Glory to God!

So here's today's challenge.

When I was in school way back when, my teachers said that when someone paid you a compliment, the proper response in accordance to the social etiquette of the time would be, to thank them. Polite people did that, all the time. I noticed, and I complied with that rule.

Now in fellowship with church Christians, this rule was superseded by a spontaneous utterance of "Glory to God".

As I complied with this new attitude, I learned that King Nebuchadnezzar and Samson got into trouble for not giving glory to God. And that was why we must never claim credit for a gift bestowed upon us by Providence. Understanding the rationale behind this attitude, I began spontaneously uttering "Glory to God"  like my salvation depended upon it.

This morning, my Sifu told me that my new hairstyle looked nice. This compliment started another round of mulling. What should a proper response be? It was awkward to utter "Glory to God" in the context of this occasion and a simple "Thank You" might have sufficed. But o-de-de-dear-dear... In the name of propriety, which would a better response be?

In the end, I circumvented the whole mishmash with a simple thumbs-up gesture. Thank God for thumbs. When words fail, thumbs speak. 

Seasons in our life

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the Heavens. --- Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

An old buddy gal of mine (Onewa, not her real name) called me up recently for a tele-chat. We chat some, and boy, did we chat some. For more than an hour, we chat some.

We shared our experiences, laughed some, moaned some.

Then we spoke about my recent palpitation and that struggle with an unstable BP reading,  We pushed the boundary of medical discoveries and wondered if we might have stumbled on an earth-shattering revelation, viz:

The pharmaceutical industry is a farce, one motivated by greed. They were makers of drugs who knew not what they were doing while we who knew nothing about drugs, knew better.

How was it that we knew better, you asked? It's simple. We knew every folk remedy conceivable, sworn by many to be the cure for the ailment of our times. By we, I meant the coterie of know-alls who forwarded every new health tip they bumped into. It's probably garlic and lemongrass today or screwpine leaves with shallots tomorrow. The secret recipe is tweaked every other week and most of us have probably drank up enough remedial concoction to last a few lifetimes.

Suffice to say, we, of the pill-popping-bruised-ego generation stood steadfast by this statement.  As we popped another pill into our mouth, we resolved that we will make-do with their pills for the time being, while we waited for the day someone else discovered the one true cure, which will require no expensive pharmaceutical branding. 

And while we laughed at the deranged persuasion in the above quote and assured ourselves that the narrative called for it, the sad reality is that Time had passed us by quietly and resolutely. We have now reached another season in our life.

Wouldn't it be great if our lives were governed by seasons we can control? Wouldn't that be hysterically magnificent?

I thought about the tapestry hanging on my wall. If seasons were the colors on my tapestry, and I get to choose the colors I liked, there would be no picture to look at.

The different seasons paint the final picture of the person we become. This picture will be left behind in a world which will continue to spin on its axis long after we leave. When you look at this from the other end of the telescope, isn't life nothing but a chasing after the wind?

Anxiety Attack!

The palpitation was an uncomfortable experience. It felt like your heart is hammering out of rhythm deep inside you. Your limbs became weak and the slight tremor was troubling. I thought about Michael J Fox. Parkinson's Disease sounded like a dreadful sword hanging over my head.

On this day, about a week ago I suddenly felt very uncomfortable close to midnight. I could not sleep and was feeling agitated and restless. My BP reading was 179/77.  It continued to rise fifteen minutes later.

Alarmed, we headed for the Emergency Room at our friendly neighborhood private hospital. They took my reading.  It was now 206/100.

The doctor who attended to me was a young chirpy man in his early thirties. As he went about studying my readings and chatting cheerfully, I began to calm down. "Doesn't look like a heart attack, Madam.  Don't worry. Its more like an anxiety attack," he said, after listening to how I got to be where I was.

He arranged for a blood test to rule out the heart attack, took my ECG, gave me a 10mg Norvasc, a tranquilizer and something for acid reflux and sent me home.

Two days later, the palpitation began again. This time I set off to see my old GP,. After a few quick questions, we arrived at the problem.

During a routine medical check-up with the doctor at the public hospital, I was taken off Amlodipine 2.5mg because "the dosage is so small it is insignificant." This brought the palpitation and my BP became unstable. My GP reinstated the amlodipine and we are watching to see what happens next.

The moral of this story?

When you're on medication for high blood pressure and things are looking swell, don't rock the boat!

Music Lessons

It has been several months since I started practicing with my Martin. What a joy it was to listen to the sound emitted from the guitar. I learned to play several worship songs but mostly secular ones. Encouraged by the sound of music, I took up ukulele classes too. Along the way, my niece Serena sent me a kalimba, out of the clear blue. I've never heard of a kalimba so you can imagine my amazement and puzzlement when I opened up the box to see a wooden thingamajig with strips of metal arrayed across it. If you have never heard of a kalimba, go check with Ah Goo. (Google)

Last week, I sent my guitar to Joshua to have the strings changed. Elixir strings gauge 0.11 was recommended. Joshua assessed my instrument and told me that the neck was slightly bent, and it would augur well to get it corrected as early as possible. I took his advice.

Later, an old friend of mine (Jac, not her real name) called for a tele-chat.

"So how's your guitar classes", she wanted to know.

"Ah.. I have to stop for a while. My guitar's neck is bent. It's being repaired." I said.

"Didn't that happen before?" Jac asked.

"Oh yes. My first guitar was diagnosed with a sunken neck. It was beyond repair."

"Good grief!" Jac laughed. "I wonder how you played your guitar to have two of them suffering neck injuries. What happened to your ukulele class?"

"Ah... The teacher was admitted into the hospital." 

And we laughed unabashedly, like old friends do. We forgot about the ravages of the Covid variant.  We forgot about the victims who have fallen.  We forgot about the teacher who was admitted into the hospital. We just laughed.

It felt good to occasionally laugh although we were in the midst of terrible times, somber times, grievous times, where people we know fall ill and go.

But who knows what will happen next?  Now, is that brief moment we shared laughing at a matter so painfully trivial that it outshined all the tragedy around us. 

Let us live our lives one day at a time. Forget about long term plans. Listen to the bird chirping outside your window this morning because by tomorrow, the bird may be gone, and if not the bird, then you.

Life can be so tragic that it is almost laughable.