Cain and Seth

Here’s another story I’ve been recounting to my colleagues and friends:

About 2 weekends ago, Christian asked us “Why is there war? Why do we fight and kill each other?”

I was silent and waited for P to answer (he takes ‘weekend duty’ since I am responsible for answering all of Christian’s questions during the weekdays).

P started going on about Cain and Abel, and how one was jealous of the other cos the other won God’s favour. This triggered more questions of “what is jealousy?” and “How did Abel gain God’s favour?” We told him that God was pleased with Abel cos Abel offered God the best, whereas Abel kinda gave God his leftovers =7

P continued and said “So we are descendants of Cain…and that’s why we have sin in us..”

At that point, we had just parked at a multi-storey carpark near the Old Airport Road food centre, and were walking down the stairs. I asked P whether he wanted to take the lift instead, cos he had slipped and injured his knees just a week ago. He didn’t hear me, but a few seconds later, said “Let’s go take the lift.” We trekked across to the other side of the carpark and went into the lift, which was just about the point when P said “So Cain is our great great great great great great great greeaaaaat greeeaaaaat greeeeaaaaaat grandfather.”

I stared at P, willing him to keep quiet in a packed lift full of strangers. We reached the ground floor a few seconds later and were heading towards the food centre when a man chased us and said with a look of hesitation “Actually, we are not from Cain’s line. Adam had another son after Cain and Abel and we came from that line.. Sorry I don’t mean to embarrass you..but I know we came from that 3rd son’s line..and from that line came Noah.. you know Noah?”

I laughed out loud at how ignorant he must think we were, to not even know Noah. P immediately accepted being corrected and I thanked the man for telling us.

After the man left us, I told P that God must have had enough of his nonsense, and thought we should not propagate falsehood to our children. =7 A quick check of my electronic bible revealed that Adam’s 3rd son was Seth and yes there was a long lineage down from Seth to Noah..

I took the opportunity to talk to Christian – “You know how you always ask me where God is, why can’t you see him? We may not be able to see Him, but we can feel Him.. just like we cannot see the wind, but we can feel the wind right? And we can see the leaves moving because of the wind..”

Christian caught on and said “Yes! Just like I cannot see God, but God sent a man to talk to us and tell us what is right.”

I beamed and P could not resist taking a dig at me “Wow that is the most profound thing I’ve heard you say since I dated you.” (This coming from a man who got his facts wrong in the first place! =7)

This was a pretty long story, but this showed me how God is in control of everything. What were the chances of us meeting a man who knows this story, a man who was present at the precise time when we were at the lift? I was SOOO comforted the whole day, knowing that He cares, about every little thing, and is present at every moment of our lives. This gives me courage and strength to do what is right by Him, instead of what is conventionally done in this world.

One Sentence, for our children

If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied. ~ Richard Feynman

If, in some cataclysm, all of my knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to my children, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the simple truth that all of us begin as an ego — heeding our parents’ voices gives us knowledge that gets us to reason — heeding our inner voice gives us clarity that gets us to intuition — heeding our creator’s voice gives us wisdom that gets us to holiness. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little humility and introspection are applied. Remember too, the pareto principle that 80% of us will vacillate between ego and reason for most of our lives, and that the only true bridge (or shortcut if you will) between ego and holiness, is Christ. ~ Daddy O

(This was a guest post contributed by P, which was inspired by us witnessing Calista vying with her brother for the skate scooter and promptly losing interest once he gave in to her. =/)

A special question

This is a backpost…Christian asked me about 3 months’ ago (24 Jan):

“Mama, I have a very special question for you.”

I braced myself and replied “Yes…?”

Christian: “What if….the grasscutter doesn’t want to cut grass anymore and the grass grows to outer space then when the grasscutter finally cuts it down and it falls onto Earth, will the Earth explode?”

*Mama laughs heartily*

Oh, the things that preoccupy the mind of a 5 year old. (This was when he was interested in outer space and the various levels from atmosphere to space.)

Candour

I’ve been telling this story to anyone who would listen..

