Just a Thought!

This is my very first poem, inspired by a Sing China 2020 song and a Bible sharing session that I am conducting this Saturday - it is really amazing how two totally disparate events caused me to write this heartfelt poem: Because of you My life has changed Because of you My life has meaning Because of you I've learnt how to love Because of you I've learnt how to live Thank you, Death.

Six years ago, my racial harmony article attracted much attention and till today, I am still receiving requests for the use of the photo (brilliantly captured by my friend Andrew Teoh) in the article because it epitomises multiculturism. This time, I encountered Multiculturism herself incarnated in Aunty Rose of Singapore - her almost-native Cantonese proficiency put me, a real Cantonese, to utter shame because I could only manage basic words due to the influence of my Mom who is a Teochew . In the following video, Aunty Rose spoke 6 languages eloquently effortlessly but more importantly, she spoke the universal language of compassion, honour, respect, generosity, determination, tenacity and love with a huge dose of wittiness (we simply call this the Kampung Spirit lah!) which greatly inspired and touched me as I prepare to celebrate Singapore's independence day tomorrow: Happy National Day my dear fellow Singaporeans!

On 4 June 1942, the Americans encountered an enemy that bore striking similarities with COVID-19 : - Invincible : At that time, the Japanese navy was thought to be unbeatable since it had not been defeated over the past 50 years. - Invisible : Radar technology was in its infancy and couldn't detect anything beyond 240 km, so this made it virtually impossible to detect the Japanese fleet in the Pacific Ocean which covers 165 million sq km! - Inexplicable : The attack on Pearl Harbour was such an unexpected move by the Japanese that the Americans actually had clear warnings but chose to ignore them! So they had no idea how to fight an irrational enemy! But through sheer determination, fearless heroism, intricate planning based on what little intel they had plus a little luck, the Americans dealt a crippling below to the Japanese navy at the battle of Midway where the Japanese lost 4 carriers, 1 heavy cruiser, 3,500 men and 270 aircraft whereas the Americans lost only 1 car...

In the midst of a pandemic and impending recession, it is vital for us to stay positive and hopeful else we can easily spiral into depression. But where can we find glimmers of hope in such dark times? Dr Hoe-Nam Leong is one shining beacon of hope as he recounts his arduous experience of contracting SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) while treating Singapore's first SARS victim in 2003 in a recent interview on 12 April 2020. And now, he is back at the frontline battling the highly contagious Covid-19 virus! Be inspired by his powerful sharing and how he thinks the Covid-19 pandemic would eventually pan out!

I love Superheroes ... but I love more the unsung heroes among us as well as the hero that is in YOU - because there is nothing more inspirational than to meet a real hero in the flesh! So hope my quotes below will unleash the hero in YOU (regularly updated - my personal reflections on them can be found here ): "Never postpone doing good because you never know if the opportunity would be postponed for good." "If all the time & effort spent complaining are dedicated to solving problems, there will be less problems to complain about." "Character is doing what one thinks is right, not doing what one thinks is wrong and constantly learning what is right and wrong." "When you count your blessings, you multiply your joy & divide your ego." "Be on the lookout for small opportunities to help someone so that when the big one comes along, you’re ready." "Speak words of Kindness as they give Hope, Strength & Motivati...

When I was in university, I almost failed an exam on Analog Electronics. It was the first time in my life that I was so ill-prepared for an exam (I was already too digital then!)! But I somehow survived... On the night before the exam, my Mom noticed that I was visibly stressed. She had never seen me so helpless because I was usually confident before an exam and would go to bed early. But that night, I was trying to revise and understand how to solve possible exam questions. I just couldn't grasp the concepts and tried to call friends for help but they were all busy with their preparations too. My Mom sensed my predicament and knew that she shouldn't interrupt me especially when she could not be of any help with my studies. So she did what she knew best in such hopeless moments: she took out her Rosary and prayed. Somehow when I realized she started praying, I felt peaceful and my mind started to clear up a bit. And I felt the sudden urge to call a friend, someone whom I w...

