One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight

They say that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. I challange that saying. I must confess that learning can be rather tough, not because so much of whether we understand what we learn or whether we manage to retain it but more of whether we want to put our heart into learning something. Think sometimes pride can prevent us from doing the correct thing. The Chinese have a saying, literally translated as "to love your face", which means to put emphasis on one's reputation as focus. I say, heck the reputation. We should do what we love to do regardless (ps. there is no such word as irregardless as some people like to say) of what others think. Think the reason why life as a teenager was so much more fun and exciting was because we had a care less attitude then. Now we become worry warts. I want to feel liberated again.

Anyhow, over the weekend, I went for my first Salsa class.

sal·sa
n.

1. A spicy sauce of chopped, usually uncooked vegetables or fruit, especially tomatoes, onions, and chili peppers, used as a condiment.
2. Music. A popular form of Latin-American dance music, characterized by Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Cuban big-band dance melodies, and elements of jazz and rock.

Nope, did not learn how to cook, but learned how to dance. It was pretty fun actually, quite embarassing because I'm hardly graceful. Not to mention that you had to dance with total strangers of the opposite sex. But all in all, it was a good experience learnign to laugh at yourself again. I miss doing that.

Ain't no mountain high enough

Was thinking about mountains and valleys and what a pain it is to have to go over them. After going up, you need to come down and it's pretty much repetitive. Up down, up down.

moun·tain
n.

1. Abbr. Mt. or Mtn. A natural elevation of the earth's surface having considerable mass, generally steep sides, and a height greater than that of a hill.

val·ley
n. pl. val·leys

1. An elongated lowland between ranges of mountains, hills, or other uplands, often having a river or stream running along the bottom.
2. An extensive area of land drained or irrigated by a river system.
3. A depression or hollow resembling or suggesting a valley, as the point at which the two slopes of a roof meet.

There are always going to be mountains, their colossal presence is a fixture that dots our landscape, obstacles that will hinder, that you need to exert more strength to get over. The climb will be tough, exhausting, perhaps leaving you out of breath many times. But the thing about mountains is that there is a maximun height, its finite. And when you reach the top, take a minute to look around you. To take in the beauty of the surroundings. You've become a better person, a stronger person. And having scaled that mountain, you can begin your journey down. But there will always be a higher moutnain to scale.

Are you ready to meet a new challange.

Listen, baby
Ain't no mountain high
Ain't no valley low
Ain't no river wide enough, baby
(The Temptations)

Systems restored

Ah, how it feels to be up and about at peak efficiency. Guess that's something that we take for granted. Its only when the things which you never really thought about are taken from you, do you realise how impotant it actaully is. Health is one of those things. Sleep is another.

You think little of it, perhaps abuse your body a bit by sleeping late etc, you wake up one day feeling really sick, aweful and you tell yourself that you really need to take care of yourself better the next time. You nurse yourself back to health and when you're back to health, you do silly things again....haha vicious cycle huh.

Guess that's what it means to be human - silly.

Maintenance

Well, been feeling sick for the last couple of days. Missed church on Sunday. Brain not functioning well so will be down for maintenance. New confessions will be up when brain has been defragged.

Phasing out

Something weird happened today, as I was driving, I suddenly phased out for a moment. It was for a short moment but it was a really weird feeling. What do I mean by phase out? Tried to do a search on the web but the definitions were different.

What I meant was kinda like I stepped out of the present time and stepped into an alternate time. And I was not aware of what was going on in the present time. Really weird haha. Think I might be too tired...

A Father's love

I had an epiphany (for those who do not know what it means, read about it here). I grew up in a household that tolerated no nonsense and believed very much that children should be seen and not heard. Through the years, I've grew accustomed to that kind of dicipline. I must confess that there are many times, when there are children about, they tend to be noisy and all over the place. A different upbringing I conclude.

While I understand the difference, sometimes it irritates me and I do wonder why parents allow their children to behave the way they do. As parents, I suspect that we all tell ourselves that we want to bring up our children in a certian prescribed way (something that we have formulated at the back of our minds). I find my self in a position when I see my friend's children behaving in a certain way and I tell myself that I would not allow my child to behave like that. However, its easy to see a nice pair of shoes, another to try to fit into them. I myself am not a parent so I recognize that I do not understand.

Bear with me, I'm coming to the epiphany. I suddenly realise that despite what our minds tell us, what experiences that have molded us, will give way under the pressure of love for your own child. Things which we say we want to do, will give way when your child runs up to you and calls you daddy or when he/she smiles at you. (I must qualify that no parent will tolerate the kid's bad behaviour, I am not talking about those situations, but even then, the parent's love is usually enough to cover the wrong that was done and forgiveness after).

At that moment, I realised the greatness of the love that our Heavenly Father has for us. That while He loves us so tremendously, we have been rebellious children, doing so much wrong that hurts him, but the love of the Father is greater then all the wrongs put together. He tolerates because of love and in that perfect love, He sacrifices soemthing most dear, His Son. That we may be redeemed. What love is this? A love that covers a multitude of sins. Thank you Dad.

I look forward to the day when I can also be a loving father.

After a cuppa, feels like 80km/h.