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When I was in college in the early 70’s, I attended the regular Sunday services and youth activities in a Presbyterian church in Taiwan, where the culture was very conservative then, romantic love between man and woman was seldom openly discussed. My pastor focused on the Christian’s devotion to God when he mentioned the “The Song of Solomon”, he sort of avoiding the implied relationship between a man and a woman.
Rabbi Benjamin Segal translated and commented the “The Song of Songs” in a way that I had never thought of then. The title “The Song of Songs: A Woman in Love” clearly speaks that “The Song of Songs” is the book in Bible that celebrates the unconditional romantic love, it’s not just a book that emphases divine love to God. I found Rabbi Segal’s interpretations very interesting and liberating.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Natural Treatments for Tics & Tourette's by Sheila J. Rogers
This book is my crash course about Tics & Tourette Syndrome. It clearly explains what the disease is, how it impacts the patients and people around them, the possible causes from environment and diet, the different treatment options that focus on natural remedies and the management of environment and diet. I am not a medical professional, but I always pay attention to what environment and diet can impact my health personally and that of my loved ones. If this disease struck myself or any of my loved ones, I would seek every treatment options, including the natural remedies described in this book. Coincidentally, shortly after I finished reading this book, ABC aired an episode of its 20/20 programs, "Teens Take on Tourette Syndrome" that reinforced my understanding of the disease, on Friday, 05/22/2009.
Friday, January 2, 2009
2008 in review
With a 4-day long weekend for the New Year holiday, there is plenty of time for me to reflect events in the past year and plan for the new year. Though the world-wide financial meltdown of 2008 had shaken the very foundations of every society on earth, it was a very good year for me, albeit, a hectic one.
On the home front, no misfortune or disease befell any of my relations in Taiwan except my eldest brother who underwent a rectal surgery to treat the severe hemorrhoids that he suffered during his biking adventure around Taiwan. Thanks God, he had a speedy recovery.
As for my 84-year old mother, she was as healthy as she could be consider her advanced age. I kept my weekly calls with her throughout 2008 and I called to wish her a happy new year on the eve of New Year. My weekly call is the one thing she always expect on Saturday mornings, she talks, I listen, it will not change for 2009 and for the years to come.
I was delighted when my youngest sister called to tell me the improvement of her depression, as a result, her relationship with my mother had taken a turn for the better. I couldn't help feeling a sense of relief, after years of efforts, that she began to see that blood is thicker than water regardless whether there was some perceived injustice and injury inflicted on her, and by and large the perception may not be always correct.
As the first daughter of my parents and the only unmarried child of their eight children, I feel it's my duty to keep the different family relationships in harmony. It has not been an easy job, especially in a huge family like mine, nevertheless, every effort counts and I intend to bear it.
One thing I did early in the year was to document my family tree so to provide a way for the younger generations to connect with their elders and their cousins regardless where we live. In May, I took a quick trip to Taiwan for the wedding of Benson, the son of my youngest brother. As all my nephews and nieces get to the marriageable age in the next 10 years or so, there will be many weddings to attend. In 2009, there is one in June and I probably will make the trip.
On the personal side, health first. I kept my weight at 112 pounds and all my vital signs in the healthy range, thanks to the years of healthy diet and exercise regimen and a very good family doctor. However, in two of my yoga classes, I experienced a sudden excruciating pain of my lower back and my right shoulder that prevented me from doing the yoga poses that I used to do easily. Since I have exercised and practiced yoga regularly for many years that should keep me in great shape, I thought that the pain would just go away with break from exercise and yoga for a week or two. Little did I know it took me more than four months of physical therapies to get back to near normal. I still feel a tingling sensation every now and then, maybe it's just the sign of aging after all. However, I am not ready to throw in the towel yet without doing every exercise that I can to reverse it.
On my literary project, I completed the reading of three novels by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (The Cossacks, War and Peace, Anna Karenina) and four novels by English writer George Eliot (Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch) in the Library of Essential Writers Series published by Barnes & Noble. I will release my review of each novel in the new year.
I also cataloged some of my books in LibraryThing site and got involved in its Early Reviewer program which publishers offer unpublished books for review before releasing them to general public. I need to complete the cataloging of all my books in the new year.
On the career, I am still working on this multi-year and hundreds of million dollars program for the same company that I joined in 2004. If everything goes as planned, I probably will retire within this program in five to seven years when I am ready to retire. The jury is still out, but everyone is hopeful since this is the most important strategic project the company has in 60 years.
On the financial side, I am still on a very solid ground as I suffer no more than everyone has suffered when world-wide financial meltdown shock the very foundations of every society on earth. Though it was a tremulous and scary year, I was shielded from it to some degree. For that, I am grateful.
