smiling thru' the winding cracks

the a-levels begin next week. you see the spiral in some of them. they do not seem as worried as you. some gladly smile through the winding cracks.

i sometimes wonder what goes on in the minds of students as they prepare for their exams. the nerves set in and there were many times when i felt more panic than them. but there also comes a time of quiet detachment as i allow each to take their path, and own their learning in ways they best know how: to be discriminate in using the methods taught, to watch and keep close vigilover the pits that loom ahead. plan well and avoid booby-traps. interpret within easy grasp and push an argument, through... with perfect teenage not kiddy clarity. avoid sweeping statements in the mind. bolster observations with modern evidence and ultimately, to write with focus, empathy and wisdom, knowing the sensitivity we all seek in our lives might shine in the sensible lines you are committed to write.

all the best, dear good students as you set sail on the rough winds ahead. be smooth in your flight. don't crash the rocks! always write with dignity and dogged persistence in the same thorough ways we've trained ourselves to live and to be.

i'll see you again, sometime... on that distant shore ahead...

Thought-Work by john o'donohue

Off course from the frail music sought by the words

And the path that always claims the journey,

In the pursuit of a more oblique rhythm,

Creating mostly its own geography,

The mind is an old crow

Who knows only to gather dead twigs,

Then take them back to its vacancy

Between the branches of a vacant tree

And entwine them around the emptiness

With silence and unfailing patience

Until what was fallen, withered and lost

Is now set to the fill with dreams as a nest.

to s11...

we wrote our stories together and held them in a book. i brought them thousands of miles with me, to remember each one of you. now the journey turns full circle and once again, i find you there. the same sparkle that drew me to you, the innocence kept.

these days are worth more than memory, beyond the fond sentiments we had. we claim back that morning, that circle we shared. we had a beginning and it goes on without end. this hour seals back the blessings gained: forgiveness and faith, renewal and grace. those missed and missing moments are filled again with the song of our names as we we run towards our journey's end...

chinese flavours: L journey w s22

learning journey with s22....food and ethnicity, chinatown: includes a 7(?) course meal in a traditional hakka restaurant, a peek into a family run pastry shop where intimacy rolls out in more ways than one. the personal touch we taste in food. the sun basking on sweet breadcrumbs, bits still stuck on my flu-blown nose. our long march down sunny alleyways awashed in scents of tea-leaves, lychees, cold crabs, tendons, sea cucumbers and wildflowers. the street aromas waffing our assumptions. murking the meanings of being chinese. being one never became as delicious as today. food and identity. slurp...burp... time again to salivate.

p/s: special thanks to diana chua for leading our nose all the way...

reunion with the stars

my star wars legacy. capital ships embodying a partial self. now bequeathed to my cousin. i revisited them today, fingered the wings, turrents and landing pads- tie-fighters, bombers, interceptors, imperial star cruisers, x-wing, and the solo's millenium falcon...befuddled by the glory that lay before me. the cool and secret life of things.

more marvel

time off from marking and seasonal bloodbaths on those scripts. a different blood war thrives on these shelves. i could spend up to an hour re-arranging them. doc strange fights mysterio while sasquatch and thor work their best muscles and trash the sentinel to the core. bullseye and spidey meet again and unlikely tag teams in the form of capt A vs mr sinister while maestro meets his deformed humanity through the man-thing. other peak battles are coming to a store near u. stay tuned.

night study programme: when consultations become our consolation

i try to keep peace as a mass of information runs riot in my mind. concepts, constructs, jargons and paragraphs of expected knowledge and other ways of knowing are disassembled before me. my teacher does the finetuning. we students, the reorganising. a word is trimmed to perfection as a phrase is worded then mined. we chisel each sentence toward some argumentation, that perhaps technological progress may relieve but can never resolve poverty. i dunno how answering this question may make me a better human being but i need to push on and get my notes right. we feel a different kind of poverty tonight as the sun sets to an oncoming darkness. we gaze ahead and look to our newfound peace, a faint beacon hidden within our skies.