Was putting Calista to bed one night, and sang her “I Wish You Love”..I was feeling quite pleased with myself after completing the song, and was debating whether to sing “Dream a little Dream” or “Fly Me to the Moon” when she went:

“Mama I can’t sleep…”

I tenderly stroked her hair and told her not to worry, “just close your eyes and i’ll sing you another song until you sleep”.

At that point, she interjected and said:

“Mama stop singing. I can’t sleep.”

My bubble immediately burst and I started fuming –_-“

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Another night, it was Christian’s turn to be utterly frank with me. I was thinking of my boss going to his mother’s house for dinner, and thought to ask Christian “Darling, will you still come and have dinner with me when you are 50 and I 75?”

He hemmed and hawed and I expressed surprise at his hesitation, so he blurted “But what if you die already? So old…how about earlier? When you are not so old?

I burst out laughing at how he was perfectly comfortable expressing that thought to me without realising that it’s taboo amongst adults to talk of death.

Christian’s Art

The only art lessons he goes for are holiday programs at Little Artists..think there’s improvement from before though he’s not a Picasso yet.

This is my early Mother’s day present -

I could guess the figure in purple was meant to be me and the figure in blue is him, cos those are our favourite colours. He tells me we were eating brown rice by a stream, surrounded by a road and mountains. Can you tell?

The many faces of Calista

Calista seldom shows her multi-faceted personality to strangers. Perhaps it is still early days yet, but it is certainly a pity that others do not see the many expressions she is capable of, but only see a sullen, silent Calista staring at them.

Here’s a few shots taken in December by some unknown person (not me..perhaps the helper?) which I found in my memory card..

Am I biased mum or do you think these are worthy of making it to the cover of a magazine as well?

Christan’s Year End Concert 2013

Christian’s year end school concert took place on the 22nd of November..the theme that year was on Rainbow Fish and Teacher D picked him to be the narrator of the play! She said he usually talks so loudly in school, but I was appreciative of her giving him a chance to build confidence.

I must admit that I was worried he would have stage fright, but worked hard not to show my worry and infect him with my fear. He did well, memorising most of the script, and performed beyond my expectations!

The play was held at a room at LaSalle, and it was definitely not as ideal as the stage at the Eurasian Association the previous year. There was no mic, and all the parents kept chattering away as my little boy walked up to the front and started his introduction to the story. I felt bad for him, but he bravely went on and enunciated with emotion, just the way we had rehearsed. I was so proud of him my heart felt like it would burst. ^_^

He has certainly come a long way since those days when he would freeze in fear..

P took half day’s leave and an earlier flight to fly back for the concert.. he made it just in time and I knew Christian was happy to see him before the play started..the little things matter so much to children..

Here’s a picture of us milling around while waiting for the play to start..

And a picture of him in costume. Teacher D spent days making the costumes by herself. I was impressed by how professional the costumes were, and how much blood and sweat she poured into making those costumes.. there were so many ‘sea creatures’ which she painstakingly stitched…mermaids, starfish, crabs, jellyfish..I kowtow to her true dedication.a

Back!

I had been on a hiatus from this blog for many many months..mainly because P went to Hong Kong and took the old laptop, leaving me with a new shiny tablet which i hated. Haha..he had good intentions, thinking that the tablet was more portable and I could let the children use it too, but it only had one USB port and it was a pain to transfer photos / backup stuff with. Given my limited time for blogging (10minutes after the children sleep and before the helper sleeps) grappling with all those technical issues was too much of a waste of my time and so I gave up.

P has brought the old laptop back on his own initiative..he says he wanted to “put me out of my misery”. I’m sure he’ll enjoy reading the posts from the tablet, instead.

So here’s the 1st back-post..Pictures from our outdoor photoshoot last year!

We went to the Fort Canning Park and it was rather fun, posing, running around, chasing bubbles..

Calista didn’t smile very much as usual, but we weren’t too bothered by that (especially since i still have some hazy memory of how ‘dao’ i would be in front of strangers, as a child). We did manage to catch a few rare smiles of hers when she was thrown in the air by P or when her brother teased her, so those are precious shots..

It was definitely a good bonding experience and gives us some concrete memories to keep, and act as triggers when we are old and senile, of how life was when we were a young family.

The pictures also made good Christmas presents for P and the MIL, who probably want nothing other than to see the children everyday..