The first blush of autumn caught my eye as I spotted a small splash of red in the foliage of the maple tree opposite my window.

First Blush of Autumn in a splash of red on the maple tree

The sight impressed upon me that a whole year had breezed past since I updated this blog. Hard to believe how quickly time has overtaken my days of meandering and that twelve months had flown by. Yet to me it seemed like twelve weeks. “Well if you feel that it’s good”, someone said to me. Why? She said, “Because it just shows the past months had been easy at least for you.”

Mmm…..  I asked myself “Easy?” I wouldn’t say it was easy but certainly there were many happy reasons to rejoice and I can’t stop thanking God. Though not rich in material or financial terms, I’ve been abundantly blessed with what only can come from God and not from this world and that’s why I give Him Thanks and Praise! Naming some of the blessings I’ve received : Family enlarged by God’s Grace, Health, Lasting Friendships, Love and support from church families,  Peaceful Home and brought close to Nature in this beautiful, and free country of Canada, where the national anthem even includes words of a prayer : Quote :   “God keep our land glorious and free!”

I confess while busily discharging my earthly duties, I’ve not done as much as I should to serve God except in small ways like helping to clean our church kitchen  and doing what I can to serve in various church programs including produced a Christmas Play in church and serving in many small ways. Honestly  I’ve not done much for God compared to what God has done for me but one thing I can humbly submit, I would not be counted among what the Book of Proverbs condemned  “sluggards” in PROVERBS 6:6.  “Sluggard” what a strong sounding word of rebuke – alas, hardly heard of these days though! It means “slow and lazy”.

Taking stock of the past year,  far from being a  sluggard, I  daresay I count myself  closer to being the Ant here in the same verse who received praise in the next two verses of Proverbs 6 for acting “wisely  providing her meat in summer and gathering her food in the harvest.” So you know as I said, though I’m not materially rich, I’m not starving but in fact blessed with abundance of fresh food and produce here in Canada.

So what had absorbed my time these past months? I recall  in late summer 2012 , it was house-moving time for me and so when autumn came, I was still frantically unpacking boxes and trying to settle in the new location. In the midst of that, I was asked to contribute a few of my poems for an anthology publication which was then published and released in November. Next with Christmas in view, our Church offered me an opportunity to script and produce a Christmas Play and December 2012 became both challenging and memorable as I had the drama to handle at the same time my son Glenn came from Singapore to spend the month of December and hoped to enjoy a White Christmas with us. However the snow was slow coming last December especially in the Toronto and Waterloo region and by the week before Christmas our ski programs in the area all had to be postponed. Since Glenn had come to Canada for snow, his brother – that’s my son Nelson living in Toronto decided to drive us up north where it had been snowing for some time and we headed for Mont Tremblant Ski Resort where Glenn would definitely be able to ski up there. On our return from Mont Tremblant we stayed one night in Ottawa and Glenn enjoyed his tour of Parliament House as well.  We also stopped at Kingston for a good lunch so everyone especially Glenn felt glad that we made the trip up north. Christmas church service was great and the drama was well received too. In addition Glenn was able to join us for our Church’s Annual Christmas Dinner held at one of the Golf Clubs in our area. After the Christmas week, Glenn and I packed our luggage as we were returning to Singapore as I planned to be there for 2013 Lunar New Year, especially to visit my Dad and family in Singapore. Before I flew to Singapore my heart was uplifted by the joyful news  that my son Nelson and his fiance Ereeny confirmed they finalized their wedding date on 2013 May 18 to be held in Toronto which meant I would have to be back in  Toronto after two, at most three months stay in Singapore.

How was my return visit to Singapore?  I would best describe as hectic on top of humid.  My time divided between springcleaning, clearing out old stuff, visits to my father who miraculously almost was able to identify me despite his advanced age       ( 95 ) plus having been declared a dementia patient – and then again I was busy “catching-up” with friends, family, relatives, juggling early breakfasts/ late lunch / late dinner appointments in keeping with the long work-and-business hours in Singapore.

Our 2013 family highlight undoubtedly  was our son’s wedding. Nelson and Ereeny’s Wedding brought a family reunion in Toronto with my two sons Glenn and Daniel and  wife Cindy and my grandson Elliott flying in from Singapore and Elliott bravely shone in his role of Wedding Ring-bearer despite jet-lag ( see 3 wedding pics on page). Wedding guests from afar included, from California, my sister-in-law Vania and her husband Kok and my old friends coming from Perth, Australia, Ivan and Dinah, the parents of my god-daughters Delise, Delcyn and Desiree. The girls or rather young ladies I should say now,   couldn’t come because of their jobs.

