Its easy to live by the day without a worry or care when we are young. When we are under the weather, our parents are there to care for us and look after our needs until we recover.
We grow up knowing that sometimes people around us who are especially more senior in age sometimes encounter situations where they need to be hospitalised. It is easy to observe the situation as a third party. We can be a little concerned but that's about it. The most we would probably do is to visit the medical centre and share our good wishes with a get well basket of goodies.
Now, when this befalls someone in the family, someone close to our hearts, then its a different situation altogether. We are overly concerned. We are there for them as much as we can. We want them to have a full recovery with our interest at heart because they are dear to us.
What if it hapens to us? How do we face it? What do we do? How do we behave?
This is the closest it can get. A major sickness is discovered. We need to go for an operation. Money would definitely be a concern but more importantly how strong are we to actually face this. Do we know how to be prepared? Now the tables have turned around, its not about someone else, its about us. We need to face it. We are going on that operation table, not anyone else. We are going to face the risk of to survive or not to survive.
Have we made ourselves mentally strong enough? Have we accepted that this happens to anyone and everyone in different forms? Have we accepted that its in our roadmap? We need to acknowledge that this is happening to us, we need to accept it and we need to go through it. It does help getting emotional support, spiritual support, to make us confident that we will recover and continue with our life soon.
So, don't wait until it happens to you. Prepare yourself mentally, spiritually, emotionally and with the appropriate knowledge of what you are facing or going to face in the journey of life on the path of ocassional sickness.
That way, your positive attitude will help you face it and recover well.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Kindness Still Exists
It was Sunday and I had a hectic weekend as usual with guests from the city. By the time I returned home, I just dropped to my sofa and took a nap.
After about an hour or so, my door bell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone, but since I thought I saw a familiar face ringing the bell, I walked to the gate and guess what. To my surprise it was somebody I did not know. Must have been the tiredness and was probably still half a sleep.
Anyway, this young girl was having this lovely brown pedigree dog at my gate on a leash. She asked me if that dog was mine. I replied no. She further clarified if I knew who owned it and if I had seen it before. I responsed negatively again 'cos honestly though the doggie was truly lovely and well-groomed, I had no idea who the owner was. She then explained, she and her friend found it wondering around and lost and so decided to find out from the neighbourhood who owned it. I replied, sorry it's not mine, I have one of my own.
When she left, I kind of missed the lovely canine. I wouldn't have minded providing temporary shelter until the rightful owner was found. Anyway, it was too late to offer, 'cos they had left.
I thought about the kindness and compassion shown by the girl and her friend to take the trouble to go, door to door to help the dog locate her home.
KINDNESS STILL EXISTS .............
After about an hour or so, my door bell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone, but since I thought I saw a familiar face ringing the bell, I walked to the gate and guess what. To my surprise it was somebody I did not know. Must have been the tiredness and was probably still half a sleep.
Anyway, this young girl was having this lovely brown pedigree dog at my gate on a leash. She asked me if that dog was mine. I replied no. She further clarified if I knew who owned it and if I had seen it before. I responsed negatively again 'cos honestly though the doggie was truly lovely and well-groomed, I had no idea who the owner was. She then explained, she and her friend found it wondering around and lost and so decided to find out from the neighbourhood who owned it. I replied, sorry it's not mine, I have one of my own.
When she left, I kind of missed the lovely canine. I wouldn't have minded providing temporary shelter until the rightful owner was found. Anyway, it was too late to offer, 'cos they had left.
I thought about the kindness and compassion shown by the girl and her friend to take the trouble to go, door to door to help the dog locate her home.
KINDNESS STILL EXISTS .............
Sunday, June 1, 2008
No Man is an Island
An e-mail was sent out to a team to prepare on their activities before turning up for the meeting. An SMS was sent as a reminder to ensure they read their e-mails. But guess what, when the interim leader called the meeting to order, looks like all attending were not prepared cos they either did not read the complete mail & had just scanned through or not checked their mails at all. It was essential to have the input from each of the member on their areas for an upcoming project. So, what could we do in the short time with no one prepared. We even had guests from a visiting team team from the capital city to join and learn on the best practices.
Fortunately, the Secretary of the team arrived though a little late. Alas, the saviour! She shared who was responsible for each activity and the interim leader assigned the members who were to plan out items to prepare for their respective activities. The remaining members were sent to perform the final recruitment drive for participation in the project.
They were all required to update on their assigned roles before dispersing for the day. Looked like the communication mode still failed. So, the interim leader requested for the summary of the items required for the respective activities and it was a wild goose chase again. A had to locate B to get the lists.
