I love my class. I am really blessed to be their teacher. Each bright mind, each adoring face, each innocent heart, each cheeky personality, each hardworking character touches me on a daily basis. I want to give to them as much as I can with the rest of the time I have with them. Each of them is a blessing to me.

Thank you kids! You are God’s gift to me this year. Happy Children’s Day! May you all grow up to be a greater blessing to people you meet. I LOVE YOU 3G!

I am back to using 6100! My student stared in disblief! "Cher, this phone got no video, no camera, no bluetooth you know!" "I know!" I said with a grin. My less-than-one-year-old V3(NUS) died on me. Actually it’s the screen that blacked out. I remember my brother said that flip phones tend to expire prematuredly. So my kind tuition kid lent me her Nokia 6100. It kinda simplified my life using a gadget for the sole purpose it was created for. I.e. calling and texting.

Surprisingly, and refreshingly, I no longer surf the net for the coolest phone to buy, or the coolest accessory to add to the existing phone. Instead, I found myself in a state of contentment. When I first saw this phone, I was transitting in HK airport. It was the coolest Nokia phone then. The sleekest and it’s got colour too! And it cost a hefty S$1000!! My student is willing to let me have hers for $30! I am taking it of course! It was afterall my dream phone years back!

A simple phone definitely has simplified my phone usage, and thus simplified my need for the coolest, smallest, fastest gadget.

Simplicity is sweet!

Saw this quote on a friend’s tee which tickled me!

"Love means nothing in tennis!" I wonder what’s the link…

Tennis course is getting fun especially with the smash! Next thing to do is to add Sharapova’s aggressive HHAAIIIIYEEEEERRR!! during the serve! CONGRATULATIONS MARIA SHARAPOVA for winning the US Open!!

“Iron sharpens iron,” interesting points Jo’s bringing up, “each inputting into each other’s life in his or her own way. His strength covers her lack, hers his. Both are complete. Both become better people. No need to strive or expect or have a shopping list, if God has ordained it for you in your life.”

Ah’s BF changed her. She becomes more patient and less bad-tempered while he becomes more intellectual. Perfect match, she said.

A friend wants an eloquent BF but her BF isn’t but he’s a deep thinker. So in the end it doesn’t matter that he can’t speak well because his thoughts provoke her.

I suppose we change when we are in a relationship. I see it as becoming a more balanced person. When he sees me for who I am and encourages me to be more of who I am, and I, him. Not becoming less of ourselves. It’s not about satisfying someone else’ criteria, but becoming more of the vessel God designed us to be.

Certain experiences have occurred in my life which enable me to access my thoughts and emotions in a deeper level, thoughts and emotions which have been lying dormant. I am glad those experiences happened. I become more of myself, a fuller person. interestingly, I made a new friend recently. I find myself fleeing from him as fast as you can say “go!” He’s inert, pessimist, “nuar” and negative. Talking with him leaves me drained. He doesn’t inspire me at all or bring any joy. Yet interacting with him has given me new insights to myself. People mirror what is already in us.

The idea of a man being perfectly-flawed is appealing because it shows him to be authentically-human, which keeps him closer to God and down-2-earth. ONLY, if he keeps himself close to God and down-2-earth, that is. Who wants to be with anyone who thinks he is god and plays God!

I think God is wise in allowing humans enough trials to keep us dependent on Him. Think about this formula and fill in the blank: intelligence + sinful nature = ________________

Watching people trying to move on from a broken relationship is heart-wrenching.

His soul has interwoven with hers, with pages of stories and fragments of memories written between them. Wavering between the past and the present, he forges a path to move forward into the future he can’t quite see. We’ve left a piece of us in the past. Without that piece, we feel dismembered.

We are made to love. We don’t always love for the right reason, out of our own need and lack. Can anyone even qualify love for that matter? Ian said we can. He found M. They are a picture of bliss. Not fools suffering for love, in the name of love, blindly.

Can you even reason with love? We can’t always choose who to love, can we? Love can be insane sometimes. I have loved insanely. Will I do it again? I don’t know. I have become a different person from that experience. I don’t think I will ever go back to the past. Unless… the past finds its way into my present under the guiding hand of God.

Ruby is the name of my Eastman violin. She’s a hefty $798! Thing is, I played on a $2000 handmade violin few weeks ago. It definitely sounded better when the owner played on it! hahaha! I had requested he play Canon in D. It was awesome! He gave me a copy of the score and I am practising it on my own without Mrs White.

I’ve learnt violin for years though no where near being competent yet. However I noticed that learning a skill requires incubation. At least for me, I learn better if I have a period of incubation. Learning by rote will only frustrate me. A period of rest is paramount to me as I sit on it and reflect the strokes, the fingering, the bowing.

My former violin teacher used to say I don’t feel the soul of the music and it shows up in my playing. I can feel the soul of the music if I am not the one playing it mah! If I wasn’t trying so hard to think of the technical aspect of it mah. Lately I am beginning to feel the music and not think of it in terms of notes and rests, and how much my right arm and jaw are aching. I stopped thinking about the colour of the tone, stopped counting so religiously, stopped checking my bow till I am cross-eyed. I just surrender myself to the music.

I suppose sometimes we look too closely at life and miss out on the big picture. What is the big picture in each aspect of your life? Have you lost sight of it?

I am starting to declutter. Again! Have to chuck things that do not work (e.g. my pretty black heels that constantly give me blisters), things I hardly used anymore (that glass jar, that little black cotton dress), and things that are better used elsewhere in someone else’s hands (books that that I don’t read anymore).

Be ruthless and chuck it!