Last Friday, my wife and I volunteered at the " Racial Harmony Day " annual event at Montfort Junior School . It was a real fun and memorable event with yummy traditional and multicultural food and interesting activities like rickshaw rides and whacky photo booths. Many other parent volunteers put in their heart and soul to make the event a most meaningful one for their children by recreating a " kampung " environment where Singaporeans from the four main ethnic groups used to live together and interact freely; nobody locked their doors in those days because everyone viewed one another as part of the same big family! The following photo touched me deeply and conjured up feelings of pride, security and peace because it represented Singapore 's dedication to continued racial harmony in the generations to come: Photo by Andrew Teoh @ Montfort Junior School on 25 July 2014

If you had listened to the main themes of " The Dark Knight Rises " and " Man of Steel ", you would agree with me that Hans Zimmer is one of the most talented composers of cinematic music of all time.  Music is the universal language of humanity - it connects our hearts and reaches the innermost and unchartered depths of our very being. And in a movie, it is the key unseen actor who is always in the background, tugging at our hearts, spurring our spirits, courting our emotions and transporting us into another reality. For me, this is the crown jewel of Hans Zimmer's work to date - a theme song for the Superhero of all time - put on your best headphones (mine is the awesome ATH-M50 ) and be wowed:

At the start of this new year, I would like to share my personal thoughts which are inspired by my life experiences and captured in short original quotes: Love "You truly love when you love even when you don't feel like loving." “It matters little that you cannot do great things because little things can matter greatly too when done with love.” "True Love loves loving regardless of the lovability of the beloved." "True love is a decision to love even when the feelings of love have gone into remission." “Let all your thoughts and actions be immersed in pure LOVE, and you will understand the mystery of LIFE.” "If family matters to you, it matters you spend quality time with family." Happiness “Your Happiness will find you when you help others find theirs.” “The surest way to lose happiness is to seek it." "If you're not happily exhausted at the end of the day, it means you have not found a worthy challenge that exploits your fulle...

At the advice of my niece Lin, I bought the Human Planet blu-ray set and it turns out to be one of the best blu-ray sets I've ever bought!   I am totally mesmerized and inspired by each of the 80 stories which give a unique human perspective to every imaginable challenge posed by Mother Nature. From sky burials to a 6-day treacherous trek to school, from hunting with a loyal eagle to fishing over raging waters, every story bears witness to the indomitable human spirit which is so lacking in our modern cities.   If you think you had a bad day at office, watch this and suddenly, your problem becomes trivial when compared with the seemingly impossible "tasks" of the unsung heroes in the Human Planet !

One message a day... this is how I hope to change the world. Hence, I have started a free messaging service called OREDY ( O ne R efreshing & E mpowering message D ail Y ) for anyone on WhatsApp . Rest assured that your personal information will not be shared with anyone else. This is purely my personal endeavour to make a difference in the world; I will be choosing the messages daily which are categorized into various lists. Here're the List Codes of my service: QUOTES : Daily inspirational quotations from great men and women throughout history, eg. "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Physicist BIBLE : Daily inspirational Bible verses, eg. "My Grace is sufficient for you, for My Power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9 JOKES : Daily hilarious jokes to keep the wrinkles away, eg. A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says, "Sorry we don't serve food in here!...

I must confess that I didn't have high expectations of the movie " 3 Idiots " and resigned myself to being bored for 164 minutes watching the show with my colleagues in our monthly get-together. The title was idiotic, the length sounds like eternity and the genre invoked images of lame dancing around trees and it didn't help that the show is in Hindi and I had to read the subtitles. But at the end of it, I realized what an idiot I had been because it was the best movie I had ever watched in my life!!! Since then, I've bought the DVD and soundtrack and watched it 7 times with family and friends and still counting! What made me transform from a reluctant viewer of " 3 Idiots " to its most enthusiastic evangelist? I can't pinpoint the exact reason but I found myself laughing, crying, cheering, singing and being inspired to follow my heart to be the best I can be! There are touching reflections of life, death, friendship and family bonds as well as ...

During Chinese New Year, I drove my family and a friend's family out in my new Touran for a fun time at eXplorerkid followed by a sumptuous dinner at JustAcia . At the end of the outing, during the car journey back home, my friend's young daughter candidly said that it was the happiest day of her life ! I was deeply touched and for a moment, was at a loss of words - I just turned back and gave her a wide smile. I struggled to recall the last time I've used the magical phrase " happiest day of my life " - it seems that Adulthood has kidnapped Innocence, Contentment and Unconstrained Joy and set an impossible ransom... Perhaps it's time to go on the offensive - to bring back the simple joys of life that make life's many challenges bearable - will contact Childhood and Contemplation on a rescue plan now!

Today is the 100th-day death anniversary of my Dad, Vincent Woon . I'm close to my Dad. In fact, among my siblings (2 brothers and 1 sister), I believe I'm the closest to him, being the youngest as well as having the same Catholic faith with him. I miss him... but the busyness of life (yes even during my 2-week-long holiday!) doesn't give me the luxury of time to reminisce our wonderful times together - perhaps our modern society is moving too fast and we risk losing our humanity and becoming more like unfeeling machines if we don't slow down... This afternoon, our family "visited" my Dad at the columbarium to say a short prayer. It was a short session with little verbal exchanges but it was a nice feeling to be together as a family, remembering someone so close to our hearts. And at 3pm, our close church friends gathered at my Mom's place for a short memorial service. Their presence meant a lot to us and spoke volumes of how my Dad had touched t...

