Cambodia Pictures.

Dear Friends

I have uploaded my pictures (part of it) to Facebook. The link is below.

Part 1
http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=748362714#/album.php?aid=90420&id=592301045&ref=nf

Part 2
http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=748362714#/album.php?aid=90420&id=592301045&ref=nf

Enjoy. Will upload more tonight. :)

An Hour To Live, An Hour To Love.

Dear Friends.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I would write something about the book "An Hour To Live, An Hour To Love" By Richard and Kristine Carlson. So here goes.

Firstly, I strongly recommend all to read this book. The message inside is truly meaningful and sets your thinking, whether we are chasing the right things in life and missing out on what's truly magical and important.

A little background into the book.

3 years before the Richard's 18th wedding anniversary, he wrote a letter titled "An Hour To Live" and intended to give it to his wife during the anniversary.

And the book started with this letter, where Richard expresses his feelings and thoughts for all the things which he is grateful for and blessed with, particularly the love that he and his wife, Kristine, shares. It was the most wonderful and memorable gift ever given to Kristine.

Sadly, Richard passed away suddenly during a flight.

To continue his wishes and to spread his love, Kristine decided to complete this "book" with the second half called, "An Hour To Love". Thus the title, An Hour To Live, And Hour To love.

I shall not divuldge too much about what was written. But, I would like to share Richard's favourite Poem, which is also included in the book. (Note: Poem seems to have two sources, which I can't verify. But in the book, it is said to be written by Norma Cornett Marek for her son, while I found sources which says it is written by Dr H Solomon. If you can confirm, please let me know which is accurate? Thanks!)

DO GET THIS BOOK! You will love it. :)

Thanks to Pris for introducing this great book to me.

If I Knew or Tomorrow Never Comes

If I knew it would be the last time
That I’d see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.

If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.

If I knew it would be the last time
I’d hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.

If I knew it would be the last time,
I could spare an extra minute
to stop and say “I love you,”
instead of assuming you would KNOW I do.

If I knew it would be the last time
I would be there to share your day,
well I’m sure you’ll have so many more,
so I can let just this one slip away.

For surely there’s always tomorrow
to make up for an oversight,
and we always get a second chance
to make everything just right.

There will always be another day
to say “I love you,”
And certainly there’s another chance
to say our “Anything I can do?”

But just in case I might be wrong,
and today is all I get,
I’d like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget.

Tomorrow is not promised to anyone,
young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance
you get to hold your loved one tight.

So if you’re waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you’ll surely regret the day,

That you didn’t take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss
and you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today,
and whisper in their ear,
Tell them how much you love them
and that you’ll always hold them dear

Take time to say “I’m sorry,”
“Please forgive me,” “Thank you,” or “It’s okay.”
And if tomorrow never comes,
you’ll have no regrets about today.

Dedicated To My Dad.

Dear friends,

This blog is dedicated to my dad.

The past few years of our lives have been filled with many challenges, emotionally, mentally and physically. But it was also because of all these challenges which showed me the love that my father has for my mom.

You see, my mom is down with an illness which is called Cortical Basal Degeneration. Basically, a portion of her brain is degenerating and affects her mind, and basically everything from her speech, balance to movement. Basically, nothing can be done to help her. Maybe just prayers after prayers.

Well, it is heart-wrenching to see how the condition of my mom developed over the years. And my dad would probably be the most heartbroken of all, though he doesn't show it.

My dad is a typical conservative chinese from the post WW2 period. Tradition and non-expressive when it comes to feelings and emotions. I even remember times when the children asked him questions about his relationship with mom and he would start to turn "shy", laugh it off and put up his usual strong front again.

So, talking to my dad about feelings and emotions would be quite tough for the entire family. In my whole life, I have only seen my dad cried once. That was when my grand father passed away in China.

However, I guess that since the time my mother's condition was diagnosed, and the few times when my mom suffered some major falls, my dad was crying inside his heart and was angry with himself for what is happening to my mom.

Now, my dad would take my mom to the toilet, help her with change of clothes, cook for and feed her, use the dryer to dry my mom's hair, wheel her around and support her in and out of the car. BUT, he is not doing this out of pity, sympathy or responsibility to my mom.

He is doing this out of love for my mom.

I respect my dad for that. He truly has an undying love for my mom.

I must apologise that, at this point in time, I do not know how I would want to continue with this.

This feels like a random blabbering on my part.

I guess the only thing which I hope for, for everyone reading this is that, that such love still exists. And there is such a person who would love you 100%, out there for you. You just need to put in effort to search for that person.

All the best.
Regards,
Ken

BTW, for the next post, I am inspired to write based on this book, "An Hour To Live, An Hour To Love", by the late Mr Richard Carlson. A friend of mine was sharing this story with me. So, just to set you thinking, if you know you have only one hour left to live in this world, who would you call? What would you do?