Thursday 29 November 2012

Testing your texting skills

How familiar are you with texting (SMS) short forms? Take this test: http://www.chacha.com/quiz/369/do-you-understand-textisms

I got perfect score...just like the rest of 90 over per cent of the majority... lol.



Thursday 22 November 2012

Quote of the day

Everything can be taken from a man except one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. ~ Viktor Frankl.

So don't ever ever say you "don't have a choice". Life is a matter of making decisions and choices about how YOU want to respond to Life.

Everyone has a choice, starting with think positively as opposed to think negatively.

Remember the choice is always yours. Quitters say it is impossible, winners go get it done without much excuses or even negative thoughts about how big the challenge may be.

All talk no action will only result in the below as depicted in the image.

Food for thought on Nov 22, 2012.

Saturday 17 November 2012

Dealing with Terminal Illness and Death

I was taking a video of the congregation of Catholic devotees praying while facing the Mother Mary image that appeared since last Friday, Nov 9, 2012 at Sime Darby Medical Centre, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, when another lady, Blonde haired, blue-eyed, a rare view of Caucasian in this predominantly Asian society, came up beside me and snapped a photo as well.

Her name is Tina, I introduced myself first as Sue and shook her hand and she gave me her name. Apparently this middle-age pretty lady is a teacher at an international school and she was visiting her colleague, a Canadian lady who is battling breast cancer which has spread to the bones.

Tina was actually heading to the opposite direction to wait for her husband to pick her up, unbeknownst to me, yet our short five-minute-conversation drew her towards my direction, heading to the parking lot.

Our conversation went like this (mind you we are complete strangers and I still don't know her last name):

Tina: I am a Christian and I believe in God but to grasp on to such an image, I just cannot believe it.

Sue: Yeah, when the world gets too tough, people tend to look for hopes in all the places, something to cling on to with the hope their prayers will be answered.

Tina: Exactly! They ask me, "Don't you believe in God? I said, "Yes, I believe in God but not like this."

At this point I kept my camera phone and I walked towards the opposite direction Tina was heading. That was when I extended my hand in friendship and said "I'm Sue" and she was taken aback before taking my hand and muttered "Tina", I had to ask for her name again so I can hear it clearer (early deafness in my ears *shudder*).

Tina: So you are here to visit a patient?

Sue: My mother-in-law is sick. She has cancer, terminal stage. (I didn't answer if I was there visiting or just getting meds or any other reason as that is immaterial).

Tina: I am here to visit my friend too. She has breast cancer, had both her breasts removed and now it has spread to her bones and she is refusing all treatment from the doctor. We went out for a movie last week and she was still fine and now she is back to the hospital as she has been vomiting.

Sue: Why is she refusing treatment?

Tina: She says she believes in the alternative healing and she goes for acupuncture and herbs which she believes really help her. She says she refuses to believe she will die of cancer. She quoted her own mother who removed one breast many years ago and now at 80, she is still alive, so she will be like her own mother, she said she will not die of cancer.

I shook my head while I think back of many personal experiences of people dealing with death and went into serious denial as that is their coping mechanism.

Sue: That is serious denial.

Tina: Yes, she is in denial. She is beyond counseling and we all know she is stubborn. She says she is planning to go back to Canada because that is where she is from, but not now because she cannot get all the alternative treatment there. She will only go back to die. And she believes she is NOT dying.

Sue: Of course we hope she will recover, there are cases where willpower creates miracles but if her condition deteriorates which they usually will, since her cancer has already spread, she will no longer be fit for a long plane ride back to Canada soon! Didn't anyone tell her that?

Tina: She is stubborn. If you tell her to fly back to Canada now that is like telling her you will die for sure. And she cannot get her treatment there (alternative healing) which she believes is helping her get better.

Sue: That is a difficult situation. Does her family know. Didn't they talk to her?

Tina: Yeah, they know. But she is stubborn. She hasn't even named the beneficiary of her EPF (Employees Providence Fund).