After the wedding, we accompanied Dinah and Ivan on a Canada tour visiting  Niagara Falls, plus the Toronto and Waterloo regions and to a day trip out to London, Ontario, then headed up north to Ottawa and Montreal. After Ivan and Dinah left us,  I was thinking it’s high time I updated this blog but before I could, an email popped from friends Teow Koon and Siew Wah from our church in Singapore informing me that they would soon be visiting Toronto and hoped to see as much as they could from thereon in two weeks. They wished to meet with me, get some travel tips and also catch up of course. So again I pulled on my travel shoes and assumed the role of hospitable Canadian host as best as I knew how.

By the time my friends returned to Singapore,  it was  already August and that’s the peak season for Canada’s Summer festivals, theatre and music concerts – and you know, these have always held tremendous hold on me.  So once again, I failed to devote my concentration to write – however I did read a lot this summer and completed a few books reading along the way as I hopped from one event to the next, reading on buses from stations to destinations, reading in theatre foyers between showstimes, in cafes, on park benches and reading at home before bedtime till I dozed off while my bedroom lights were left on.  I may insert a book recommendation or two from my summer reading in my next blog but for now, I feel I should first share what I learned while revisiting the Book of Proverbs as one of my Summer Reading projects. I had to pursue this because during one of my morning devotions I felt a strong spiritual nudging to go read and seriously meditate through the Book of Proverbs. The Book of PROVERBS  was among some of the Bible texts I studied as a new Christian and the problem was I studied it like I would study any literature text. Just as I would study Poetry or Shakespeare for an exam, mechanically I would commit to memory many of the popular verses but not pondered much on their meaning. I was a new Christian and I was young and inexperienced in life. In later years I was led to study more theologically challenging passages in the Bible and consequently, had never meditated on the Book of PROVERBS seriously.

This time I was pleasantly surprised I enjoyed the re-reading and noted many interesting observations which I overlooked before. Too many to consider them closely one by one in this current blog, so I’m just showing  four of them.  I picked  these as you will not find them frequently quoted nor mentioned in sermons to my knowledge.

PROVERBS 4:4-5

Let your HEART hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom: get understanding.

My remarks: Note this scriptural instruction doesn’t say hold fast my words in your mind nor in your head but rather in your HEART. Remember I shared how I used to  study of PROVERBS the same as I did my Shakespeare? I would deposit the words in my head. No wonder my learning was devoid of  insight. The seat of Wisdom and Insight/Understanding is in our HEART not our Head according to the Bible. This is where many academicians and scholars so full of knowledge in their heads can still lack wisdom and insight.

PROVERBS 4:30

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh but envy makes the bones rot.

My remarks: I think if not for my move to Canada I will have difficulty knowing what a tranquil heart experience is. Thank God in Canada surrounded by rivers, natural lakes, hills, forests, clear blue skies, I can now relate to this.  In the different context of Asia’s crowded and highly competitive cities like Singapore where life is dependent on racing ahead of one’s neighbour, it is rare that one can preserve a tranquil heart for long even when one could have been so blessed with a tranquil heart from God at one time.  Meanwhile intense competition on the other hand is fierce breeding ground of envy which the proverb here warns “makes the bones rot”. Paying heed to the truth of this proverb may save us from heart attack, a major killer claiming the lives of many city dwellers.

PROVERBS 17:27

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge and he who has a COOL spirit is a man of understanding.

My remark : Fascinating! We think the description “COOL” which is popular among people today is contemporary, is new? Oh no, I just discovered the KING  JAMES BIBLE (KJV) published the use of this word long before us. It says here in the proverb that a man of understanding is “Cool”   How interesting!

And finally, not a new precept but an essential Christian reminder which I regret is seldom preached from the pulpit in our contemporary church:

PROVERBS 23: 4

Do not TOIL to acquire wealth.

My Remark:  It is important to note that the Bible in general and this Proverb in particular, are NOT against possessing wealth. We can read in the Bible that God in fact is the one who bestows blessings of wealth and status upon those He approves for their demonstration of faith and obedience. ( Abraham, Jacob, King Solomon for example). In this proverb the emphasis is on the word “TOIL”  which means “OVERWORK”. The proverb warns us not to overwork ourselves to earn riches – in other words, not to be obsessed with getting rich.

I’ve come to the end of this sharing.

Thanks for reading and certainly love to have your feedback.