Sunday, January 19, 2014
at
11:15 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
TL;DR
I talk about the significance of this year; I become old, squatted for longer than expected and thinking about whether I should squat longer.
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This year is a very significant year for me. It became significant by accident actually. In fact, if I were to have it my way (and God knows what a disaster that would be) this year wouldn't have been significant at all.
This year is the year that I have been in Australia for 10 years. It is one thing to say that you have spent 18 years of your life in the country growing up, but it is another thing to say that you have lived in another country for a decade. So many things have happened in those 10 years, both good and bad, periods of growing in maturity and times of just pure foolishness. I have never expected to stay here this long. To think that I would stay here for 4 years, max 8 years, is exactly what I was expecting. But it turns out that life had other plans and has initially dragged me, kicking and screaming. But here I am nonetheless, at a place that I wouldn't have seen in coming in a million years. And I have to say that I like where I am now. As I have said to some people, the last 6 years was necessary for the development of my character. I needed to be broken into, to get through the thick skull of pride and immaturity. My extended stay here has taught me a great deal of things and I am glad for it.
This year is the year I will be as old as when Jesus began his ministry. My peers have called it a milestone, much like when one has turned 18 and 21. As I pondered on this, I think I am afraid that I do not see it as a milestone. We use the word milestone in our lives the same way we use it for what it was originally intended as, a measurement of distance, as if there is some fixed distance to some event in this thing we call life. I think a more meaningful way is events. Or if we go by things that we see on the road analogy, one of those "You are now entering " signs. Going to school is a milestone and so is getting your first job, getting married, having your first child, your children leaving home and so on. Entering different regions in life can take different paths, some will take the highway and others the long winding gravel road. You may even end up detouring to somewhere else. And that's fine. The milestone concept has the idea that you should be reaching some goal in a certain amount of time and if you don't, well then something is wrong. Coming to grips with this has been very liberating and in some ways has made me care less about a lot of things and sometimes people. Being this old is an event no doubt, but it is far less significant than getting a job (which was my last "You are now entering ...") and I've even took the long way round. Peers say that I should have a big bash when I do turn another year old this year but I say no. It's just another day. I will, however, accept celebrating when I would have lived for 1 billion seconds (which apparently is on 23rd July 2016 at 1:53.40 PM Malaysian time, ±1 minute)
This year is the year that my temporary visa will expire at the end of the year. It has also been impressed on me that I should decide what should I do with it. A big part of me wants to go to some other place, somewhere I can start again. But the rational me thinks that it is too risky to put all my hopes in one basket and should look to nesting here for a little while more, or at least the possibility of it. It's like signing a contract for another few years and this is not something that you would take lightly. This has moved up the prayer list significantly as well as intensity. I can trust where God will be leading me to, I just need to know where am I going.
It would be almost poetic if I did get what I want for this year because that would hit all of the significance I have outlined this year, but I wouldn't count on it. It would be awesome though. I suppose one can dream...
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Wednesday, January 1, 2014
at
11:01 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
So the first post of the year is about...Christmas?
Yes, I am still listening to Christmas songs just to wring out every bit of the Christmas cheer. Think about it, you won't hear these songs again until Christmas time this year. People doing different arrangements of age old Christmas songs and carols always excite me around Christmas time.
There is nothing wrong with some of the traditional arrangements of these songs but when some of the songs demands the spirit of joy and celebration, sometimes the way these songs are played, especially in church, tend to not draw it out as much as I would like to be. Chris Tomlin's version of Joy To The World where he adds the extra lines about unspeakable joy really hits it home. And the arrangement of that song is a reflection of that joy; big, loud, and for a lack of a better word, very much like Chris Tomlin.
There is one song that currently sits in the category of "it needs more joy" in our arrangements. This is quite possibly my most favourite Christmas song ever and that would be Hark The Herald Angels Sing. A very close second would be Mariah Carrey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, but I digress. So far I haven't found any arrangement of this song that I found to be fitting of joy. There are some interesting arrangements out there but they don't quite fit the bill. Only once that I've heard a worthy arrangement and that was done in my church back home years ago. Unfortunately, that arrangement is undocumented and I don't really know the people in the music ministry to get a hold of a recording, if there is any at all.
And then, I found this.
Boy was I happy to have found this. In true Citizens style, they have created something good. I immediately jumped on my bass and just jammed with it. There's nothing like a good brass section in any band. It's currently on loop because I just can't stop the groove. This also means that I really want to learn a brass instrument really badly, like a trombone. If I would have my way, I'd want all songs to be like this but that would make it boring. This is just gold.
Of course I am biased to say it because it has a Motown feel to it. Whatever.
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