Just a quick post before I read a little bit of the news and head to bed. I can’t believe we’re already heading towards mid July, which means I have about 6 weeks left in Hong Kong before I head back to Boston. What do I have to prepare? I don’t really want to think about it right now. I’m currently working Monday to Friday, and partying it up with friends when I have time.

Every day I am learning patience. I won’t go into detail, but there are things that get on my nerves and all I want to do is run away from the source but obviously, that is not the right way to do things. I am learning the limit of my patience, when I need to walk away and take some time to myself, and when I need to just suck it up and let God handle it.

The other day on my way to work, I saw a maid taking a walk with a 2 year old little girl. The maid was trying to get her to practice walking, but the little girl could not stop crying. She continuously cried and followed by saying, hold me! carry me! But the helper just said, get up! I’m right here.. just keep walking. It was adorable and made my day all the better.

It did make me think of our relationship with God. How many times in a day when something does not go our way, and all we want to do is cuddle up in the corner and hide away. We don’t want to face the issue, do this or do that, we keep falling and God keeps saying “Get up my love, I am right here for you. Don’t worry. I won’t give you anything you can’t handle.” 

It is really refreshing being reminded of God in the little things we do and see every day.

This past weekend, I went out into the woods and went rock climbing. The last time I went “rock climbing” was in middle school with a man made climbing wall, if that makes sense. A friend of mine invited me and I said yes in a heart beat. I have never rock climbed out in the mountains and I was super excited. I didn’t know anything about gear, what the wear, what to bring, and all that jazz. Thankfully, my friend’s dad and his friends were quite professional and goes on a daily basis. He taught and guided me throughout the afternoon.

I climbed three routes on that crag. First off, I am not sure what exact mountain I climbed but it was about a 20 minute hike from the top of old peak road. I assume it was or very close to the Victoria peak mountain because the view from the top looked exactly like looking down from the peak- except- I was hanging by a thread. Rope to be concise.

I was nervous to start off with but my excitement buried my nervousness. Once I got my hands and feet rolling on the rocks, I was willing to do everything I could and try as many times as I could to get to the top.

There are different levels of grading each climbing route. I did three in total, beginning with level 5.6, then 5.9 and finally 5.10B which was quite difficult and took a few tries before I finally reached success. The challenge was incredible, if I have the chance to do it again I would be willing to take any challenge. Of course I wouldn’t want to take one that could very possible injury myself badly but other than that… Bring it on!

What an awesome experience and replaced my gym work out for the day. I didn’t go to the gym Sunday either because I played lawn bowl with my mom and her friends for about 3 hours. I use to criticize that game…but I have to admit it is quite challenging as well.

Well there was my very active weekend. I’m super sore and quite tired now but it was well worth it.

 

It’s been a week and a half since I’ve been back in Hong Kong, but I haven’t updated much from my last few weeks in Canada. During my month in Toronto, my relatives and I took a trip to Veradero, Cuba. We went to a nice resort with all you can eat and all you can drink. We really enjoy taking holidays together, it’s a time for us to relax, to catch up with each other while we’re not caught up with our own lives.

Veradero was beautiful. The resort was quite big, and our daily schedule was as follows: breakfast, lay by the pool, lunch, lay by the pool, dinner, watch the show in the resort. There were two days where we strayed away from that schedule. One day we went out into the town, walked around and checked out the beach and the other, we went on a day tour to Havana.

The history of Cuba is quite fascinating. Just about two months ago, they began to allow for private businesses so when we went to Havana, our guide took us to what has to be the most expensive restaurant in Cuba for lunch. We weren’t very happy about it since we wanted something local, but it’s understandable and predictable that he would bring us there.

Unfortunately Veradero was very touristy. The whole town is full of resorts and hotels, raising the tip expectation of the Cubans by a ton. Spending a week there, we got to experience the different mood swings of many of the staff. The waiters and waitresses at the dining hall was no where near half as friendly as the recreation staff, with one or two exceptions of course.

Anyway, it was a great trip and fantastic to see my relatives again. I’m looking forward to going back to Toronto during my christmas holidays to be with them again although it will be the first time not being back in HK. I’m currently back in Hong Kong again, so if you’re around and you want to catch up let me know!

On another note, day 6 tomorrow. Let’s do this!

It’s something we all strive for, some more than others. We all want to be known, to have our names be mentioned, to be acknowledged for whatever we worked for but that doesn’t happen as much as we wish for it to happen. As I was helping my cousin paint her new house today, I took the chance to leave my mark on the wall. The picture below shows my cousin painting over and covering up my chinese name.

What a symbolism for our every day events. Sure we could be happy for that moment of fame, but it does not last and soon we’ll be finding ourselves searching for another place to leave our mark. Fortunately, our mark has already been made in God and that will never be washed away. We were individually made unique and all we have to do is acknowledge that God is the creator and put that “mark” there to remind us that we’re special.

So don’t spend all your time searching and working for that moment of fame, because it’s already there- not painted over, not replaced, nor will it ever be replaced.

^13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

– Psalm 139: 14 (The Message) 

Just the last few weeks, I’ve had the chance to read “Humanity” by Jonathan Glover. It’s quite a dense book, lots of history, lots of philosophy and requires a good amount of reflection nearly after every paragraph. This afternoon as I was sitting in my grandmother’s house, I picked up the book, opened to a random chapter and began a few hours of nerdy-ness.

Because the content of the book is so dense, I decided to jot down quotes that I felt required a second thought. The following jumped out at me,

“Narratives of defeat bring the desire to redress a grievance: the bent twig. Narratives of victory can have a triumphalism, which stirs resentment in those on the other side.

They also contribute to the belief trap. The narrative is the background against which new acts are judged, making it harder to accept the genuineness of gestures of friendship, and making the hostile interpretation more plausible.”

Our life is full of self-created narratives. Every event adds on to our story, it has the power to change us, it helps us mature. Not until I read the above quote did I think about how every event is a narrative of Defeat or Victory; whether it be a game against other people, or a struggle within yourself.

In this particular context, it’s talking about defeat and victory between people; friends, family, strangers. The last sentence of that quote is true of our every day lives. We begin to judge someone, positively or negatively, from the experiences we have with him or her.

Once something has happened, there is no turning back and interactions in the future have been affected. I’m afraid to say I am experiencing such with my extended family currently. It has nothing to do with me personally, so being a third person watching it, it’s quite heart breaking to see the family so-to-say fall apart because of a series of events in the past. Holding grudges gets old, talking about it day after day gets tiring, starting from scratch and building new narratives are the only way to change. Sadly, that doesn’t happen very often.

As Glover puts it, every new act is judged. Unfortunately, negative acts are exaggerated and positive acts are doubted. I am sure I speak for many people when I say; sometimes we wish we could turn back time and write a different ending.

Every day new stories are still being written and who knows, maybe a series of positive acts will make things right. We have to keep our head up and hope for the best.