Last but not the least memorable was my reconnection with Winya and through her with some Hoppingers that I may meet again. Life comes in full circle, we plan, God laughs, how wonderful it is!
On the home front, no misfortune or disease befell any of my relations in Taiwan except my eldest brother who underwent a rectal surgery to treat the severe hemorrhoids that he suffered during his biking adventure around Taiwan. Thanks God, he had a speedy recovery.
As for my 84-year old mother, she was as healthy as she could be consider her advanced age. I kept my weekly calls with her throughout 2008 and I called to wish her a happy new year on the eve of New Year. My weekly call is the one thing she always expect on Saturday mornings, she talks, I listen, it will not change for 2009 and for the years to come.
I was delighted when my youngest sister called to tell me the improvement of her depression, as a result, her relationship with my mother had taken a turn for the better. I couldn't help feeling a sense of relief, after years of efforts, that she began to see that blood is thicker than water regardless whether there was some perceived injustice and injury inflicted on her, and by and large the perception may not be always correct.
As the first daughter of my parents and the only unmarried child of their eight children, I feel it's my duty to keep the different family relationships in harmony. It has not been an easy job, especially in a huge family like mine, nevertheless, every effort counts and I intend to bear it.
One thing I did early in the year was to document my family tree so to provide a way for the younger generations to connect with their elders and their cousins regardless where we live. In May, I took a quick trip to Taiwan for the wedding of Benson, the son of my youngest brother. As all my nephews and nieces get to the marriageable age in the next 10 years or so, there will be many weddings to attend. In 2009, there is one in June and I probably will make the trip.
On the personal side, health first. I kept my weight at 112 pounds and all my vital signs in the healthy range, thanks to the years of healthy diet and exercise regimen and a very good family doctor. However, in two of my yoga classes, I experienced a sudden excruciating pain of my lower back and my right shoulder that prevented me from doing the yoga poses that I used to do easily. Since I have exercised and practiced yoga regularly for many years that should keep me in great shape, I thought that the pain would just go away with break from exercise and yoga for a week or two. Little did I know it took me more than four months of physical therapies to get back to near normal. I still feel a tingling sensation every now and then, maybe it's just the sign of aging after all. However, I am not ready to throw in the towel yet without doing every exercise that I can to reverse it.
On my literary project, I completed the reading of three novels by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy (The Cossacks, War and Peace, Anna Karenina) and four novels by English writer George Eliot (Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch) in the Library of Essential Writers Series published by Barnes & Noble. I will release my review of each novel in the new year.
I also cataloged some of my books in LibraryThing site and got involved in its Early Reviewer program which publishers offer unpublished books for review before releasing them to general public. I need to complete the cataloging of all my books in the new year.
On the career, I am still working on this multi-year and hundreds of million dollars program for the same company that I joined in 2004. If everything goes as planned, I probably will retire within this program in five to seven years when I am ready to retire. The jury is still out, but everyone is hopeful since this is the most important strategic project the company has in 60 years.
On the financial side, I am still on a very solid ground as I suffer no more than everyone has suffered when world-wide financial meltdown shock the very foundations of every society on earth. Though it was a tremulous and scary year, I was shielded from it to some degree. For that, I am grateful.
Last but not the least memorable was my reconnection with Winya and through her with some Hoppingers that I may meet again. Life comes in full circle, we plan, God laughs, how wonderful it is!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Classical Christmas music
KDFC 102 FM is my favorite radio station. It is a commercial station in San Francisco Bay Area that broadcasts classical music 24 hours a day. It is also the radio home of the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera. It is ranked among the top 3 Bay Area radio stations, and is the most popular classical station in the U.S.
On the weekdays, I wake up with its music at 5:30, indulge myself in the beautiful music for 15 minutes or so before I get up to get ready for work. Its music accompanies me at home and in the car. Whenever I travel out of town, I am always disappointed in the stations elsewhere.
During holiday season, it plays all-holiday blend of classical favorites through midnight on the 25th. You can listen it online with Windows Player, iTunes, or iPhone from KDFC Listen Online site. Here is the link http://www.kdfc.com/pages/743368.php.
On the first Sunday of every month at 8pm, KDFC broadcasts a full-length production of opera recorded live at San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, hosted by Dianne Nicolini. The link of San Francisco Opera on KDFC - http://www.kdfc.com/pages/743374.php.
The San Francisco Symphony on KDFC is another wonderful program that it plays highlights from the performances recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall. Here is the link http://www.kdfc.com/pages/743355.php.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Merry Christmas!