Sex, violence, special effects and Hollywood stars: these are key ingredients for a blockbusting movie. Well, the movie that I'm recommending here has none of the above but it reaches the heart , embraces it and transforms it. It is a movie about marriage - the bedrock of every society; a timely relief for our modern society where up to 54.9% of new marriages end in divorce ! And though it's a Christian production, I assure you that it's not preachy, cheesy and draggy. In fact, the acting is superb, casting perfect and pacing climactic - check out Fireproof here now:

I realised I've been too serious lately... blogging about big heavy topics - that's not really my style and now with the recession, I think we all need to ease up a little, it's not the end of the world you know... unless my boss walks in now and catches me blogging (but that's not gonna happen since he's on vacation;-) I just had to write something after being inspired by Robin Chan's witty article about his pay cut - "poor thing" you might think but check out how he overcame this tragedy and even managed to have fun here ! Indeed, it's important to have fun in the midst of serious business; how else can we keep our sanity? Joke whenever possible, laugh at yourself, smile always, see the lighter of things, think crazy fun ideas and look forward to a dream holiday/car etc. But jokes aside, I really need to get back to work - but it's really amazing that with a little sense of humour, I've managed to up my productivity : I found time to blog...

I am sure you were inspired by President-elect Obama's historic victory and started to wonder if you could also be President one day in your country - well, at least I did:) But if we are honest, we know deep in our hearts that such an ambition is way too farfetched to be of any use in motivating ourselves to be the best we can be. We need something more realistic and pragmatic yet equally inspiring... I found my answer in writing humanitarian blogs to change the world - you can find yours too if you look in the right direction: Humanitarian : Some noteworthy humanitarian undertakings include making a difference in the upcoming World Aids Day , alleviating the hunger of about one billion people, ending child pornography , fighting human trafficking and forced prostitution , and lifting the taboo on depression. Environmental : With unusual climate changes impacting the world, it's high time we do something about deforestation , car emissions and waste management . "Foc...

I recently discovered a quantum mechanical characteristic of Friendship which I hereby term ABC - A part B ut C onnected; like two particles in quantum entanglement , two friends can be apart but connected in a mysterious way by heartstrings. When I met up with my ex-classmate from my secondary school recently, we both exclaimed at the same time, "You haven't changed much after 18 years!" It was a wonderful experience reminiscing our good old schooling days when we were full of mischief and having lots of fun. Somehow, the memories flowed freely as if they were just a day old. And I was sure we both felt the same sense of closeness that we had 18 years ago! Now I know where I should invest my time and effort to reap a lasting harvest... "The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart." - Elisabeth Foley, Writer

I like to eat meat... after being a Flexitarian for almost 3 years, I must admit that I still prefer meat to veggies ! But that doesn't mean I am "backsliding" - my dietary preferences were never the reasons for my conversion in the first place - the key reason was, is and always will be the welfare of innocent animals. Today, the situation isn't getting better for our fellow earth-dwellers: read about the barbarities of factory farming here , and learn about 30 reasons to go vegetarianism here . And find out how you can gradually transition to a more vegan diet here . Though I have not successfully converted anyone to Vegetarianism or Flexitarianism , I've learnt that through my many opportune sharings during mealtimes, many had reduced meat intake and started thinking/questioning about animal cruelty! And unlike vegetarians, I have the advantage of being able to "infiltrate" the meat-eating camps and evangelise about the benefits of vegetarianis...

The past 3 months had been an emotionally and physically trying period for me. Death, suffering, despair, betrayal, stress, fatigue – I’ve experienced these extreme states of life in parallel through my loved ones and close friends; a close relative had to make a decision to amputate a leg or die within a week; another had to face up to the inevitability of losing a second leg; a close friend struggled with the sudden prospect of divorce with young children; and I faced the toughest challenge of my job with key colleagues suddenly falling sick and heroic time constraints. Big questions about life naturally surfaced in my mind: is death a good choice when there's no hope for quality of life? why is there so much pain and suffering? what is the point of working hard when life is so short? what is the ultimate meaning of life? I found no easy answers even though I had been a God-fearing Catholic for decades - the ageless question of why an all-powerful loving God could allow so ...