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Ah…. another great sunny day was well-spent creating something that is “WOW” and meaningful for others and of course for myself.

I was at Hort Park today, participating in a Charity events organised by yet another batch of people that care enough to create a difference to this world(at least in this small little country). I was there as a volunteer and was part of the logistic team.

 We there early in the morning “working” together to create “A walk” that can be remembered by the elderly and the children where both are the beneficiary of this event.

It was really a simple event, where there is the basic entertainment, food and fun for them to indulge in. However, what really make this kind of events special, is really the love and heartfelt warmth that is spreading around as well as the genuine care and concern for another human being.

Looking at smiling faces of the Ah Gong’s and Ah Ma’s, the everlasting energy of the children and pesperation on the committees and volunteers faces shows that love and care can really be border less and unconditional. If you were there, you can really see the effort put in by the committees and the volunteers as well as the gratitude and thankfulness from the elderly and children.

That kind of image and that kind of feeling, gives one(me) a feeling of love, hope and peace, I can’t really explain how i feel here. It is just that whenever I in this space, I just realised that I’m indeed fortunate to be alive and also that there is always hope and peace around and so much to hope and work for in life.

Really, life is not just about yourself, life is not a individual process to be completed alone, life involves people and  yourself. YOU can make a difference to your life and other people’s life and of course the people around can make a difference to their own life as well as your life.  

Whatever it will be and regardless who they are, as long as they are living and breathing, just remember all can make a difference and everyone do deserved to have a great time and great life. All we need to do is to remember to create and make a positive difference at every moment and soon everyone will always have a great WOW Day and a great walk to be remembered just like today.

According to Wikipedia, Boxing Day dates back to past centuries when it was the custom for the wealthy to give gifts to employees or to people in a lower social class, most especially to household servants and other service personnel…. however in present times, Boxing Day have became  a day for giving gifts to any people…

And on this year Boxing Day, I did give gifts to other people, or rather it was we did.

26th Dec 2008  at 10.00am, was the day that my first ever participation in giving gift on Boxing Day in my life and the recipients were a bunch of special people.

The gifts were really simple stuffs that includes cakes, cookies and a Christmas song, despite that, the gifts were still specials as it was  presented with lots of care and loves.

As you see, I was with my group of friends on that day, we had gathered together to give a gift of love and care for strangers that we didn’t know.  This group of strangers were patients of Singapore General Hospital,SGH.

We were there, to sing them a Christmas Song and at the same time giving out some brownies and cookies. The aim of the day was simple, it was to bring love, joy and care to another human being. 

So, with about 30 of us, we splitted into 2 groups and we went to ward by ward, greeting the nurses and patients, singing our heart up to them. It was really a great feeling, despite the husky voice, Igot after the session, the gifts that I received for myself, were plenty of sincere thanks you, genuine smiles and even tears from the patients.

The constant “Thank you,Thank you”  from the patients really warms my heart, by what touches me more was this auntie that held my hands and said “Thanks you so much for making my Christmas season so special, I almost forget how Christmas feels like after spending 7 days here, thank you for being here…’ 

Well, frankly speaking, to me, I just felt that I’m just doing my part and doing some volunteer work, and I am prepared to receive the two words, “Thank You”, and the effort I put in was not a big deal. But I was wrong, as I never expected to receive a string of appreciation, that auntie just let me realised that, our action in singing and giving might seems small but to them, the auntie it was a big deal.

That Boxing Day morning, the group had created a memorable Christmasand hospital stay for them. For that short 2 hours, the hospital was no longer a chilly place filled with sick people and cold medical machine, it was filled with Songs of love,  voices of care and feeling of warmth.

And on that day, the group and that auntie reminded, me that no matter who we are we can still make a difference to another person and that every contribution counts, whether it is small or big, the contribution still matters…..

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon had once again ended with a big BANG!! This year, they had about 50,000 runners running for them. Wow, can you image 50,000 people, the event has really  become one of the biggest running event in Singapore. How I wished I was one of the 50,000 runners on that Sunday.

Well, theoretically, I’m one of the 50,000 as i had already registered myself for the event many months ago, but on the other hand, I am not one of them and that;s because, once again I didn’t went for the run!!!

Ergh!!! that the 3rd time that I had signed up for a marathon and again I didn’t get to participant in it!!! To be frank, I’m quite angry about the whole situation, but at the same time I know that It can’t be help that I have to give it a miss again!!

