10 Things

Things feel surreal these couple of days. I feel like a roller coaster ride. But for all the good and bad, i am grateful.

I don't usually make lists, but i decided it'd be pretty cool to, just for a change. I'm gonna call it:


10 Things I Happen to Love
(in no particular order)

1. Kind Gestures

It is amazing how little gestures from people warm my heart up like nothing else can. I used to think little of kind acts of others and i used to shrug upon hearing nice words being uttered. Growing up has taught me how difficult it can be to say a kind word or do something nice for another person. Sometimes, it is ironically most difficult in the family and among closest friends. And though i would not call myself the touchiest feeliest of people, i've started discovering how a slight touch or a genuinely sincere thought touches my heart. How a friend's eyes could light up upon a greeting, a brush on the arm, a hug from an old friend, a pat on the back, a playful nudge, a kind word; how much i've taken these things for granted and thought mistakenly that i might be above needing such forms of human touch. Little did i know that God was trying to show me the contrary, by showing me how a touch and word can convey compassion among men and how a gesture can convey a thousand messages which can make a person whole again.

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. "I am willing," he said. "Be healed!" --Mark 1:41


2. Mornings
As much as i hate waking up early in the mornings, when i manage to drag myself off bed, the morning never fails to remind me that life is so worthwhile. Perhaps it is the way darkness gives way to light or simply something in the morning air and the breathtaking view.

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice. --Psalm 5:3

3. Tea time
It is impossible to grow up with my aunt and not love tea time. Whilst you may be picturing me drinking tea like a sir lady and perhaps exchange comments regarding the weather, i think that's far from the truth for me in real life. It's probably not so much of the tea drinking but more of the idea that tea time has become our little tradition. Like a secret shared between a young child and her mother.

4. Old People
I figured since i seem to be surrounded by old people my whole life, i might as well love them. There's something about the way the elderly speak. Sometimes with wisdom, yet sometimes with an air of newly regained childishness. Although watching loved ones age comes with a strange sort of sadness, it may precisely be their helplessness which makes me simply love them.

5. Baking
Baking has become somewhat therapeutic for me. It might be related to growing up with a baker/masterchef/gardener/superwoman for a grandmother. Somewhere along the way, the young me picked up baking because that snatched precious time spent with my grandmother, who dedicated her life to the kitchen and family and who raised me up with much strictness. Baking gave us precious moments spent together where we could forget ourselves and i've loved baking since.

6. Toddlers
To look at a toddler is for me to look at a younger brother or sister i never had my whole life and that gives me great joy.



7. Books and the smell of them

To be able to read is a great blessing. Literature and books have moulded much of who i am, the way i speak, write and act.

8. Good food, good company
Mark Twain once said: Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience; this is the ideal life.
I beg to differ by pointing out that he missed out on 'good food'. It cannot be a coincidence that the major events in the life of Jesus involved food; eating with Levi the tax collector, the five loaves and two fish, the Last Supper, the breaking of bread, the breakfast he cooked for his disciples after the Resurrection and the fish he consumed before their eyes.

For many of us Kuchingnites, there is no better activity than to bond with an old friend over good food and we all know we've got the best food here. It is a must. (Movies? Please. Karaoke? Please. Bowling? Please. Food takes precedence.) To eat before one another, with defenses down and talking over a meal. Wasn't that what Jesus did with his apostles?

9. A good blog post
I love stumbling upon a blog post while i'm trolling the internet and then find myself in the exact situation as is described in the post or to find myself feeling the same way. It can be such a so-i-wasn't-alone-in-thinking-that! moment and it helps when the world ceases to make sense at times.

10. Good music and rain (because i got nowhere to put rain).
I don't think there's anything to point out about good music. And well watching the rain fall always makes my day (Can you sense that i'm starting to get lazy with typing??)

So when i find life to be a drag and when it rains so hard on me i cannot quite see clear roads ahead, i try to remember these things which make life worth living. It helps because in remembering such good things, i find it incredible to know that these good feelings, already so wonderful themselves are a mere foretaste to One who is Goodness itself.