Recently, I had the privilege to watch Wicked in Singapore. A musical that has been glorified by a few of my friends who were lucky enough to watch it in US. I am grateful Wicked managed to find its way to Singapore and I didn't need to fly so long to watch it.
Geez ... what an awesome performance it was. I was genuinely amazed. Love the story. Love the songs. Love the lyrics. But most importantly, I just love the lesson it tried to impart through the "perceived" good and evil, that some things are simply not what they seem to be. In the darkness there is light and vice versa.
Ideally, I would love to watch Kristin Chenoweth plays Glenda but I don't think that will happen as she has left the Broadway scene for quite a few years now. I first chanced upon her in Pushing Daisies, although she was not the lead actress but she sure made sucha big impact and you couldn't help but to love her so much. I remember her more than the lead actress anyway! At that time I was ignorant about her big role in Wicked.
Then, she appeared again in my momma Oprah's farewell spectacular and she sang "For Good". Another round of ignorance, I didn't even know that song was from Wicked. I only know,"Wow! What an appropriate song hor ...!" Then I dug deeper and found out ... damn, this is from Wicked! Damn, the lyrics is so awesome. Damn! I love this song to the core and then a light-bulb-moment dawned on me ... I want this song to be played in my funeral as an eulogy, as a thank-you note to those who have given me something in life.
Ok. Call me crazy. But those who are really close to me know that I have been really fascinated with "death". I love to visit quirky places that have relations to death and so far I have been to Les Catacombs (Paris), Cimetière du Père-Lachaise (Paris) and Trunyan Village (Bali). More to come.
Then a friend introduced me to a Latin phrase - Memento Mori which means "remember your mortality" or "remember you will die". What a beautiful and morbid concept. But how can it be morbid when that is the absolute truth about life? We will die one day. You will never know when, won't you? Unless you choose to take your own life by your own hand. But majority of us do think we are going to live forever. Going through everyday simply by ticking the to-do lists. Sure, nothing wrong with that actually. But on your death-bed, once you have fulfilled them, I just wonder, will all be worth it? I am not sure. I can't answer this question myself.
However, I do know for sure, up until now, quality relationships with people who are genuine and connected well with your souls are worth it. When you do look back, you will think of those moments how someone have touched your life, how someone have awakened you and pushed you to grow further. You will also think about the great happy moments that you have. Occasionally you may dwell into the dark sides but those will not last, unless you love to stay in the dark for long. I know I don't. Those happy shiny moments will takeover and simply make you feel so much better. Then you know, you do have a life well lived.
I have been really fortunate and blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful souls in this lifetime. I have also been fortunate to be able to cut off the energy suckers, not easy but sometimes it is simply necessary to do. Hence to all the beings that I have been in contact, what else can be more appropriate then when I am gone from this earth, to thank each and everyone of them by singing "For Good" as an eulogy for me to you.
Here, I share a snippet of the beautiful lyrics and its video when Kristin Chenoweth sang for Oprah, while the men of Moorehouse College who had received scholarship from her, appeared. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do while remembering those people who have indeed changed you for good.
PS. Apparently, having a rehearsal by singing to my best friend was not a very good idea. Many tissues were "killed". Guess I will keep the rehearsal session to myself.
I've heard it said That people come into our lives for a reason Bringing something we must learn And we are led To those who help us most to grow If we let them And we help them in return Well, I don't know if I believe that's true But I know I'm who I am today Because I knew you Like a comet pulled from orbit As it passes a sun Like a stream that meets a boulder Halfway through the wood Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you I have been changed for good
One of my 2012 resolution, which I am rephrasing to a must-do list, is to read at least 2 books in 1 month. That's slow compared to what I could do long ... long time ago before I got too up-close and personal with Mr. Procrastination. However I am very glad that within 3 weeks, I have finished 3 books. One of them doesn't really worth mentioning. Quite a waste of one's time.
Though this book is not really that fantastic either, still there are some gems to be collected from it. What I am going to list down below is the "spoiler" of the book. If you would like to enjoy "the journey" then I suggest you to read the entire book.
The lessons drawn are the following points:
The Power of Authenticity
Embrace Your Fears
Live with Kindness
Make Small Daily Progress
To Lead Your Best Life, Do Your Best Work
Choose Your Influences Well
Life's Simplest Pleasures Are Life's Greatest Joys
The Purpose of Life is to Love
Stand for Something Bigger than Yourself
The Power of Authenticity We are encouraged to live our authentic life, to be true to ourselves which everyone knows, is not an easy task. We can learn this by understanding where we have been and then discover where we are going.
Personal take: As I go through life, I realize being authentic has its own power. You may lose some people along the way, but you will gain more that will resonate with your true self. Speaking from my own experience, I really witness positive changes take place in my life. But the journey to be authentic is a long road and I am still traveling through.
Embrace Your Fears "The more fears we walk through, the more power we reclaim. In this way, we grow both fearless and powerful, and thus are able to live the lives of our dreams."
