The Beginning of A Spiritual Journey with God

Today, after the first official session (facilitated by Mr. Benny), was the first day of an official spiritual journey for me, and I just want to share with everyone this short passage from Mother Theresa

"And we read that in the Gospel very clearly - love as I have loved you - as I love you - as the Father has loved me, I love you - and the harder the Father loved him, he gave him to us, and how much we love one another, we, too, must give each other until it hurts. It is not enough for us to say: I love God, but I do not love my neighbour. St. John says you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbour. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbour whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live. And so this is very important for us to realise that love, to be true, has to hurt. It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him. And to make sure we remember his great love he made himself the bread of life to satisfy our hunger for his love. Our hunger for God, because we have been created for that love. We have been created in his image. We have been created to love and be loved, and then he has become man to make it possible for us to love as he loved us. He makes himself the hungry one - the naked one - the homeless one - the sick one - the one in prison - the lonely one - the unwanted one - and he says: You did it to me. Hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find, it may be in our own home. "

Peace, brothers and sisters in Christ, and fellow friends from all backgrounds. We're one family, and may we co-exist with love and kindness.

Turning 21

I was supposed to post about this on 1 Oct, but as usual I got lazy on that day :p Basically I turned 21 on last Thursday. So technically, I am now legally an adult.

Entering Adulthood

When we were young, we're always in a hurry to grow up, thinking that it's so cool to be an adult. We get to stay up late and watch tv as much as we want. We have lots of money to spend as adults. Being the youngest child in the family, you can bet I had these kind of thoughts in my mind before too.

Unfortunately, as we slowly become adults, we start to realise the vast amount of duties that we will have to shoulder. Things begin to get complicated: studies, money matters, relationships, career prospects, duty to family, duty to the society and the country... We start to ponder whether it is worth it to gain freedom with duties over our shoulders as the price.

"We start to miss being kids"

Being an adult means that I can no longer view the world through a kaleidoscope and acting like a teenager. Even action or statement now I make from now on has to be based on a series of critical thinking with a sense of maturity (Bah! Forget it man!...) Even now, as a medical student, I'm constantly trying to adapt myself to the duties I will have to carry as a doctor in the future and I constantly wonder whether I'll be able to bear all the pressure. All the sudden, you realise that being an adult was no fun at all.

Happiness and Life

Nevertheless, we must not be afraid to live, and be happy... Time passes by so fast that even the saying "blink of an eye" is an understatement. We always worry a lot about the future, and keep looking back at the failures we had, thus limiting ourselves from truly enjoying 'now'.

As we become adults, we experience more and more disappointments. And the reality makes things even harder. We slowly lose that shinning 'hope' we used to have in ourselves. We limit ourselves, living a life of routines and stop dreaming for something better.

"We start to believe that dreams do not come true"

I was watching One Tree Hill a few days ago and this quote got stuck in my head (I know it's cheezy but I kinda like it)

____________

"Take a look at yourself in the mirror, who do you see looking back?
Is it the person you wanna be?

Or is there someone else you were meant to be, the person you should have been but just fell short of.

Is someone telling you that you can't or you won't? Because you can.
Believe that love is out there.

And believe that dreams come true everyday, because they do.

Sometimes happiness doesn't come from money or fame or power. Sometimes happiness comes from good friends and family, and from the quiet nobility of leading a good life.

Believe that dreams come true everyday, because they do.

So take a look in that mirror and remind yourself to be happy, because you deserve to be. Believe that.

And believe that dreams come true everyday, because they do."

____________

Happiness is something we cannot perceive physically. It comes in many ethereal forms: our relationship with our loved ones and friends, when we help others and make their dreams come true, when we get what we want, and many more. The path to happiness may look uncertain at times, but never be afraid, for you'll never know how magnificent that moment of bliss may be (Obviously because for all you know our beloved Earth may just get blasted into pieces by some random comet tommorrow and there goes any future opportunities for you to attain happiness)

I was just a small kid not long ago, and BOOM! I'm 21 now. So, I will look forward to the future full with hope and I'll push my potential to the limits, because I believe I can!

Significance to the world

Whether we like it or not, at some point in our lives, we will be asking ourselves: "Have I made a difference in this world?" Have you ever wonder what marks your existence on Earth? Whether you make any difference to the world through the things you say and the choices you make?

"Can I make a difference to this world?"

All of us want to leave a mark on this world. But often, we tell ourselves we are too insignificant to be able to do anything. Well, I truly believe we have the ability to do so. We don't have to take extremely big steps, even small, easy things matter.

Mother Teresa once said: "We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

These are my thoughts as a newbie adult. Funny isn't it? LOL... I should be thinking about Genting Casino instead... I'm freaking 21 now~! :P

PS: Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes, presents, and birthday parties. You all truly enrich my life and I hereby express my greatest gratitude to all of you.

Currently listening to Summer's Summer from Sodagreens' new album! (Note the lyrics reflects the life of an adult, in a postive larrr!)

ICG 2009

Last week, I went with Ivan, Esther, Eileen, Rebecca and Joceline to a 4-day Catholic camp: Inter Campus Gathering 2009.

It's held once every 2 years, and this year, it's in Majodi Centre, Johor. We went as representatives of KLCC (CSS IMU)...

I'll let the photos do the talking :D

OMG.............

I've just realised... JH's birthday was last week... but it wasn't Saturday...

As much as he's a person who don't really care much about things (while being paradoxically a perfectionist within =.=, yea I've seen these two sides of him co-existing at the same time and place for several times, despite the fact that they are antagonistic traits), I don't think I'll be able to escape from Lord Kell's druidic sorcery for forgetting his birthday and THEN actually FORGETTING his actual birthday AGAIN...

Apart from that... when's Alvi's and Duncan's bday again...? ***Quickly opens Facebook***

Crap lar... I think I should go to KLCC top floor now...

Monday CSS Outing

And so, as I've mention a few days ago, I went for a LiefLine Camp last Saturday... After the camp on Monday, 7 of us: Esther, Mad, Jebby, Ivan, Denis, Nelson and I went to try out Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant at Gardens...

The price was indeed... ouch... but the food was quite delicious... well, I guess that explains the queue...

Here's some pics

PS: I'm broke... and I've a whole lot of stuff to read T.T

Happy Belated Birthday

IMU hsa been making me way too lethargic lately...

The worst thing a friend could possibly do is to forget his friend's birthday, and of all friends in IMU...

I'VE FORGOTTEN THAT LAST SATURDAY WAS JH'S BIRTHDAY!

Two months before 29 August, I had a plan to casually ask him about some new R. A. Salvatore (or some cool author's fantasy novel) that he hasn't read yet, and sneakily buy one as his present for his birthday... and now... sigh...

AND I'VE JUST CAME BACK FROM A CATHOLIC CAMP THAT TAUGHT ME TO LOVE MY NEIGHBOURS (Layman: people around me, including friends)!

With ECA form due tommorrow, I doubt I could find time to purchase an extremely belated birthday present... so there's only one thing left I can do...

Here's a sincere wish from me...

小小的生日祝福。

略表我的心愿。

愿你的追求孜孜不倦、

愿你永远学而不厌、

愿你的计划都能实现、

愿你的生活永远美丽！

Happy birthday, and may happiness enrich every second of your life...

PS: I won't forget next time ><..................... and I hate Sem 5... By the time Sem 5's over, I might even become so busy that I'll forget my own date of birth...