hold any responsibility of any eventuality. It is just something extraordinary that the writer of the book "concocted" - I hope, and which a blogger felt like sharing with others!! So be warned.
And, nevertheless, I still find the description very extraordinary and fascinating........

GGC - Another Attempt at Fun!

Two pretty faces....

One can see the food is an important part of a GGC's life.....nothing better than a good meal.We are back to our old haunt, after a break of a month! Another attempt at having fun again....

Brunch at Loy's

Super Delicious.....

The Buffet Spread... just dig in!!

Best Carrot Cake, EVER!! Special Order accepted!

Our gracious hostess

Food glorious food....... a meal of home cooked "lontong" dishes by our gracious hostess goes a long way... what with good company and fun!!After eating ... its tall tale time!!

2 simple riddles:
Aunt Lucy has a big one
Aunt Molly has two small ones
A man has none and
A lady has it in front

Ramasamy has a long one
The wife will use the husband's one
The priest will not use his one
and your brother has one

GGC - Happy Times

Hahahahahaha!! This is the best stress reliever!

Just give us a table and some chairs in a comfortable environment..... and you will see happy and laughing faces like this.................Golden Girls having another eat out and chit-chatting session.......

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Are you familiar with this term "Familiarity breeds contempt". Actually the more I think about it the more I agree with it. Indeed when people gets too familiar with each other, we see a lot of the less desirable.

For example, my friend was telling me that she knows a couple who live with each other for seven years and finally decided to marry but the marriage lasted only 6 months. Why? I am sure its not the mere marriage certificate that changes the situation; it must be the human factor that has changed! Someone certainly let down their guard with the stability of marriage.....

We are definitely more polite with mere strangers we meet than we are with our friends, worst still our spouses, children, siblings or family members we lived with. With people close to us, we tend to forget to say "please", "thank you" or a simple "may I". Why? Simply that familiarity breeds contempt......

Maybe we should start looking at the way we treat our friends and love ones and put some effort into how we relate with each other ... you may just make the world a better place for some....

Do you see the rain? Or maybe not.
Maybe it is such a familiar sight that we have taken it for granted!!

Stop once in a while to smell the flowers, appreciate mother earth.
Do not allow contempt to get you, nature is always there to awe you!!

"Death"

Death ~~ what is it to you?

Most people fear death and do not even want to talk about it or simply avoid the subject in totality.

Have you ever ponder what death is all about?

I like what I read, this definition about death in Tony Parsons' book "One for my baby"; the words of Canon Henry Scott Holland.....

He said....

"Death is nothing at all. I have slipped away into the next room. I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still."

"Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me."

"Let my name be ever the household word it always was. Let it be spoken without effect, without the ghost of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever means. It is the same as it ever was - there is absolutely unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident! Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well."For me, Holland's words are well said, simply makes "death" ~ the much feared word sounds so manageable, so easy to comprehend, something everyone needs to come to term with....... one fine day. The eventuality is definite ~~ we do not know when and how.

So, lets live our life like there is no tomorrow ....... taking each lovely day, one day at a time ...... always be thankful for yet another day to live.....

Let's live!!!