Personal take: I used to be a people pleaser. I valued quantity and quality (call me greedy or simply naive). I kept on growing the numbers of my friends and thinking they are all of good quality. My fear was losing the numbers, thinking I wouldn't be significant. But after I took the first step in cutting the weeds from the flowers, my life blossoms. I took on my fears and ever since I never looked back. My life has never been better. I let go of the quantity and focus on quality. Once you know how to do it, it becomes a habit and life gets easier.
Live with Kindness "No action, no matter how small, is insignificant - how we treat someone defines how we treat everyone, including ourselves."
Personal take: Pretty straight forward and no-brainer. For this I would like to share one of my favourite quote:
“Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you – not because they are nice, but because you are.”—Unknown
Make Small Daily Progress "The way we do small things determines the way that we do everything ... Mastery then becomes our way of being." Personal take: Mastery in anything takes time. There's finding that to do well in something you need to put in at least 10,000 hours. If you do it 4 hours a day which means you need 2500 days = 7 years. Imagine. If you don't start something you would like to excel today, then you may need to wait longer. This is one problem I need to tackle, discipline, consistency and persistence are need to be the best. But alas ... I have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ... the only mastery I have for now is ... hmm ... I don't even know what ... HAIYA!
To Lead Your Best Life, Do Your Best Work "One of the greatest secrets to a life beautifully lived is to do work that matters. And to ascent to such a state of mastery in it that people can't take their eyes off of you." Personal take: I have a friend who organized a party pretty last-minute-ly and one of the thing I took away from it that even until this moment I am so very impressed, were her cheese platters. I remembered standing there being at awe of the arrangements as if I was admiring a piece of art. By far, she has put in the best work I have ever seen into a cheese platter. I am not talking about fine dining restaurants, some cheese experts, etc. Even so, I don't think I have seen something as beautiful as these. Guess I was so cheese-struck that I forgot I needed to eat more of them. -_-" Choose Your Influences Well "It's a mark of wisdom to choose to spend time in those places that inspire and energize you and associate with those people who elevate and uplift you." Personal take: Out of all of the above, I can 99.9% swear by this lesson. People who suck your energy, pour you with unnecessary negative dramas, should be casted away asap. Unless you are able to transform those negative energies into a positive one, then, good for you. If not, stay away, get rid of them, find yourself new friends, new work environments, or best of all, new perspectives. In the last 4 years, I have been seeing so much impacts just by associating myself with positively happy people. Or even if they are not all the time happy, they are enriching in their own ways. As a result, I am positively happier person too. I believe strongly, the people I know now and the people I am going to know next are going to be awesome. Because if life is not uplifting most of the time, then you will miss out on the views life has to offer. I wonder if the monkey in Sangeh (Bali) agrees with me or not ...
Life's Simplest Pleasure Are Life's Greatest Joys "Most people don't discover what's most important in life until they are too old to do anything about it. ... While society invites us to fill our lives with material objects, the best part of us knows that the more basic pleasures are the ones that enrich and sustain us."
Personal take: 13-16 November 2011, will be when I graduated in this life lesson. I booked myself to one of the not-so-cheap villa in Ubud, Bali, thinking I would like to spend my birthday on my own and pamper myself with the facilities offered by the resort. May I say, I regretted that decision ever! The villa even though it was so big and had all kind of things you need - even a coffee maker - was one of the most horrible stay I have ever had in my life. The first night I arrived at the resort, alone (stupid), I was cursing and swearing on why on earth I did what I did. Because after I have parted with my friends (also thanks to my own decision), then I realized, beautiful places mean nothing without the company of friends. Sure, we need our alone time once in a while, but when something is awesome, it's much pleasurable when we are able to share it. Even though it's as simple as,"Oy! Don't you think this tea is very nice? Don't you see the monkey is so cute! Oh come on, I think you look like the fat one." The Purpose of Life is to Love "How well you live comes down to how much you love. The heart is wiser than the head. Honor it. Trust it. Follow it."
Personal take: Well, well, well ... sure love is nice. I love you. You love me. World peace. That's very nice. I just had a lengthy discussion 2 days ago with 2 of my wise and mature friends over this topic. One is very heart. One is very brain. Personally, I think one needs to balance between the heart and the brain. If you love without the brain, you may fall into dangers as you didn't see it coming before. If you think without the heart, you may miss out on life's miracles. If I could rephrase that, I would say the purpose of life is to live it by loving, thinking and sharing.
Stand for Something Bigger than Yourself "...become successful, on your own terms rather than on those suggested to you by society. But above all else - be significant. Make your life matter - be of use. And be of service to as many people as possible."
Personal take: This .... I have no comment. I don't know what I am standing for. But I know I am learning and slowly creating my terms day by day. I know my life matter but I don't know what service I am able to give to as many people as possible yet. Time to go to my dark corner to reflect or to sleep as the clock is not very friendly anymore.
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I hope you enjoy my sharing from what I have read. The next book will be a brainier one and I doubt I can remember what I have learned from it! HAH! Ho-boy ....
For those who will be celebrating Chinese New Year, I am wishing you a new year filled with love, joy, peace, health and abundance. May all your goals come to fruition and stay happy always.
