Finally arrived!  This epic family holiday.  My colleagues were equally excited as I was (because for 2 years at our weekly team brief I had been giving them notice I’d be taking leave as my family were coming to visit, but after months and months they lost faith, yet 2 years on, here they are at last!)  

The Holiday

For a Start – Picnic!

To ease the jetlag, we had a relaxing picnic on day 2.  Also, they don’t picnic in Indo, so it’ll be an experience.    

Other Highlights

Phillip Island’s A Maze’N Things

Collingwood Children’s Farm

Hot Pot at home

Melbourne Zoo

Luna Park

Sea Life 

Cherry picking & Albert Park Lake

City Sightseeing

At the end of the trip, my brother thanked me for making the itinerary colourful, although now we know all the kids wanted was to feed the birds and kill butterflies.  Next time we’ll just buy $3 packs biscuits for the birds and go to the park!

Reflections

I want it, but I have it

After looking forward to coming to Australia so much, my nephew said in protest, ‘We go to Australia!  Let’s go to AUSTRALIA!’ 

‘This is Australia.  We’ve been here for 2 days!’

He did that on the first week when he didn’t get what he expected.  I kept laughing, then realised I do that too. 

Sometimes like a child who doesn’t want to do much thinking, I expect to just be told what to do already.  ‘Tell me, which path?’  But life doesn’t work that way.  What goes into the decision making process is in fact already the guidance itself.  Where do I think the circumstances come from?  The people I talk to, the events that happen, the timing of things.  If I believe in God’s complete sovereignty, then He is already leading me right this moment.  Not as straightforward as I wish it to be, but I already have the answer in a sense.

Don’t do that, but I’m doing it

Another funny thing my nephew did was to do the very thing he said not to do, at the same time!

‘Don’t touch this!’ while touching the TV screen. 

‘Don’t bang on the wall!’ while banging on the very wall. 

That made me reflect on myself.  I think I do that too at times, don’t really know what I’m proclaiming.  If I believe many things I say I believe, then it should manifest itself in the way I treat others, but I find myself often falling short.

Things don’t go well and you’re not in control

As with anything that involves people, it is inevitable things don’t turn out as expected.  Even the most meticulous planning may go wrong.  One time was when my niece looked very tired and withdrawn early in the picnic, but long story short it ended up to be one of the most memorable times we had!  Everyone was dancing, the sky looked beautiful, we stayed till the end of the event and a rainbow appeared as we walked out of the park, smiling away.

I read it somewhere, ‘When we can’t help ourselves, it is always best to put a good face upon matters.  A change for the better will come sooner or later.’  That is true, not that you smile in every situation like an idiot, but that you don’t paint it darker by your attitude choice.  Instead, keep a good face in that you keep at your duty as your only business.  As to the outcome and situational change (or not), you don’t know and need not know.  Chances are, the present circumstance rarely stays the same, not for long anyway.

Fruits from unexpected tree

We went cherry picking because Mom loves cherries.  We walked right past the light coloured ones and went for the dark ones as we expected them to be the sweet ones.  To our disappointment, many that looked promising from a distance turned out rotten.  

When we decided to try the light coloured cherries, we loved them!  So it turned out there are some lighter coloured sweet cherries (i.e., light not because they’re not ripe). 

So there you go:

• There are good fruits from unexpected trees, and
• there are rottenness from healthy looking trees at first glance. 

You only see the truth when you take a closer look, don’t you?  

Secondly, a rotten fruit we first picked was an indicator of more ugly fruits on the same tree.  Decay doesn’t stay local, just like a defect of character pervades the whole soul.  In many modern pop narratives, what used to be obscene is now portrayed with heroism, as though there is anything beautiful in it at all.  But the fact is, for e.g., if someone lies for you, the same person will lie to you too in time.  Likewise with other vices, given time, they grow to full bloom.   

Pause – it is a gift

We went to a few parks nearby.  On one morning, I took a stroll by myself to scout for good parks with birds for my nephew later in the day. 

Have you realised how fast you’re walking sometimes?  As I was walking in the cool of the lovely morning, I realised I have forgotten to slow down and look around.  So I took a moment and realised there’s much beauty to delight in all around.  I sat down on a chair in the park and heard the winds in the trees, seeing birds of different colours flying around making distinctive sounds.  The order of things is a joy and delight to behold. 

Being able to pause and pay attention to the world around us is indeed a gift!  I think this is what some refer to as mindfulness, and I agree.  In my worldview, meditation is in being even more present, not absent.  It is in more thinking and not blanking out thoughts.  It is gaining peace not by not thinking, but by thinking rightly.  It results in fullness and not emptiness of the mind. 

The saying that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop rings very true to me.  That’s why I think it’s important to make efforts to employ yourself reasonably in usefulness, leaving no time to sit and rot.  As it is, we’re already gradually decaying anyway, so use whatever capacity you still have, no?  I think certainly, yes.