A Stitch Not in Time

This is the twelfth visit to the Tita clinic, a much dreaded experience.

I am now waiting in the parlour with a few other patients. I added my name to the patient waiting list upon my arrival. There were eight others before mine, which meant that I would have to wait for another hour or more. The wait is no less agonizing than that in a dental clinic. You naturally crane your neck from time to time expecting your name to be announced. But when you do hear your name called, you wish it were someone else’s. The treatment is disturbing, if not agonizing. In my case, the discomfort starts with the removal of all the warm clothes, leaving the thin short-sleeved blouse on so as to expose the injured left arm. The treatment involves strenuous rubbing of the injured muscles to activate blood flow. The pain thus caused is actually tolerable. But Mr. Wong, the Tita therapist, always ends the treatment by lifting the arm over my shoulder and then pressing it hard against my back and I have to bite my lips to hold back my tears. Then herbal bandages are applied, which are to be removed after dinner.

What has made this my daily routine for the past two weeks?

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, out of carelessness, I slipped, stumbled and fell. Before I realized what had happened, I found myself sitting on the floor with the whole of my heavy weight resting on the left arm pressed against a cupboard. I struggled to lift myself up and walked back to the bedroom upstairs, not unaware of a few pains here and there, especially in the upper left arm. I could not lift it without feeling an acute pain. As there was no sign of a fracture, I decided that I would not need to see a doctor. Besides, even if treatment was needed, I would have to wait until the end of the New Year holiday.

Thinking that the injury would heal if left undisturbed, I avoided using the left hand. I even boasted of how well I could manage with only one hand. When at last I realized that I needed treatment after all, it was already more than a fortnight since the accident. After examining the injured arm, Mr. Wong frowned and said. ‘If you had come earlier, you could have recovered by now.’

And here I am, spending the main part of the morning waiting for treatment. If there is anything delightful about the visit, it is the walk to and back from it. Before my retirement, I could hardly spare time for long walks,and visits to the Central were few and far between. Now I can enjoy the fun of window shopping in that area closed to traffic. I also meet interesting people at the clinic who give me useful advice on how to nurse the injury by exercising. Above all, I have been engaged in frequent stretching exercises for therapeutic purposes, thus losing some weight, much to my delight.

Of course, the lengthy treatment is too high a cost to pay for such fun. I could have managed with one stitch instead of nine or even more by seeking timely medical treatment.

An interesting retirement engagement

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, it has been my long cherished wish to take up a distance learning program in Translation. Owing to my tight work schedule over the past years, the wish had not materialized until my recent retirement. Now the course has started for a few weeks and I have already submitted the first monthly assignment.

There is so much to learn about translating English into Chinese. I marvel at the effective strategies to be adopted, some never even thought of and others quite contradictory to what I had once been so used to. I had, for example, often stressed the need for adherence to the original, in both the form and the concept. But I’m now convinced that omissions and additions are acceptable so long as the idea remains unchanged. There is much more to do than merely getting the sentence expressed in a different language. It is important, for example, to keep the tone, which may lead to a slight variation in the language form though. This is not easy, which is perhaps what makes it more interesting.

The examples used are very interesting and useful. They show the clever use of idioms and similes of both languages, thus affording the chance to improve competence in them. It’s fun guessing the right equivalent. The learning process is indeed an experience of adventures, guiding the learner to pursue further and further.

Doing the assignments is a great challenge. To translate what seems to be very simple English into Chinese is no easy task at all. Knowing what the sentence means is one thing and expressing it effectively in Chinese is another. I can’t help attributing my inefficiency to my wrong attitude in the past. To avoid language interference, I had done little Chinese reading and writing. Being an English teacher with little time to spare, I was keen on English reading materials. ‘It is killing two birds with one stone and thus time effective,’ I used to say. The result, pathetically, was gradual deterioration in my Chinese competence. It was only a few years ago when I started posting Chinese articles at the parish websites that I slowly picked up the writing skill.

As the writer of the course book suggests, good translation provides the Chinese people with easy access to useful knowledge from the West. The course now tops the list of my favoured engagements in my retirement life.