Well, a man got to do what a man got to do, I really had to give it a miss this time as I was sick once again. I had been having this sickening cough for the past 7 days and at this point of the blog entry I’m still coughing. I had been looking forward for the marathon this year, as for the past few years I had missd it and it’s been 3 years since I told myself that I will finish a marathon. Time and time again, things will happened in the last min and I had yet to complete one marathon, once was due to job assignment the other two time which includes this year is due to sickness.

But this year, I really want to participant so much, that it was only at 3am on Sunday morning that I told myself that I should once again to drop the idea to run.  The main reason is that I really need to be responsible. Why? it is because, being responsible is not only for my own health, but also to be responsible to other people who cares for me.

A few days before the marathon, I had many people around me telling not to go as I was still coughing badly, and that includes my friends, my colleagues, my boss and most importantly my family members.

At first, I still want to go, but as the date gets nearer, and more people telling me not to go, even to the point at 3am in the morning!! There were a SMS asking me “”Hey! Are you sure you still want to go, If you are still coughing, better not go, dun be stubborn, is 42km man, and there’s always another marathon but there’s only one Jones!”  that was when that I started to realise that “Hey, what am I doing? how come I’m so stubborn that even I’m sick I still want to go for the marathon, can’t I see that because of my stubborn, I have put so many people in a worrying situation, How can I be so irresponsible.”

It was that thought that came to me that made me decided to give the marathon a miss. Althought, it still feels like a miss opportunity but then again this miss opportunity had made me realised that there are many people around me that cares for me, and I learnt that I should be more responsible, not only to them but also to myself to live well and rest well so that these people will not worry for me again. Thank you all for all the care and concern. I promised next time that I will only participant in the marathon only when I’m fully fit and not when I still nursing my cough so that, all of you will be supporting for me rather then worrying for me…..I promised!  

Oh boy, it’s been such a long and busy week for me ha!, not that I’m complaining, in fact I’m enjoying every single minute of it. It has been 13 days since my last post, and I almost failed to keep to the promise and my commitment to my 1 post per week.   So here it is… ha

For the first time in my short 5 months plus working  at The  Absorbent Mind, I get to train and facilitate 5 days straight and with 4 different groups of audience! It all started from Tuesday and below are the list of program I’m involved.

• Tuesday (14^thOctober 2008) I was leading a training program at Ang Mo Kio Secondary School,  Using movie clips to train the Normal Technical (N.T.) student on a few values that I hope will serves them in their life.
• Wednesday(15^th October 08) was a ice-breaking session with Shines’ new batch of “O”-levels student with students coming from all parts of the world from nearby Thailand to China, to Uzbekistan and  even Russia. It great to see different nationality coming together and have lots of fun. It was great working with them.
• Thursday (16^thOctober 08) I was with a corporate company, a car-grooming company, it was a team bonding session at the Safra-Yacht Club at Changi, have a challenging time there as I was alone dealing with 35 adults that don’t really know each other, and my job was to break their ice and have them talk and mingle with each other. I believed I did a good job as when the session end, I saw lots of happy and smiling faces and I received lots of thank you from the participants. I so glad that I had been able to make their day happy.
• Friday and Saturday (17^th &18^thOctober) were fun too plus it is also a great learning session. It was a 1½ day team building training with a chemical company. The participants went through a series of activities including the intermediate rope elements. Again, taking a group of 15 adults that are holding management post and are older than me, presented me  a certain level of challenge.  Despite that, as the sessions went on, I was able to get their respect and trust and it turns out to be one of my best facilitation session. In fact, one of them, a foreigner gave me a pat on the shoulder and say thank you and say that I have let him learn something valuable from this 1 ½ day training. I tell you… that’s was such a morale boosting for me.

So what the point typing all these on the net and frankly it doesn’t seem to matter to anyone. But for me, it does and there are certain learning points for me to take note.

Taking today to rest and reflect back on the week, makes me realised, that indeed, I do love my job. And I do enjoy working with youth and adults more than anything. The feeling of able to be part of another person life, able to put some laughter  and see people getting bonding more than before, puts a smile on my face.  It makes my world feel peaceful and full of hope.

 The world should be like that, where everyone should be happy and everyone will give a damn to another human being.  That’s really one of my dreams to see that happen, but you know what a lot of people tell me??

 They say don’t be stupid and I’m dreaming. No one really have time and care for another person. They will only care for themselves and their own family, other than that who cares!

Well for me, I just beg to differ. That’s because I’m not like other people, I’m Jones, I believed that the world can be full of love, care and hope for anyone and everyone. Just Image what the world will be if that is the real reality and the real world we all live in. Don’t you want to live in that kind of world? J