Technology is an amazing thing

I just learnt how to blog via mobile. Future foward..All hail the smartphone :p

Peace, Love, Respect

Life is what you make of it, but the gift of life is NOT in your hands

Sometimes when we watch TV there are situations that we relate to. Well watching “Grey’s Anatomy” hit home for me the other day.

When you’re young you believe you’re invincible, able to achieve anything and everything. You set personal goals. I want to own a Ferrari by the age of 30, I want my dream house, travel round the world…. what ever the aspirations you can achieve them with hard work and perseverance. After all life is what you make of it.

But through life there are many experiences. Some up and some down but you move on cause these are lessons meant to mold you. Some meant to make you stronger, some to make you wiser. In my life I have been through many of these life lessons but none more trying and more moving than that of the consequences behind the birth of my second child, Nadiah.

Six and a half months into my pregnancy I suffered heavy bleeding. The blood was so heavy it was like I had been shot. The gynecologist than told me I had a low-lying placenta which was causing the bleeding and I would have to go through bed rest. Every time I would get up I would suffer bleeding and eventually the doctor, fearing a premature delivery, suggested that I go to KL General Hospital as they have the best facilities for premature babies. If I did not deliver there, and the baby had complications, it would be a lot harder to get in.

I endure approximately three weeks in the hospital until one night I felt contractions, they put me in observation, where I started to bleed heavily and then told me they had to perform a Caesarian Section to deliver the baby. The baby would be born at just a little over 7 months. Definitely premature, no guarantees as to what would happen. So in this story it is NOT my life that I was fearful for, it was the life of my child of which I had absolutely NO control over. I could do nothing but pray for her safety.

Nadiah was successfully delivered and was placed in an incubator in Pediatric ICU. Once I could walk I went downstairs to see this little child born at just 1 kg. All around her where babies with different problems, all fighting for their lives. It was a scary thought to what could happen. This is where you are helpless, no amount of money or anything that is tangible can help you, only faith and hope.

One night I went down by myself to take a look at her only to find a bunch of doctors and nurses around a baby that had turned blue, trying to revive it. I looked on in horror. One of the nurses turned around and said, “Ma’am, you baby is over there”. They had moved her without telling me. God only knows the relief that I felt but I would never forget the scene.

This story has a happy ending. Nadiah survived her ordeal and is now a bright, intelligent, beautiful 16 year old. But it taught me an important lesson. Life is NOT in our hands and that it IS a gift and NOT a given right. I was lucky that I had this experience it has taught me to give thanks to GOD everyday for the gift of Life.

“Each day’s a gift and not a given right” – If Today Was Your Last Day (Nickelback)

Peace, Love and Respect

Effort, Focus and Success

I just finished the Gatsby Styling Dance Malaysian Finals. The dancers are college students that win a chance to represent Malaysia at the Grand Finals in Japan this February.

For me the arts are amazing. Whether I deal with music, dance, art, fashion, acting or anything that deals with the creative industry it always opens your eyes and teaches you something. Sometimes when I sit back and observe what is happening around me I catch a glimpse of something that I always knew and understood but actually seeing the life lesson happen right before your eyes just cements the fact and drives it home.

The kids that participated in the dance competition had one goal and that was to win. No one enters a competition to lose. In their warm up, preparation and rehearsal I watched how each of the eleven teams handled themselves. They each had to prepared 2 x 3 minute dance routines.

As they sat and waited for rehearsal some of the teams still had not completely figured out their choreography, others sat cooly talking among themselves and one of them was sat listening intently to music and obviously running the routine through his head, every once in a while doing intricate hand movements.

During rehearsals on stage I watched them go through their routines. Some just walked through preferring to keep their best moves for later (somehow we Asians love to do the hiding-the-best-for-last thing), some fumbled their way through and one powered his whole routine intimidating and impressing his audience.

After that it was the wait for the show. Backstage some were doing warm-ups, some were still touching up their routines and one after warm-up sat still listening intently going through his dance routine in his mind, oblivious to anything around him, staring straight ahead doing the same hand routines.

Well it was pretty obvious who won. Jackson Chua (the ONE person in my story) had every intention to win this competition. He came prepared with routines that had obviously been rehearsed a few hundred (if not thousand) times. Hand movement and facial impressions perfected to an art. Impeccable timing. His drive and focus were predominant throughout. Some of the others tried their best but I guess their best wasn’t good enough.

We all have different expectations and “best levels”. But if you go through life saying, “ok, that’s good enough” or “nevermind it’s ok” you won’t win, you won’t achieve your highest potential. Just ok is never enough. Your success is determined by how much effort you put in, how focused you are and how much YOU want it.

Like I’ve always appreciated that creative talent is God-given. You can try to sing, dance, draw all you want but if you don’t have it ,YOU DON’T HAVE IT. You can’t buy it, you can learn it to a certain extent and you definitely cannot force it. The arts are about feeling things around you, small observations magnified, then taking all this and being delivering it so that the audience feels it, believes it, relates to it. So it has to be perfection or no one will understand what you are trying to impart whether it be dancing, playing music, singing, acting, drawing, writing or anything else that communicates.

That is why when you watch a dancer with conviction, a passionate singer, a television program that moves you, a painting that takes you breath away you know that these are people who have taken the effort to practice, focused on what they have to do and successfully reached out and touched you.

God gives you the talent, what you do with it is up to you. You can put in the effort and hone the talent or don’t do anything and waste it. Magic happens when you make it.

Peace, Love and Respect