Cherishing our lives

Dear Diary,

It has been a while, isn’t it? Lots of things seem to be descending upon me recently. Just a couple of days back, the unthinkable thing is happening in a Japanese company. They are retrenching staff and lots of them. They felt that the company needs to revamp in the midst of mounting losses and excessive retention of unproductive staff which contributed to high bottom-line costs. The company is trying to explore new fields of business and be competitive about retaining the best minds... eg. Me... haha... =P There is an ongoing restructuring within the company and major changes which are best not disclosed at this point of time. I am hoping for a challenging new position. ;-)

Then there is the new relationship which seems pretty tricky... A friendship between a boy and a girl is very different from a RELATIONSHIP between the same two genders. I totally understand now why girls are like spaghetti and guys like waffles. They are prone to jumping to wrong conclusions, misinterpreting (and still thinking they got it right, arrgghh... haha) and link all the unrelated stuff together when there is serious discussion. Of course, there are the various good points that gals have over guys... won’t be elaborating them today though. =P

Okay, there is the MBA assignment which I have yet to complete. I have written 2.6K worth of words and must still continue to hit at least 3.5K worth. Writing on a human resource solution to the given case scenario is not easy indeed. My target... To complete them by end of Sunday (tomorrow). =)

Today, I headed down to Redhill for community service. Forgot to bring my stethoscope along and felt a little handicapped. Couldn’t take the blood pressure of one of the residents we visited. As many of the regular people could not come, I took two young adults with me; a girl and a guy whom she brought. When I asked if he is her boyfriend, both reacted so “violently” like... NOOOOOO... How typical. Just like those who may have secret feelings for each other but still feel shy. Boy-girl relationship is always an enigma. Confess your love to someone who treats you as a platonic friend, and that’s about as quick you can jeopardise any form of friendship with that fella (guy or gal), hahaha... Visited that lady with schizophrenia and her condition seemed to be improving. There was another guy whom I visited for the first time and he seemed so sad that the children of his previous marriage did not acknowledge him anymore although he paid their university fees back then. Apparently, his ex-wife divorced him because he was a sailor. A typical work schedule when he was a sailor was 9 months out at sea, followed by 2 months back home. No wonder she dumped him. Talking to these people opens my eyes to how the world really is. Thank God that I am involved in this ministry. His eldest son is a Protestant minister who probably forgot the verse from Colossians 3:13. Do you know what that is? ;-)

After those visitations, I went to a funeral wake. It was the first time I ever attended a funeral wake alone without my parents. In this case, it was the death of an ex-pharmacy school classmate’s father. I sat there and chatted with her and her sister. Quite surprised that the sister still remembers me since my university days. Even more surprised when the ex-classmate introduced me to her mother, “Remember? He is Andrew...” Hmmm... I never met her mum... I guess I was probably a topic in their conversation some years back. Stayed there for almost two hours before taking my leave.

In the midst of all the routine, we can realise that there are many different priorities in our lives. All clamouring for our attention. Some may stay as a priority while others fade away at different stages of life. At this stage of my life, it is usually about the happy weddings... but today’s funeral wake is a grim reminder that we cannot always assume that stages in life stay within the stereotype we want them to be. Cherish the people around us and cherish life, living it out to the fullest in dignity, hope, love and truth.

God Bless,

Andrew