Sue: Is she married to a local then? How old is she?

Tina: No, she is single. She's 52. There's quite a lot in her EPF which she plans to give to her mother.

Sue: 52, So young. But someone's gotta go to her and 'shake her' to let her see the reality of the situation?

Tina: Yeah. I am going to talk to my colleagues at the international school.

I was about to pay for my parking fees when I motioned Tina to pay hers but then she realized she is way off her route.

She asked me how to get out from there to the entrance and I pointed her out.

In a spontaneous gesture, just like how I first extended my hand in friendship, Tina muttered "Thank you for the chat, you are so strong to care for another person" and she extended both her arms, wide open, and we hugged. I said "This can happen to anyone regardless of race. Cancer is very common nowadays. Good luck (with your friend)."

We smiled genuinely at each other, and I can never forget Tina's clear sky-blue-eyes.

Then we parted ways. Two strangers who crossed path just because we love taking photos with our phones. Nov 16, 2012, Friday.

You may be interested in: http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-days.html





Wednesday 14 November 2012

When our best is not enough

"Sometimes it is not enough that we do our best; we must do what is required." ~ Sir Winston Churchill

What is required means what is needed and hopefully what is right, morally, ethically and socially.

Food for thought on Nov 14, 2012

View taken from my mother-in-law's ward when she was still hospitalized at Hospital Kuala Lumpur on Nov 11, 2012


http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2012/09/when-darkness-seemed-forever-first-ray.html

Saturday 10 November 2012

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build them up with work out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

P/S - And the women shall be equals? Ah well, we get the drift, Kipling. Shall strive to excel and persevere while keeping our virtues. Thanks for the motivating poem which tide me through my preteen years and now in my 30s.

Happy 11th Birthday to my eldest god daughter Rachel dearie, 11.11.2012 and she is 11! Gotta love her birth date! Mommy loves you too!

Quote of the Day

“@RealTalkKim: Powerful people empower others. Only the weak need to break down people to build themselves up.”

Pix grabbed from Groovy Reflections, look for the page on fb!

Nov 10, 2012

It is already a third of the month of November and you are still with us. We are truly glad.

Thursday 8 November 2012

Reminder to Self

This is a scheduled post.

No matter what happens, remember that this too, shall pass.

Nothing is forever bad, nothing is forever good. Just like the wheel the high point will become a low point at some point in time. Change is the only constant.

Hang in there.



http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2012/11/when-our-best-is-not-enough.html

A Hand Reaching Out to Touch Her Son

Pix showing my mother-in-law's hand reaching out to touch her youngest son's leg on the hospital bed at the emergency ward today, oh is it two hours past midnight already? Yesterday then. Nov 7, 2012.

A pix to update my blog and they say a pix speaks volumes and a pix can say a thousand words? Why limit to a thousand? Just saying. Mommy, we love you. Hugs.

The Beginning and the End: http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-days.html

http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2013/04/20-things-woman-should-tell-her-son.html

Sunday 4 November 2012

Child's Play - Wildflowers and Playing House

Seeing these wildflowers, a sense of déjà vu came over me.

Some 30 years ago, or maybe less, the little Sue used to pick wild flowers and play 'House' or in Malay, 'masak-masak'. Once in awhile, there will be a wedding and sometimes due to a lack of boys playing the game, a girl shall be the groom. The bride always wear the wild flowers in her hair, tucked behind her ears, every little girl wanted to be the bride so we can look pretty with the wild flowers in our hair.

Fast forward 30 years later, half of us have married and quarter of us are mothers. Another half are still single. The game has taken place on a bigger setting called "Life". How far we have come from those bygone days of innocence and child's play.

Life has been quite good to me with many lessons along the way. I look back with no regrets. Hope it is the same for everyone.

Post script: I think I just showed the whole world my palm. It's okay, as long as no random fortune teller/palm reader gives me a similar prediction he gave Arnold the California Governor that he isn't gonna live beyond age 49 and see how old he is now. Random, I know. :)