Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!
man its warm today... yeah plan to spend it with family today, family dinner tonite...
went carolling last night. hahaha my fingers are completely gone ehh... playing guitar for 4 straight houses has its bad points... but now its like all the songs are imprinted in my head...
also had the privilege of going to Hollywood Hospital with a few people to help sing some carols,
which was well amazing really. we went from ward to ward singing... and yeah well i've never had so much fun really. it was well... a great opportunity to give back to the community. most of the people we sang to were seniors, and well having occasionally gone through periods of loneliness in my 17 years of life, i can partially empathise with them (im being serious here)
it must be a terrible thing to be alone on Christmas Eve. one of the more touching points was when, after we had sang several songs, an old lady in her bed started crying. i mean, here she was, struggling to breathe and she was just so sad that she couldnt be with her family. standing by her bedside, well i nearly cried myself... last night at the hospital, well though the seniors thanked us, i could honestly say that the pleasure was entirely mine...
it is at such poignant moments that one discovers the pain of loneliness. but it was an amazing opportunity to just serve people in the community. one lady actually hobbled out of her ward to hear us sing... i mean wow!!! yeah... i guess i have a soft spot for seniors, because well i have grandmothers whom i dearly love...
both spent alot of time with me when i was young because my parents worked alot... and they have both sacrificed heaps in their lives to bring up families, to work, etc...
for me, well when people talk of inner beauty, i look at my grandmothers in my mind, and i know thats what inner beauty is, not dependent on outward appearances but on a beautiful, loving soul. having said that, i dearly hope my maternal grandmother, still a staunch buddhist will accept Christ soon... as i write this words, well i'm realizing that my paternal grandmother just returned to KL last Saturday, and i miss her so much. she's had a very interrupted life... she was 5 when she went to Malaysia. just before she was about to enter high school at a convent, the Japanese invaded. telling me this, she was reminiscing of how she already had her school uniform fitted... and she's always wondered what would have been if she had completed school...
well she also talked to me on occasions on the war, and how all they had to eat at times was just tapioca, whatever they could dig up from the ground really... got married after the war, had 9 children... raised all my fine uncles and aunties, and my dad... which is absolutely legendary, because well my grandfather wasnt particularly well off... they lived in Jinjang, KL (it's like one of the poorer chinese suburbs) she also spent alot of time raising me, picking me up from school, making my lunch, bandaging my cuts (little boys tend to fall down and get heaps of cuts). in fact, i think i would go so far to say that she spent more time with me than my parents did when i was young... i saw her most of the day, only seeing my parents in the morning before school and at night... having said that, i am in no way ungrateful to my parents... and i love them dearly because they raised me, took care of me, and worked hard to bring me to Perth, where well i believe have a better chance of achieving my dreams... they sacrificed alot to bring me here so i'm extremely grateful... and it is at Christmas, when one remembers this... how the gifts people give us... material and the immaterial ones (which are always more important) reflect the greatest gift of all that came 2000 years ago.
okies, i've sorta lost my focus here ... i think i started with the carolling... how did i end up talking about my Grandmothers? :-P
well anyways... all i want to say, on Christmas Day 2004 is thank you to all the people who have contributed to my life in a large or small way... and i pray that God will bless you all in this new year.... that your hopes and dreams will be fulfilled... AMEN