Visiting Mom and Dad on the 24th April 2010

This was our first quarterly family gathering and it was good to see everyone's faces. Kudos of course to Leo and Ivy for driving all the way down to be with us. (please do post pics guys!)

After spending some time at the niche and also chee bung, we headed to Seletar Reservoir Park.
Brooks and Jonathan (with maid Eva) took the kids while the rest of us sat on picnic mats and spent some time in reflection and sharing.

We read through parts of a chapter from the book 'A Grace Disguised'. This book was written by a man who in one moment lost 3 generations of his family - mom, wife and daughter. In the chapter we read, called A Community of Brokenness, Jerry talks about how pain and suffering can be such a solitary affair, but it need not be that way. In fact, pain and loss can also open doors for community.

Jerry shares there are 2 things that need to happen since community doesn't happen naturally.
Firstly, we need to be willing to enter deeply into the life of another, which means allowing our lives to be changed.

Secondly, it means the person who is experiencing pain/loss must also be willing to receive the help and the friendship. It will require courage to face the darkness and new skills.

Leonard shared that he was praying as he felt far from the family and he didn't know what to expect coming down yesterday. But he felt that our reading the chapter was itself an answered prayer.

We shared about how we need to learn to enter into each other's world and accept each other, before we even seek to correct and change another. We talked about how it required courage since seeing family only reminds us of the loss of mom. We also shared on we can learn to clarify assumptions rather than just bear grudges or feel a sense of distance from each other.

It was a good time of open sharing.
We proceeded to lunch at this restaurant called Woody....the spiciest buffalo wings you've eaten....wow, just thinking of it makes me feel....sssss....hiam ah!

i am grateful for the time we had, and look forward to the ways we can truly become friends to each other. And that in the end, mom's loss may not just leave a hole in our hearts and family, but may be the bridge to deeper levels of friendships and love we can have with each other.

One action point -
please try to update us about your family once a month - email or use this blog - as we all do our bit, it will go a long way to strengthening the ties that bind.

Till 17th July,
here's the DOG signing off