What good things are you going to do today?

Every time you wake up and ask yourself, "What good things am I going to do today?," remember that when the sun goes down at sunset, it takes a part of your life with it.

~Indian proverb~

more interviewing tales

We had more interviews yesterday. Three people were invited for the interviews. Only two turned up. The first one, was twenty minutes late. No apology for being late. When I start to introduce myself, she interrupts me with: "Excuse me, but is this interview going to take a long time? Because I have to be somewhere else soon."

I made it very easy for her. I told her no, interview could be very short indeed. Offered her my hand, and said goodbye. Interview done.

unpatriotic? i think not

does voicing out the ugliness of the society i live in

make me unpatriotic?

or is that simply being honest?

patriotism is my love for the nation,

and does not, as i see it,

have anything to do with my abhorrence of some of the attitudes of its people.

miss you

my heart is many miles away
and it feels like i am only half here

on facebook updates and report cards

In the bookstore today, I overhear (yes, I was eavesdropping) this conversation between two people:

A: Okay I think I am ready to go. I will just get this one. What about you?
B: I will get these three books. This one has got lots of funny facebook status updates I can just enter every day. I have used almost every one of the quotes in the previous booklet I got.
A: Oh, are your facebook statuses from a book?
B: Of course! Sometimes I will change some details, but I got it all from a book. Cool, huh? Then this book has got lots of ideas for comments to write in students' report cards. I always end up writing the same things for my students, so I think this year I will suprise everyone and write down comments from this book.
A: Good idea!

And as the woman continues to explain what her third book choice is, I stand there surprised, and also feeling a little sorry for this woman ... and even sorrier for the children she must teach. I wonder if she has on her bedside, a book of conversations to have with her significant other... because she clearly doesn't seem to have the originality to come up with anything on her own.

Wanted: good teachers

I was on the interview panel for recruiting new teachers to a school recently. There were several candidates, and each one was memorable for one reason or the other ... but usually, not for the right reasons! Let me share with you here some of the responses to our questions that remained with me after the actual interview.

Q: What makes a good teacher?
A: A good teacher can make anything.

~

Q: Why did you become a teacher?
A: I never wanted to become a teacher. I have always thought it was a very boring line of work. But I applied for the teacher training course because my brother forced me.

~

Q: What is the best thing about being a teacher?
A: The holidays!

~

Q: What do you consider to be your biggest achievement in your previous school?
A: I don't think I achieved very much. Actually I didn't get along with them and so I thought I will try my luck here.

~

Q: You are currently working as a school principal. Why are you applying for the post of a teacher?
A: Being a principal is very hard work. Right now in my life, I want to slow things down and enjoy my life. So, I think teaching is easy and would be better for me. I can relax and it will give me more free time. As a principal, I have to be on task all day long. There are no free periods. As a teacher, I will have many free periods.

~

Q: How much time can you devote to the school?
A: Oh I am very free. I can spend a lot of time, even the whole day at the school. My husband and I are having some marriage problems and I don't want to really go home at all. So, you can expect me to be at the school 24/7. Actually I wanted to ask... does the school provide any housing facilities?


With responses like this, is it any wonder that we are holding another round of interviews soon? And I am keeping my fingers crossed that this time, there will be some applicants who have some solid responses and crucially... an actual interest in teaching.

thoughts on thinking

sitting motionless
on the madhoshi plant
that sprouted from the seeds
thrown carelessly among the lillies
two moons ago,
its green body
blends into the background
does it ponder, as it waits
while the soft breath of the wind whispers
against its shimmering wings?
does it think any thoughts
as the day shrinks out of sight
and becomes forgotten?

treasures from the sea

Simple offerings from the sea
They may be worthless to anyone else, but to me they are all treasures I hold dear.
For they each tell a story, and represent something significant
and remind me of smiling days.

What simple belongings do you treasure?

Linking with Mary

That's my Hero

Husband is about to leave for a four week overseas visit. Em hands him a folded note, asking to read it only after he gets to the airport. He puts it away in his pocket. Just as he is about to leave the door, Hero comes running up, and whispers in his dad's ear: "Whatever is in that note, it's from me too."

scavenger hunt

Low key - a well used minimalist form of transportation


The colour wheel - green fronds of the coconut palm

Circle - empty bottle on its side

Scarf - one that seems to attract flies!

Phone - I am not a phone person

it is all in the attitude

"Today what dreams or hopes do you think are fake? You might even become so convinced you stop watering those aspirations altogether. Yet I want to encourage you: with God nothing is impossible. Maybe today, if you nourish your mind and heart from the living waters of His Word, the dreams God has given you will not only survive, but thrive."

~ Nick Vujicic~

quietude

leave room for silence
for the absence of words
sometimes carries more meaning

i want to fly

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow

~Langston Hughes~

I am a dreamer
I hold on to dreams, hold on to the belief that dreams will one day become reality,
that all it needs is faith, commitment and effort
Today, I feel like I need to put in more of the latter.
Because dreams are piling high
and I realise that effort is riding low.
So today, I am going to not just dream
but put in renewed effort
to chase them
so I can one day hold the firm reality of dreams
in my hands.

when painstakingly made plans are overhauled in one lousy meeting

feeling like
the swirl of the water
in the wash basin
round and round
pulling
magnet like
into the
murky darkness
endless pipes
of filth
beyond the drain

needing a buoy
to pull me out
and float me
in the sunshine

~

My entrance ticket to the open night at dVerse poets pub

Also linking with the Creative Exchange

what the mind remembers

I remember ... eating spoonfuls of warm baiypen sprinkled with sugar while in my pyjamas and sitting in bed, the room lit with only the light filtering in from the bathroom.

