I'm down with a fever, and the Elton John special on Star World begins at nine, so I won't be too long here. The last few days have had their share of interesting and poignant events and by-the-way observations, and I thought of putting a few of them down here.
* * * * *
This photo was taken on Thursday, opposite the school canteen. I think Li-Shia and I were heading for the Counsellor's office, when we stumbled upon these multi-coloured Ixora flowers. The red variety (in the background) are common, but I daresay it was my first time seeing the white and pink ones.
Unfortunately, I didn't have my SLR with me, or else I could've used a smaller aperture to keep all the flowers in focus.
* * * * *
Today's Every Day with Jesus reading struck a chord. Text was taken from Jeremiah 2:4-13.
My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
--Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)
As I read it, I thought of the well-known exchange between Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
--John 4:7-13 (NIV)
One question emerged from all this: does God sometimes wait for us at our broken wells? So often I have attempted to solve problems and endure hardship with the water from my broken cisterns... only to fall into the arms of the one True Well.
When we go to the well, we may well get more than what we bargained for.
* * * * *
Listening to U2's Achtung Baby yesterday, these words from 'Acrobat' resonated with me...
And I must be an acrobat
To talk like this and act like that.
And you can dream, so dream out loud
And don't let the bastards grind you down.
...and I now know how to play 'Ultraviolet' on the guitar, thanks to my brother!
* * * * *
Poetry Speaks, 21 September:
"At first I was enthralled by certain tall, mysterious poems. Then some ordinary-looking poems that turned out to be great dancers captured me. Some poems don't dance at all. They speak to you from deep inside their chairs, and you know that you are forming a friendship with them that will last your whole life."
--Molly Peacock
Poetry Speaks, 23/24 September:
from "The Eve of Rosh Hashanah"
The eve of Rosh Hashanah. At the house that's being built,
a man makes a vow: not to do anything wrong in it,
only to love.
--Yehuda Amichai
Today is the beginning of Ramadan, and yesterday was Rosh Hashanah. The month of fasting/blessing in the Islamic Calendar, and the Jewish New Year, respectively.
* * * * *
Here are excerpts from the movie reviews in The Star, yesterday:
You, Me and Dupree by Zeta Lu
Remember, from now it's just you and me," says Molly (Kate Hudson) to his new husband Carl (Matt Dillon) at the beginning of the film.
This disturbs me very much, for it seems to imply that Kate Hudson is a man. One-up for gay marriages everywhere!
The Banquet by S.B. Toh
To see or not to see: that is the question. Whether 'tis yet another outrageously bad film like Chen Kaige's The Promise, which to watch is to wade into a sea of apathy -- to drowse, to become vulnerable to forty winks. Or perchance 'tis a film that will give us pause?
Tarry no more, I say, and take thee at once to the picture house.
I'm convinced! This is one movie I've gotta watch! (Any movie reviewer who quotes Shakespeare like this in his/her review, either loves the movie absolutely, or absolutely loves the movie!)
* * * * *
From an SMS I sent Li-Shia on Wednesday:
As i read bio,i'm rediscovering d joy i used2have.I've always done well;y should i fear or give up now?
By the grace of God, I managed to finish twelve chapters of Physical Chemistry over this weekend.
To employ a heavy metaphor: Paris landed that Wednesday, and I lost my footing. ;-)
* * * * *
Why is it that the weekends lately seem longer than weekdays? Could it be that the presence (or absence) of some people makes that much of a difference?
Finally, here's something I really like. It was Li-Shia who suggested I try taking a picture of one of these insects hovering above the Ixora, and I'm glad she did! Truly I did not realise how beautifully the photo turned out, until I zoomed in on it just now.
For what it's worth, my Minolta DiMAGE G400 camera still takes excellent macro shots at only 4.0 megapixels.
No comments:
Post a Comment