there is pride gained through intellectual achievement. but my heart is now tuned to waiting. for hot lumps of canteen croissants where i can munch with my pal and 'cher, squeeze our stupid cheeks and grab a needed pix for memory; simple us, delightiing. rediscovering the joy of being...that was in the morning...

ten years from now...

times spent with s22.

i remember this picture, taken many years ago. the class was our kingdom. the board, our battle maps. testing the limits of our reading, securing the facts that bring us peace. we toy with wonder in the middle of a sterile afternoon. kept alive by laughter and the unknowing love that honours these spaces and sets us free...

organic moments: L. journey w s03

a short season of learning journeys are back again. brief respites post-prelim blues.

organic, countryside philosophy given to 06S03 (Bollywood Veggies) ...alot more focus on grasslands, tastebuds and wild fingers this time. one class of food and we find a greater palate for knowledge. another class of herbs, a cup of nature and the palmprints of ivysingh to swap, zap and slap the office of state doctrines away.

it is in hours like these that everyday philosophy gets discussed outside the classroom. we sometimes wonder how much of everything will stay long after the wierd exams are over. back to roots, back to nature. sense and intuition. touch, wait and see. learning. teaching.

red pods of banana flowers fall. collect pools of noon rain. sealed.

placed and homed to make other tables glow.

under crimson skies

i never knew there were such bright sunsets to see on college grounds. it's near end-september. no more storms ahead. mood slows down and another of night's lighting begins. the walk grows silent by the hour. i've learnt to befriend closures. repacking the dreams we had, the ideals we bore. the disappointments shared. there is time to say goodbye. sometime soon, it will become real, forever. for good.

sent. 11 am

Faith is something so hard to undertake at times. I can be frank with you before the Lord. How that purifies us, I know not. But you have helped me pray with greater nakedness on my own journey. May this pain and anguish of waiting soon end for you and me...

behind the church door

of all places...of all errors...

JC2 2007

I captured this inside an Adidas store in melbourne. a fitting tribute to my 3 science classes this year...seemingly stoic (so3) but certainly witty (s11) and gleefully boisterious (s22) for a change. your manner of learning and utter resilience flattens the arts students like a pan. these are my grand and sweeping statements and i would gladly declare them again.



cheers and dedications to you...all three classes...my best batch thus far... i would have gladly taught them all over again, if given the chance...(even if the feeling isn't mutual ! ehehehe...)

to o6 s03, s22 and s11...the As are near...u know what these words mean in light of the immense pressures ahead...hard work sucks...and one is tempted to feel quite pressing and 'impossible', many a time...keep steady padawans. you'' survive this journey. hang in there....there are hands waiting to catch , not maul you.

p/s: s22 X-Men and Contemporary Society. GP lesson as promised, as u wished for, next tues. put on your thinking caps and start naming as many characters as u can...who they are, what they stand for, what keeps them relevant and popular in an ever-rational society?

cajoled

alrite, alrite...i will try to pen again. thank u for the kind notes of encouragement...past and present alike...though i must admit its hard to write after such a long drought away.

once more then, the fall of desert rain

9 july 2007

i left on 9 july 2006 and began one journey on the tenth...a year returns in full circle. swiftly it comes, they say. now it sweeps away and goes. changes expected. to be seen. there is too much to say.

i go to bed watching you. waking at dawn, you gazed back beyond time, and looked back, toward me. the distant sky deepens

the promise already made.

this week made complete

congratulations to cat and john...this day we have all been waiting for...remember little rocks, tomorrow?

we started with just 5 in 2001...see how far we've come...one faith with our many circles of history. our breaking of bread, our sharing of the Word, our sharing faith. gospel. your love a deep reflection of the heart of Christ.

last light before dawn

When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenent I have made between me and you and all living things so that the waters shall never again become a flood...genesis 9: 14

on the morning of my departure, saw another rainbow extending over the roof of the church,directly outside the hotel window. there have been alot more along the way.

...time to go...

elemental