I remember ... walking around the backyard in a heavy rain shower, holding up a little red cloth parasol, getting drenched and then trying to explain to my mother ... but I was carrying an umbrella!

I remember ... the large crowds of islanders who would gather (uninvited) in the yard, to watch movies with fascination (and non stop commentary) on the one of the few televisions in the community.

I remember ... walking into my first classroom as a teacher, feet still wet from walking across a flooded school yard, and thinking how weird it felt to be on the other side of the room.

I remember ... the child-like delight of watching my first snowfall.

I remember ... the eve of my eighth birthday. Sitting in the rocking chair in the room I shared with my sisters. I remember the detail of the white dress I wore. I remember the sound of the raining dripping on the tin roof above us. I remember the design of the black and red batik printed dress my mother wore. I remember the way her curly hair was tied back in a careless pony tail at the nape of her neck. I remember the way she sat in front of me, sitting down on her knees, her hands holding mine, all four hands resting on my knees as I sat and rocked in the chair. I remember what we talked about, almost word for word. I remember the tears that we both shed. I do not remember though, what led to us sitting there having that conversation.

It's funny what our mind remembers. It's funny too how we choose to forget, how we try hard not to remember. Memories categorised and put away either for easy recollection or, as Em would say it, in our forgetteries. The moments long gone, but now stored within easy reach in the drawers of memory. Or filed away in cabinets that we never wish to open.

a thousand times over

“Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.”
~Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns~

I am re-reading Khaled Hosseini's wonderful book, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
It is such a beautiful heartrending story. One of my favourites, and among those that I can read over and over again without getting the slightest bit bored. Dealing with difficult moral, social and political issues, the novel promises hope in a bleak setting through the entangled stories of two Afghani women.

What is one book of fiction that you go back to again and again?

saeedbe

this post is made at Em's request, to share a picture of one of our most favourite people as he was trying to get some shut eye at the beach recently.

faces i heart

Linking up with Mary.

scavenger hunt

Street Photography - could anyone wear more clothes for the beach?


From a distance - riding off into the distance.

Sunday

Liquid - chocolate in liquid form. yum:)

Behind - sunset observed from behind an aeroplane window

~Joining the Scavenger Hunt this Sunday~

watch!

"Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become your actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."

~Frank Outlaw~

come, join me

for breakfast.

on departing

on a rocky boat

i know that if i turn around

my point of departure is still

painfully visible behind me

but i remain facing forward

looking at the vast expanse of possibility

straight ahead,

all around.

in this space,

where i have long departed

but am yet to get where i want,

i sit steeped in silence

for there are no words

for the sense of anxiety i feel

the fear of losing everything familiar.

my shaking hands

clasped together in prayer

i fight the feeling of sinking deeper

and deeper

and focus my teary eyes

on that spot ahead

way ahead

knowing that i need to get out of the sinking pit

and get there,

there where i belong.

i close my eyes

clasped hands still shaking

i have left part of me behind

but i know

that without doubt

i will find more of me

when i get to my destination.

Two days

After a chaotic, stressful week

I am just starting out my weekend

and looking forward to two days

of complete relaxation.

~well, okay, let's be honest here ...

one day of being completely lazy and turning a blind eye to chores

and another day of creating some kind of order in the home

but the emphasis here

is that I will be HOME for two days~

What are you doing this weekend?

dare to dream

seated on the wooden slats
of a waterfront bench
he tells me
he dreams of
being the voice of
animated characters on the big screen.
i search his eyes
for flecks of regret
but all i see is humbleness
and contentment
in a forest of green dreams.

we are more than what we may perceive
so I tell him
to believe in the dream he dreams
daring to hope
and to then go chase it
not letting the vision
elude him
as he follows it
through the trees
and grasps it
out in the open space of reality.

camera in hand, he gets up
walking towards an approaching couple
my eyes don’t leave him
belief, hope and dream
held strong within me
my eyes follow him
step after step,
unfazed.

A life of purpose

Dost thou love life?
Then do not squander time,
for that is the stuff life is made of.
~Benjamin Franklin~

I am

*reflecting*thinking*feeling*remembering*wondering*pausing*hesitating*debating*learning*

*loving*wanting*planning*hoping*dreaming*waiting*wishing*praying*

*believing*

*knowing I am right*

إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ

A close colleague lost his life yesterday while trying to save his drowning students out at sea. May their souls be granted eternal paradise and may their families and loved ones be blessed with courage and strength during this difficult time.

two are halves of one

who i am today is not who i have always been
my skin is embroidered with your touch
my eyes see the words you say in your heart
my hands find comfort in the warmth of your hold
my lips mirror the tender smile on your face
my mind dreams the dreams which together we weave
i am who i am today
because you are part of the equation
that make us a whole

thorns

they are there.
even when i pretend not to see them
they are right there,
all around.

however gentle my touch,
however much i know beforehand that it will sting,
when my fingers press against the thorns
ouch
it hurts.
everytime.

pavlova

unadorned

topped with cream and slices of kiwi

*heavenly*

this fits the bill

they love the cheeeeeeeeeeeesiness of it

~yes, it has to be a long drawn out eeee sound~

i like the spice

aromatherapy without the price tag

just-opened

delicate jasmines

placed just right

in little bowls of water

to be placed around the home

fills the air

with their soothing sweetness.