買糖

不經不覺大統華已經成了我生活不可缺少的一部份，原來我在過去四天到了大統華四次

 

今天買了紅豆味kitkat和芒果蘋果味Tropicana糖　在收銀處前，我忽然在想…到底今天的我跟十歲每天下課在銅鑼灣地鐵站買糖的我有什麼分別？

 

分別是有的：當天我要拿口袋中剩下的五元買糖，今天即使我口袋沒錢，我可以用信用咭支付

生蛇！

好驚！　數天前覺得右邊背部有點痛，繼而發現有些像蚊larn的物體。我以為它自己會痊癒，怎料這數天更痛。昨晚跟媽媽提起，她看過之後叫我馬上看醫生。今早九時去看了醫生，他跟我說是生蛇，是可惡的水痘菌潛藏在體內，在身體抵抗力差時便發作。要數星期後那類似蚊larn物體才會消退，但還會有些痛，要數個月後才徹底痊癒。

 

真可惡！

僕人

這主日的福音是耶穌講及浪子回頭(Luke 15:11:32)的比喻。這次重讀這篇福音，留意到一些以往錯過了的一些細節。

 

Luke 15:17-19
他反躬自問：我父親有多少傭工，都口糧豐盛，我在這裏反要餓死!
我要起身到我父親那裏去，並且要給他說：父親! 我得罪了天，也得罪了你。
我不配再稱作你的兒子，把我當作你的一個傭工罷!

 

在聖地之行中，我對上主的僕人的意義有了深刻的體會。這回在福音再讀到這章節，又觸發了一些想法。

 

記得C.S. Lewis曾打比喻說，天主創造我們像一個玩具工匠，造了一個又一個玩偶。這些玩偶本來沒有真正的生命，它們不是人，只能活在玩偶的世界中。*天主派耶穌來降生成人，來救贖我們，讓我們升價萬倍，我們真正得以變成天主的子女，而非次等的受造物。套入那比喻中，其實就像玩偶得以變成真人一樣。這是神蹟－我們不能把我們作為天主的子女這回事視作理所當然。

 

福音中的浪子，在喪盡家財過後，想到自己不配，才想到要當父親的傭工。(他自問不配作兒子，也可能是他低估了父親對他是多麼的寵愛。我感覺上他好像借此作談判條件，認為這提議會較易為父親接受。)耶穌卻恰恰相犯，本是天主子，卻化身窮人，受人唾罵，為的就是要作天主的僕人。

 

我們的不堪，促成了耶穌的無比痛苦。我們有富家子不當，卻硬要任性胡作非為。我們還要任性多久，方才懂得珍惜？

 

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*C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity原文：

 

Chapter 5 The Obstinate Toy Soldiers

 

Did you ever think, when you were a child, what fun it would be if your toys would come to life? Well suppose you could really have brought them to life. Imagine turning a tin soldier into a real little man. It would involve turning the tin into flesh. And suppose the tin soldier did not like it. He is not interested in flesh: all he sees is that the tin is being spoilt. He thinks you are killing him. He will do everything to prevent you. He will not be made into a man if he can help it.

 

What you would have done about that tin soldier I do not know. But what God did about us was this. The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man–a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular colour, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a Woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.

 

The result of this was that you now had one man who really was what all men were intended to be: one man in whom the created life, derived from His Mother, allowed itself to be completely and perfectly turned into the begotten life. The natural human creature in Him was taken up fully into the divine Son. Thus in one instance humanity had, so to speak, arrived: had passed into the life of Christ. And because the whole difficulty for us is that the natural life has to be, in a sense, "killed", He chose an earthly career which involved the killing of His human desires at every turn–poverty, misunderstanding from His own family, betrayal by one of His intimate friends, being jeered at and manhandled by the Police, and execution by torture. And then after being thus killed–killed every day in a sense–the human creature in Him, because it was united to the divine Son, came to life again. The Man in Christ rose again: not only the God. That is the main point. For the first time we saw a real man. One tin soldier–real tin, just like the rest–had come fully and splendidly alive.

 

 

 

Bossa Nova

I’m seriously considering if I should dive deeper into Bossa Nova guitar~ It sounds so good! But I think I need to be much better with the basics first

I’d like to recommend the following clips in youtube, this guy’s so funny and his guitar/rhythm is great!!!

