Showing posts with label do. Show all posts
Showing posts with label do. Show all posts

4 Mar 2008

a toast to DO-ers

when we think about change, we always focus on the external. i just spent some time at the singapore river contemplating the changes she has underwent - from a muddy silt filled disease channel to a fish filled waterway today. Most Singaporeans can viusalise the old days of lighters and bumboats and sweaty coolies hunkered under the weight of sacks of rice, coal, sugar, spice.
But as I read some of their stories i was startled at how they saw life. it was something to be endured. they had to plod on daily. there was no space for dreaming, no idle talk of self-actualisation.
How much has changed. And I am referring to our inner landscapes. Now it seems most of us think it our entitlement to be happy, fulfilled and entertained.
Of course, i do seem to note that the world is filled with two large groups of people: those who do and those who dream.
I belong to the latter, endlessly mining for greater meaning, romance and beauty. But woe is me if i ever think i am better, wiser, 'righter'. Indeed, it is often those who do, and do, and do, that makes our world go round.
I marvel at those who do, work, and come alive at smallest gifts: a friendly overture, a smile, a seat on the MRT.

Louisa May Alcott: Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations, I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

Yes we must. We must also make our beds, greet our elders, sit for a while with a friend or a stranger..

31 Dec 2007

What?! NO work?

I got a call from a older woman in my profession one day. It was to talk shop (of course). Since i felt some connection with her, I ventured to share that I will be quitting work at year's end. I appreciate her concern, but her immediate, snap response to me was: what are you going to do?
Do-ing is such a huge part of our lives that i guess my plan to stop work sounds really airy at best. Yes, what am i going to DO indeed?!
Actually there's plenty being done all the time - waking to the day, talking to a neighbour, feeding a stray, reading a good book, writing to waive that parking fine (haha), minding the kids...caring for the older ones... but i guess these are not 'jobs'.
She immediately offered me a position with the attendant, 'grab it while it's good' overtures.
I have never been worried about not finding something to do; being paid for it is another story!!
But so far Providence has seen to it that i have enough to get by. So at the nudge of Grace, I have chosen to be job-less - and I have already heard a mighty chorus of protestations....from within me and around me.
I have a fear of heights so looking down the rungs of my vocational ladder to find my feet to climb down was rather giddying and very unsettling.

Perhaps the relentless whirr of hard work Singapore style tires you too. You may not need to get off; but I would highly recommend getting away some. Detach yourself a little more in the new year from your work.
I am more than my work.
You are more than your work!