Good Sleep

From a year 2011 recently self-processed negative. Negative has grown mouldy. Probably taken with Leica M6, 35cron and on APX400 film.

At night in bed, I'll pray a short prayer next to him, asking Jesus to give him sweet dreams and a good night sleep. And he'll correct me by saying, "No! No dreams! A good sleep has no dreams."
He's absolutely right!

In the morning, I'll ask him, "Did you have a good sleep?" He'll usually say, "Yes!"

That's how simple life seems.

But today, I think of all the children in the world who's suffering. The ones who flee to the mountains to escape the killing of the ISIS, the ones who suffer hunger and the lack of clean water around the world, the ones kidnapped by syndicates and made beggars on the streets who probably having broken arms and legs, the ones dying from a terminal illness and suffering in pain, the ones brainwashed as young soldiers killing others... so on and so forth.

Could we just for a moment, daily, remember that we are indeed very fortunate?

Life "stops" sometimes...

Agfa APX400, probably Leica M6 with 35cron, processed in DDX

Lately, I have finally dug out dozens of my unprocessed films since 2011, a mixture of 35mm to 120mm, and even some 4x5 negatives, to process them. (the above is a frame from the first roll I begin scanning now in the early morning of 22 Aug 2014)

And it happens that today, 22 Aug 2014, is the official mourning day of MH17 crash victims in Malaysia. My unifi TV at home is showing the condolences message reminding us to mourn, as the bodies arrive back Malaysia today.

Life "stops" inside us sometimes, when something big, painful, or life-changing happens to us. That's the time when we begin so engrossed with what we are going through, mostly painful, struggling between moving on and lingering in our pain. Some of us are more sensitive in our emotions, some of us not. In this case, probably the less sensitive are more fortunate.

I am kinda surprised I can even remember some of the shots I took... the place, the mood, the situation I was in... after more than 3 years... but of course, I have problem remembering some of them.

The fact I stated year 2011 is also because of some of the shots I remember... the person/s in the frames, the places...

They always say, when you remember something so deeply, it's either an extremely happy or an extremely sad time you had.

If you look at my blog, you would have noticed I stopped blogging for more than 2-3 years. My life kinda "stopped" over things I was going through.

There's no doubt that pain is the best teacher in life, provided that we get through it, which we can if we keep at it. There are just too many things we don't have answers for, which we either keep on thinking and searching OR we move on and let the answers come to us (if they ever come to us). That's my way of moving on. I choose to take life easier, because life is too short and there's not enough time for me to do the things I love, and to love the people around me.

I am mourning for the lives lost in Iraq, in Syria, in Gaza, in MH17, in MH370, in Nigeria... we have seen much in the recent times.

May we treasure our lives and our loved ones and be contented with what we have daily, remembering our brains are just too little to understand God's ways in dealing with us. If we know we can't understand the whole picture, we shouldn't blame anyone.

No Retirement

An elderly in Singapore

Singapore is a place where you will see the elderly serving you in fast food restaurants like MacDonalds and at neighbourhood coffeeshops as well. They will also be the ones cleaning up your tables after you at shopping mall foodcourts. It is also common to see grey hair elderly security guards guarding offices and shopping malls. My dad is one of them. They are in no way able to chase after any running robbers or criminals.

In Malaysia where I live as a Singaporean now, I see many elderly in MacDonalds too, but they are sitting at the tables eating and chatting away. They are also often seen in expensive restaurants, shopping malls, enjoying their retiree lives.

I am speaking in general.

The old lady above is collecting used tin cans to sell for a living, just in case some of you don't understand what she is doing.

I hope the recent announcement by our Singapore Prime Minister at the NDP rally will help the ageing problems in Singapore.

Hungry Ghost Festival 2013

"I thought she wasn't there?"

This photo is posted a year late. But now is Hungry Ghost Festival 2014 so I thought I should post this. I don't see them performing at the same spot this year. Time flies.
Taken with a Ricoh GR.