Meanwhile, there were no numbers available on recruitment provided either. Upon using technology of SMS to get this information from one of the team members, again, the interim leader was re-directed to the Secretary. Upon enquiring for the Secretary's contact, looks like the team member was not aware. Anyway, eventually the information was obtained.
Talk about the importance of working together as a team and using technology to assist e.g. SMS, e-mail, IM, phone calls etc. There is still opportunity to work on. One man show versus Team Work.
Fortunately, the Secretary of the team arrived though a little late. Alas, the saviour! She shared who was responsible for each activity and the interim leader assigned the members who were to plan out items to prepare for their respective activities. The remaining members were sent to perform the final recruitment drive for participation in the project.
They were all required to update on their assigned roles before dispersing for the day. Looked like the communication mode still failed. So, the interim leader requested for the summary of the items required for the respective activities and it was a wild goose chase again. A had to locate B to get the lists.
Meanwhile, there were no numbers available on recruitment provided either. Upon using technology of SMS to get this information from one of the team members, again, the interim leader was re-directed to the Secretary. Upon enquiring for the Secretary's contact, looks like the team member was not aware. Anyway, eventually the information was obtained.
Talk about the importance of working together as a team and using technology to assist e.g. SMS, e-mail, IM, phone calls etc. There is still opportunity to work on. One man show versus Team Work.
Murphy's Law
Planning of a educational visit began early in the year. A contact was provided to the host but when the host got in touch with the contact, there was no response. A pro-active member of the visiting team had decided to take the initiative to liaise. That was great! So liaising began between both parties via the pro-active member. Several negotiations went on based on the understanding of the pro-active member until the final days before the trip. Meanwhile the host was in touch with the various functional teams to ensure a sharing and tour was provided along with making arrangements for some of the meals. And then when the day arrived, Murphy's Law came to play. The arrival of the group was delayed due to unforeseen diversion of traffic at the bridge, some highway jams etc. This threw the whole plan out of the window. Fortunately, the host acted fast and did some swapping between the tour & the presentation portions to ensure the functional groups would be around to lead the tour at their stations. So, lunch, tour & eventually presentations completed. The whole program was delayed by 2 hours though. The guests then went for dinner and a visit to Gurney Drive which is a scene not to be missed when in Penang.
The next morning, the hosts arrived as early as 7:00 am to check on the guests breakfast arrangement and then to follow through on the checking out process and storing of luggage. The group then broke up into 3 to interact with the respective teams for key learnings. The final part involved a joint Surprise event on home recording. The guests enjoyed a different experience of an on-the-spot live recording and received a copy of their singing album.
The last part was to have lunch and adjourn. The program here was simplified to allow more time for the group to commence on their remaining part of their tour to neighbouring temples of other traditions such as Burmese, Thai & Mahayana before stopping over at the newest mall in Penang - the Queensbay Mall.
On their journey back, there was a final education part of the program at a new monastery in Ipoh just a short left turn from the highway. This monastery was officiated during the Lunar New Year early this year. Its located next to a beautiful hillside & cave. There seemed to a delay of 2 to 3 hours arriving here once more.
After visiting the scenic monastery, it was now time to go back home to the city.
Moral of the story, great trip with immense education and learning for both the hosts and guests, perhaps, the building in of buffer as a contingency measure would have helped from reaching back at the early hours of 1:00 am which was approximately 3 hours behind schedule.
The next morning, the hosts arrived as early as 7:00 am to check on the guests breakfast arrangement and then to follow through on the checking out process and storing of luggage. The group then broke up into 3 to interact with the respective teams for key learnings. The final part involved a joint Surprise event on home recording. The guests enjoyed a different experience of an on-the-spot live recording and received a copy of their singing album.
The last part was to have lunch and adjourn. The program here was simplified to allow more time for the group to commence on their remaining part of their tour to neighbouring temples of other traditions such as Burmese, Thai & Mahayana before stopping over at the newest mall in Penang - the Queensbay Mall.
On their journey back, there was a final education part of the program at a new monastery in Ipoh just a short left turn from the highway. This monastery was officiated during the Lunar New Year early this year. Its located next to a beautiful hillside & cave. There seemed to a delay of 2 to 3 hours arriving here once more.
After visiting the scenic monastery, it was now time to go back home to the city.
Moral of the story, great trip with immense education and learning for both the hosts and guests, perhaps, the building in of buffer as a contingency measure would have helped from reaching back at the early hours of 1:00 am which was approximately 3 hours behind schedule.
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