CNY Day 1

First reunion dinner of 2013 to my Dad's side of the family. Doubt I'm meeting my Mother's side this year, probably the same reason as last year.. Coz my (evil) gramps is there.


Anyway today, I was reminded/taught lessons and had also faced some disappointments.

After the dinner at the function room, one by one, to a total of 2 aunties and 1 uncle came up to share their personal encounters with God and some life-learning tools respectively.

First was Auntie Mary, she was speaking how God has been good despite her harsh life in the past 2 years, while getting herpes but God has been good by blessing her with the right people around. She lives off her tenant's rental payment, God has been good in providing too. She has reminded me that God has been good in my life.

Second was Auntie Rita. She really taught me through her stories, that God has a better plan. She says that sometimes, we don't achieve certain things in life because we're not supposed to or that there's something better. Because we can't achieve these things, we would even more strive harder to achieve it, while God has purposely made the hurdles difficult for us to get through because its not meant for us. Sometimes we will try and push, through different routes to get to the desired place of our destination, but God refuses and doesn't let us go there (probably He knows that we'll suffer in that place or won't like it in the long term). In my beliefs, if its mine, it'll be mine. Though times and obstacles may be difficult to push through, as long as its within my heart's desire, I'll go forth all the way and leave the rest to Him. To be honest, my heart's desire isn't a GPA of 4, but instead, a smile on my face when I see the results of the GPA no matter what it is.

Lastly, it was Uncle Robert (I think that's his name haha) who shared with us some learnings from his NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming workshop he attended. Basically, what he have shared, he says that from church, also can learn. Its about how words can affect others, and a positive attitude is always better because a situation cannot change even if you have a negative mindset - which affects your sleep, appetite etc. This reminds me of myself, getting to church 5 years ago in 2008. It was also around the beginning of the year I started attending because of my special friend, Bong, (we don't keep in contact but we still check out each other's tweets, I know it because I do have your name in my special twitter list). Bong brought me to church and my life was changed forever. My positive optimism, values, beliefs and profanity-free language gave me an opportunity to even expand and develop myself further in the right path. Yet, I've still got this evil side of me that I have trouble fighting with, and sometimes overwhelms me. I guess that's what Chinese believes to be the Yin to the Yang (LOL yeah I guess so).




Anyway the thing that disappointed me today was my sister. Yeah that's right, at the end of dinner, she was like.. "eh that uncle got give us ang pao or not? See the auntie over there, in front of papa, is his wife, somemore never give hor?" then give me THAT face. Cmon, you're 25 this year and still so calculative about Ang Pao. Honestly, I don't care about the value inside the ang pao, I've learnt long ago that money isn't everything. I don't want to be materialistic. Like in the story of the traveler and the wise women, I want that ability to be giving and still find happiness in it.


I remember from young, I didn't care about money through one incident. For some reason regarding money, my dad/mum wasn't happy. I really felt to go on an impulsive rage, take out a few $50 notes from my savings and throw it down the rubbish chute. I didn't but I really felt like doing that to show them that money isn't first in my life. I know in Singapore, the society is competitive and its not easy to earn money. However, I've seen some capable adults who've reached their goals in their financial aspect, in their 30s, 40s, and you know what they said? They said that now that they have reach their financial goals, they feel like life is meaningless, they want to give back to society after earning their share of the money. Instead of taking this long route, I've decide to go straight to the shortcut, I want to be happy by helping society in my own way. I can help by simply giving advice that's worth hundreds of dollars in the corporate world. Like a gym coach or a lawyer will charge an amount for a hour of teaching or whatsoever. But I wanna help without expecting anything in return. That's the true spirit of giving.



Its late! I'm heading to bed, but I shall end with... "If its meant to be yours, it'll be yours eventually". I believe in this quote from the wise men up in this head (and in movies).