天主的祝福

這幾天收到很多電郵及電話傳來的祝福，大都道出對新一年的願望，有基督信仰的，會相互祝願「主賜平安」、「主恩滿溢」等等。我們有沒有想過，天主是如何福祐我們的呢? 有了天主的降福，我們是否真的可以事事順利，生活無憂呢?

上週主日我們慶祝「天主之母節」，當日的福音回顧牧羊人探訪「新生王」的情景；「瑪利亞把這一切事默存在自己心中，反覆思想 (路 2: 16-19) 。」聖經可沒有記載瑪利亞思想的是甚麼？她當時的心情又怎麼樣？但我們可想像得到對她來說，一切經歷都來得太突然，試想一位十多歲的少女，初為人母，還要逃避追殺，即將臨盆時卻找不到落脚的地方，最後要在一個污穢不堪的環境內生產，可說是歷盡艱辛，才把耶穌帶來這個世界。往後的日子亦並不好過，好不容易把兒子撫養成人，卻親眼目睹他受折磨廹害致死。如果瑪利亞生長於中國古代，會被稱為一生都受咀咒的苦命人呢！

但聖經告訴我們，瑪利亞「在女人中是蒙祝福的，她的胎兒也是蒙祝福的 (路1:42) 。」天主是怎樣祝福她的呢？原來，她的「福」在於她有幸參與天主偉大的救恩計劃，在於她有能耐在耶穌的種種經歷中給予陪伴和支持，在於她有堅忍承受耶穌死亡的痛苦，在於她有勇氣協助耶穌門徒建立早期的教會。她是「天主之母」，「教會之母」，我們還會懷疑天主對她的祝福嗎？

由此可見，天主的祝福，遠超於世俗人對生活安逸和身體健康等的期望，「衪沒有應許天色常藍，人生的路途也沒花香常漫。」聖母瑪利亞的一生荊棘滿途，但憑著她的信德和對天主依恃的心，她活出充滿希望的人生。

以下獻給大家一篇很美麗的禱文‘May God make 2014 happy for you’的中譯本，內容清楚地描述出天主是如何祝福我們的。

「願天主令2014成為你喜樂的一年

天主不會為你阻擋傷痛及苦楚，但會給你承受傷痛的能耐；

衪不會為你鋪排坦途，但會給你堅毅，無論前路如何，仍能勇往直前；

衪不會助你逃避困難，但會驅走你內心的怯懦；

衪不會賜你從不間斷的晴天，但會讓你在灰暗的日子裡，仍能保持容光滿面；

衪不會賜你永遠生活無憂，卻會讓你知道哪裡有最需要幫助的人，好使你渴望前往伸出援手。

願在新一年內大家都能得享天主賜予的愛、平安、希望和喜樂！

奉主耶穌之名，亞孟！」

CF

My Year-End Reflections - 2013

I thank the Lord for the past year.

Since my retirement in August, I have been enjoying the changes in my life.

In the first place I can now spend more time with my family. For decades I had been engaged mainly in school work and I found myself teaching even in my dreams. My husband and I seemed to be on divided paths, each lost in our own field of work. My students used to joke about never having seen my husband. We spent our holidays separately as my friends, with whom I shared bits and bobs, were not his.“What do men know about female needs?’ I used to say.

Now, however, we are together almost every minute of the day. He is the first one to be informed of my slimming plan and a change in my hairstyle. Who else would care about this when everybody is busy at work? People he befriended on morning walks know at last that he is married. There is someone sharing his heavy loads of purchases from super markets. And the night now sees us reading side by side by the bed light before we turn in. Well aware of my knee pain when walking upstairs, he is always ready with a helping hand. He’s the one grinding through the long waiting hour with me at the clinic. This is perhaps what we mean by ‘Walking hand in hand in old age.’

