Life

What are you full of, today?

Live

Favourite teachers, Family, Food, Fjords, flights and Filthy socks

It's been a while since i last blogged. Please forgive the long absence. This is a season of seeking,waiting and hearing and in the process, i have to curb my ranting, which is no simple feat for me.

But i think it's time to blog again.

If you've been to Norway and have seen the magnificient fjords, and if you're reading a book on prayer at the same time, you'll have to blog about it. I do.


Ok. i know my sentence construction sucks. I was actually teaching that for a few days back in my old school in june and it felt really good. i felt like a knowledgeable person again, capable of instructing young minds, and they seem to have learnt from those four days. I gave my all, i know, and they benefited. It was just that look on the last day that made it all worthwhile. When i said bye to them and they asked why i didn't choose to stay on.
(And i remember telling them that phrases starting with "When" are usually part of a subordinate clause and they are incomplete until you join them with a main clause to form a complex sentence.)

Anyway, that look was priceless and it reminded me why i do what i do.

Back to norway, and i'll have to quickly revert back to my school days again.

Mrs Goon!! I miss you!!

Most of you unfortunate people reading this probably haven't met her. i always tell people i had a role model, an inspiration to become a teacher when i was in school. Actually, i had two. Mr Hodge was the one often mentioned but Mrs Goon is always close to the heart.

Now a very piece of important advice coming up:

All A level Geography students, please be very serious about your subject and stop copying the girls' assignments!!

Mrs E. Goon was my physical Geography Teacher in college. She was the one who inspired me to climb mountains and scale different peaks. After coming back from her trips during the holidays, she would show us photos and inspire us. Of course, the highlight was our field trip to Bali where we climbed Mt Batur. It's this parasite volcano that grew along a crater lake in Kintamani. We had so much fun and it wasn't just knowledge downloaded.
It was a dream born.
That's what good teachers do for you.
They birth a dream in you.
i still want to climb Mt Kilimanjaro someday before the ice caps melts or my knee cap pelts..which ever comes first.

There are 2 people i wished were travelling with me and Mrs Goon is definitely one of them.

I would feebly try to recall anything i could to impress her. There were so many features to point out, photos to be taken and things to be explained. i actually studied fjords in 1994.
Sigh.
i wished i hadn't sleep so much in class then.
Mrs Goon was a real darling. i would be sitting in the front row and burying my forehead into my arms, dead asleep during the tutorials. she NEVER did scream at me. Only raising her volume to warn the sleeping me that the next OHT would have relevance to the exams. A student asleep in my class? i'll never allow that!That guy will be barked at and have a very good idea of what i had for breakfast.

Yes i did pass Geography that year.
But only just.

Thanks Mrs Goon!

I think i prayed really hard.

Speaking of which, i finished Philip Yancey's "Prayer" last year in Perth. It was a very interrupted attempt at the book because of the intensity of my course. But i knew there were gems inside i had to revisit.(Just like i know i shouldn't start my sentences with "But").
So i did. And i felt it was just the right book to for Europe.

"Norway is Beautiful" was my MSN title for a while. It's a gross understatement. Like, "Houston we have a problem".
Miriam my Norwegian DTS mate told me she finds it hard to spend time alone with God at home. Who else can then, in this world??

That's miriam on the right, and svenni on the left.

I was snapping scenery shots non stop for a while.

Then i stopped and i didn't try anymore.

There was no way i could do any justice to them.

They were just awesome!
And i don't use that word lightly.
Our Creator is awesome.

So there i go, sitting on the cruises, bus, train rides, totally enthralled by my surroundings. I was just taking it all in. I think i know what the hymn writer was talking about when he wrote "How great Thou art". I scarce can take it in.
Photos will not be good enough.

The moment was, though.

And in the light of those moments, I prayed.

Be still. Latin imperative is vacate.
"God invites us to take a holiday, to stop being God for a while and let Him be God." - Simon Tugwell.

Oh how apt!
I like this next one.

"Prayer is an expression of who we are.
We are a living incompleteness.
We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment."- Thomas Merton.

"Prayer allows me to admit my failures, weakness and limitations to the One who responds to human vulnerability with infinite mercy." - Philip Yancey

And this next guy is incidentally, Norwegian.

"Only he who is helpless can truly pray." - Ole Hallsby

My apartment has a lake view and it's totally surreal.
I look all around me, even as i type,and bask in the grandeur of the snow cap peaks in Voss.

"There is a God and I am not it."

Who am i?

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapour in the wind
Still You, hear me when i'm calling
Lord You catch me when i'm falling
And You told me who i am
I am Yours