Bosa Nova Body Percussion ~ MUST WATCH (he said it’s a little off, but this is already so good~~)

 

 

Falsa Baiana ~ with his clone Trio

I am addicted to youtube – Bossa Nova (false Trio again =P)

 

 

 

I love youtube

I think I’m addicted to youtube! So much good stuff!!! I don’t know how this got engraved in my brain, I had in mind an old-time coke ad that I saw when I was like 3 or 4, with the song "I’d like to teach the world to sing". It’s a very special commercial… All I could remember is that there were people holding candles. I tried searching for the ad for a long time (haha, whenever I have nth to do, like tonight), and I just found it in youtube!!! Wowowowowow, youtube is awesome!

 

 

I’m planning to compile a youtube CD for myself, there are many good live/tv performances by various people, so far, the following is on my list:

 

at17 singing 數你 live

at17 singing 沙沙的雨 with 林一峰 and 呂方

hocc singing 花火 with Gigi

hocc singing 我不好愛

hocc singing various songs in 飢饉三十2004 (喜歡你，羽毛，food medley: 熱咖啡，佛跳牆 etc)

Girl from Ipanema (this is a classic Brazilian song, I’m not the type who listened to foreign music, but I immediately fell in love with it since my sis played it once to me a longgggggggggggggg time ago, Bosa Nova~)

 

運你個吉

Hahahaha，實在太玩o野喇！

話說我借了DV給賊船長，他早前想還給我，但沒有機會。終於他在前晚BSP完了後還了給我。當時我卻完全想不起他們今天會到Slave家裡觀看在以色列拍的片段…我本來可以跟他們一起看，但我又約了朋友今天滑雪… 於是賊船長昨天問我能否再借用DV，我當然沒有所謂，但為免他晚上開完會還要特地駕車到我家，我提議不如我往滑雪前把DV拿到Slave家，始終我跟Slave住得頗接近…

於是今早我在九時十五分到了Slave的家，可憐Slave今早五時多還未入睡，卻要被這水魚吵醒。就在我駕駛回家途中，接到朋友電話，說今天下過雨，怕雪變得太濕滑…

結果雪滑不成，我可以參與睇帶行動…Hmmm，就是這樣運了一個大吉。

 

If you want God to hear your prayers…

If you want God to hear your prayers,
hear the voice of the poor. If you wish God to anticipate your wants,
provide those of the needy without waiting for them to ask you.
Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg. To
make them ask for alms is to make them buy it.

— St. Thomas of Villanova

Good bye negative thinking

It was originally a negative blog entry. I’ve decided I won’t blog negative stuff again!

I just came across the web site of one of the fellow pilgrims. He set up a website for his wife who passed away 3 years ago. Their love is indescribable!

http://helenip.ca/helen_book/helen.htm

Entitlement

I just came across this article: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030701.html

 

It talks about a study about the impact of materialism on marital satisfaction. The findings are not surprising (to me): materialistic couples are more likely to have marriage problems.

 

Like everything else, it’s not really how much you have that makes you happy or unhappy, it’s how much you think you’re *entitled* to have, it’s what you expect. If you don’t have high expectations, you’re happier.

 

We’re probably all happier people if we don’t get to compare with other people, or our old selves. Why do you think you’re entitled to something? It’s because you see that’s what people have and you don’t. And then you started thinking WHY other people have certain things but you don’t. And that’s how the "ox horn" gets developed.

 

So the key to happiness is to adjust the notion of what you think you’re entitled to. Given everything I have, I don’t see HOW I can be unhappy.

Obedience

Suddenly realized what being obedient means. It’s like getting a prescription from God. In order to cure your weakness, you’ve been adviced to take doses & doses of unpleasant medicine. Being obedient means that knowing it’s gonna taste awful, you take the medicine as frequently as required. The more unwilling you are to take the medicine means the more badly you need it. God’s job as a good doctor is to get you the right prescription, it doesn’t matter whether it tastes awful to us, what matters is that we get cured.

 

(I also realized just now that it’s tough to blog in English. I can’t express myself in English…)