Post-vacation thoughts... Rest is what we need!

It happened.
The way thoughts and concerns about work: back-log, people to call, the ever growing do-list, the bits you suddenly realise you forgot...creep into the last few days of vacation. I was already carrying a sermon burden, but some moments, my entire calendar and to-do list appeared in my mind like a drop-down menu !
I sighed.

It happened.
I came home and it was meeting the next day which led to another meeting..several emails requiring attention and that to-do list which now looks oddly inadequate. With my lapses in memory, i scramble to recall if i had already planned for that meeting and this appointment... My soul beat a quick retreat and I longed for a whole new world!

Did you ever want a permanent get-away, a forever holiday? I surprised myself; I who laud embrace-the-present and live out loud. Of course, at any time, our lives are never completely how we want them. Lack, loss or loneliness is part of the human experience; and moving to Colorado will only bring another set of angst.

The vacation was great. A different rhythm, spending time with warm, loved people. But what I need, as always is rest. Rest in Love that alone can reassure, tune me sound and send me forth. And you know what? this Rest comes easily really. My worn chair, a quietened heart, a journal and Bible plus a good book or two.

Get some rest my friend before you launch into 2013!

travel notes: Ubud, Bali

We wanted a getaway ie. to get away from what we have come to associate as 'life". So it must be somewhere different and will demand something different from us.
I settled on Ubud, Bali - a largely rural, highly traditional network of villages slightly north of all the more usual beach-tourist-city spots. The omnipresent expressions of folk Hinduism: carvings, flower offerings, small temples in homes and along the streets, were pretty overwhelming. It's like stepping into a whole reality.

The Balinese were gentle and nice...like many of their Asian coutnerparts who have not been pressed into the modern city mould.
We stayed in Tegal Sari which meant the vale of rice fields. We have a one room tiered ground floor apartment that opened to padi fields. It's a totally unSingaporean view!

Our four short days filled up with enough adventures...
watching piranhas tear away at a chicken
a moment with the wood carver
a driver who pretty much explained everything Bali to us
Dad & daughter climbing up a volcano hill to catch the sunrise
Keith making his own kite Balinese style..and boy does it fly!
Being harrassed by monkey at the monkey forest
Mucking around a black sand beach
& fending off 'can we have the ipad?' moments & those sibling spats ---

-- well...some things you cannot get away from...!

vacation

It's the time of the year when everyone who has any means talks about vacation. The standard Q is "where do you plan to go?".
Vacation - tours to hot popular places, getaways, family hols..sound sometimes pretty vacant. We go with our hearts full and return mostly the same.
Someone once said that we wont die from over-information. we will die from lack of appreciation.
What exactly about those places do we appreciate? Cheaper prices? Local cultures? Different foods? Cooler weather. We treat everything as utility. Go where it is useful for us - coz it's cooler, cheaper, popular etc.
I feel weary of this attitude. But I want my vacation too: a good rest break, a new scenery to rejuvenate my senses.. i dislike the mad dash for good deals...and now i have no plans and little funds (due to my toilet repair
saga)...ha!
Also, i dont think going to someone else's land and using all that resources (flight fuel etc) is really justifiable sometimes..since when did we get the idea we need and deserve these things?
What is it that makes our lives rich and full, meaningful and powerrful?
A vacation perhaps. Or perhaps the choice to NOT take one and give away to those in need...
What do you think?
O please - let's go appreciate what's before us first...!
Happy holidays!

no electricity & other thoughts

On something a little stronger than a whim, we took our kids, 8 and nearly 3 to Cambodia for a short family vacation. The grandiose vision is to challenge the kids to appreciate life (urban and affluent in comparison)...ha, they had a frolicking good time - never mind the food was different and we did not have electricity so it was total blackness once they shut the generator at 9pm. I guess for kids, they feel safe and happy as long as parents don't panic!

For me though, the trip triggered off many other thoughts:

1. cambodia is 85% subsistence farming and living. THey do not plan ahead, catch, grow, sell, buy and cook on a daily basis. They are at the mercy of weather conditions and corruption.
Well, urban, city, plan-ahead, try not to fail, get the best deal Singaporeans are unable to get it. Sure it's a nice change, but it's not a way of living we can accept i think...a friend who lives there told me she gets blank stares when she asks the youths what they dream to do or become. Considering their way of life, where education is still fairly limited and village-based...what did she expect huh? [then again, we also get blank stares here] come to think of it, in my poorer days growing up, my grand ambition was to sell char siew rice...

2. i felt extremely burdened and lost about how these poeple would come to know Christ. i feel this way each time i see small handfuls of households in a dirt-track village...but as usual God surprised me. Missionaries have lived here and yes there are christians. easy to miss since the pagodas and temples are gilded palatial structures next to bamboo and straw and wood huts! and yes, i dare say these Christians display a peace and joy that quickly bonded us together - even thoughin our hearts we knew we are worlds apart in every other sense...and whatever our context, we must let Christ sit squarely on the throne and work out our faith from that centre. Not good for us to impose our version/expression/flavour of faith on these good people...! though er, they translated a couple of Hillsongs into Khmer already! Unity and Diversity!

3. there was a small kindergarten in the compound we were at. the kids had no books but rote learnt from the only teacher who yelled at them and whacked her cane to get compliance...one child was chewing on a plastic bag. the guide told us plastic has made its way and is affecting the rivers and river-life. The vision of progress in most poor areas is alas the unsustainable, consumer-crazy model we offer them...something needs to be done about this!

Finally Phnomh Penh is pronounced with the 'p' sound!! it's not silent - and i think the Cambodians are not either! may they rise up and make a new sound in our world.