I can, without hesitance, avail myself when there is the urgent need for someone around. Occasionally, my husband and I are entrusted with the care of our grand nephews and nieces when the helpers are on leave. I no longer find them disturbing since work, if any, can be laid aside now that there is no restriction from a time frame.Taking kids to and back from school or extracurricular classes can be fun. I have come to realize, with great delight, that Rio, my grand nephew, is so popular among his classmates.

I am particularly grateful for being able to accompany my dear sister for some time every day. I could not possibly squeeze that daily hour if I were still buried with work up to my neck. Sitting by her bedside helping her to exercise and communicate her thoughts somehow makes up for the regret of not being able to travel around with her as I had expected as part of my retirement plan.

Despite all these, I am not without the interest in working. I have indeed been graced with a few job offers. The greatest attraction to me is freelance work, which I can handle at my own pace in the home. I have lost the patience and confidence in endlessly exploring new methodologies to arouse learners’ interest. The setback from seeing stringently planned and structured lessons wasted among lowly motivated students has dampened what is left of my passion for teaching. Having to take the blame for the failure of lazy students is especially discouraging. On the contrary, I desire work that I can hold myself accountable for in accordance with my own ability and efforts, rather than the learners’.

Undoubtedly, what I favor most is evangelical work. I am thankful that I can now devote more time to serving the Church. I derived unspeakable satisfaction from participating in a recent international seminar on Renewed Biblical Apostolate. I benefited greatly from expert speakers’ talks and from exchanging ideas with participants from different Asian regions. Thus enlightened, I feel more committed to learning to spread the Word of God. This will, in fact, be my goal for the coming year.

In brief, I thank God for having showered me with abundant blessings over the past year.

A lesson to learn from

http://instagram.com/p/SnkyLBDsoC/

 

 

There are appeals for generous donations every now and then. People’s enthusiastic response to such appeals is appreciable. However, to our dismay, it can sometimes be a headache if the motive behind the donation is selfish and inconsiderate. What has happened to a friend of mine recently is more than enough evidence.

 

A fortnight ago someone posted a fb message inviting donations of toys for poor children in remote areas of China. He requested for the toys to be collected at the service centre where my friend works. And that was how the nightmare started. She soon found herself overwhelmed with phone calls. And within hours toys began to pile up in the small yard adjacent to her office. Not all of them were toys though. There were even used cooking utensils among them.

 

For days the donations kept coming even after my friend had called for a stop. In fact, the situation has gone beyond control. At this present moment, she is still answering phone calls, angry complaints about the donations being rejected.

 

Ought we to be thankful for people’s generosity? Yes, we ought to - if it is with the intention of offering help. But unfortunately, there are some who care only for the chance to clear their home of unwanted goods. So when rejected, they are furious about having to find space for the loads again.

 

So the root of evil is over materialism in our daily lives, resulting in the problem of waste disposal. It is apparent from the increasing number of shops selling children’s goods that parents are keen on satisfying their material needs. And excessive purchasing is exacerbated by the long relished culture of gift exchange. Another friend of mine held a party for her kid’s 5^th birthday three years ago and has given up the idea since. The reason is that some of the gifts still remain wrapped.

 

The appeal for donations had been well intentioned. The catastrophic turn in the situation is beyond everyone’s expectation. No one is to blame for this. Instead, let this be a lesson to learn from. More careful planning is needed with preventive measures discussed before launching a donation  appeal such as this. More important still is the readiness to share with others what we treasure rather than discarding what we have no use of. Sharing is more than doling out charity. Above all, we ought to avoid excessive purchasing. Waste reduction at the source is to be advocated.

 

Another problem!

I'm now trying to 'follow' a few of my blogger friends. I tried the 'Google+' function and got hooked to two of them.  I now find two friends' profile pictures on the homepage. But they are supposed to be using the 'Google Friend Connect' function. And only one of them is the one I managed to connect through Google+. I got so confused!

Can anyone kindly tell me whether Google Follow and Google Friend Connect are the same thing and that they both function with the use of Google+ ?

Encouragement and Support

I wanted to give up trying. But encouraged by my blogger friends' support and guidance, here I am, making yet another attempt. The homepage design still remains a problem. I'll get it done sooner or later. Friends, be patient.