On the weekdays, I wake up with its music at 5:30, indulge myself in the beautiful music for 15 minutes or so before I get up to get ready for work. Its music accompanies me at home and in the car. Whenever I travel out of town, I am always disappointed in the stations elsewhere.
During holiday season, it plays all-holiday blend of classical favorites through midnight on the 25th. You can listen it online with Windows Player, iTunes, or iPhone from KDFC Listen Online site. Here is the link http://www.kdfc.com/pages/743368.php.
On the first Sunday of every month at 8pm, KDFC broadcasts a full-length production of opera recorded live at San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, hosted by Dianne Nicolini. The link of San Francisco Opera on KDFC - http://www.kdfc.com/pages/743374.php.
The San Francisco Symphony on KDFC is another wonderful program that it plays highlights from the performances recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall. Here is the link http://www.kdfc.com/pages/743355.php.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Merry Christmas!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
A heartfelt Thanksgiving
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| From when east meets west |
Thanksgiving Day is a day to give thanks for one's spiritual and material abundance. I remember my first Thanksgiving in 1979 with gratitude to a young American woman with whom I befriended at Neptune Hall, one of the graduate student dormitories in NIU, shortly after I arrived from Taiwan as a graduate student.
Since Thanksgiving is a federal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, colleges and universities across the country operate on a shortened academic week, so is the residential dinning services. Alone and no place to go, I accepted Ellen's invitation to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with her family. They embraced me and introduced me to a traditional American Thanksgiving feast. After graduation, I lost contact with Ellen, but her kindness and the generosity that her family bestowed on me the real meaning of Thanksgiving years later when I started hosting Thanksgiving dinners.
Michelle, the daughter of my eldest brother, came to California for college in the late 1990's. Unfortunately, the relationship between us was incredibly strained and difficult. For years I agonized over the family feud caused by the discord between aunt and niece and her mother. And for years we were in non-speaking terms though we lived in the same region, in the same state most of the time. It's only until January this year, I left a message on her blog in it she detailed her infertility treatment. My heart ached for her that she had to endure the treatment, then the heartbreak when it didn't work for her. I wanted to refer her to a very good infertility specialist I know, after all, she shares the same blood with me. We were reconnected again, contacting each other sporadically, with great caution I was still hesitant to get involved in her life as those painful experience in the past was still vivid in my mind.
Late in April, she and Nick spent a day with me when I was getting ready for the trip to Taiwan for the wedding of Benson and Christy. We spent a few hours in my club, had a Thai lunch in downtown San Rafael, enjoyed the speculative view of San Francisco across the bay from the waterfront in downtown Tiburon, had delicious pastry at the famous Swiss Bakery there, and visited the chic downtown Mill Valley before they drove back to Walnut Creek. This was the first time that I had the opportunity to get acquainted with her husband, Nick, my new nephew-in-law whom I didn't know for years. The reunion after years of separation turned out fine, albeit with a little awkward moments every now and then throughout the day.
In September when Theresa, the daughter of my third elder brother, who lives in Japan hinted that Michelle would announce her pregnancy at the end of her first trimester for she feared of invoking great expectation from extended family if she made it known only to be disappointed again should it doesn't stick. I felt a pang of concern as to how she could handle the night-shift at a hospital where she works as RN? How she was doing, was it going to be alright this time? I called, offered my concerns and nutrition know-how, listened to her stories of morning sickness, and et cetera. She called when they learned it's a boy. From that point on, the relationship between aunt and niece made a more positive turn, the unborn baby served as the catalyst that helped transform years of family conflict into family peace.
Michelle and Nick were to come over for Thanksgiving. I wanted it to be a healthy, classic, and hearty American Thanksgiving dinner with all organic ingredients, including the turkey. I planned the menu and ordered a 12 pounds organic turkey from WholeFoods two weeks in advance and shopped all the ingredients the weekend before. On Thanksgiving Day, I got up at 5:30 in the morning, got the house ready, went to pick up the turkey and a bouquet of flowers from WholeFoods. By the time Michelle and Nick arrived around noon, I already baked the Cranberry Tea Bread, two Pumpkin Pies, and made the Apple & Sausage Dressing. Michelle help me make the Maple Cranberry Sauce and the Butternut Squash Apple Soup. She also washed and cut the onion, carrot, celery, turnip, baby green zucchini, baby yellow zucchini, sweet potato, lemon, and mushroom that were to be roasted with the turkey. Nick rubbed the herbs and sea salt mixture on the turkey before we set it on the bed of mix vegetables to be roasted for 3 hours and 10 minutes. 
During the roasting, she also kept time at 30 minutes interval when we basted the turkey with the juice from the roasting pan so to keep it moist and flavorful. While the turkey was cooking in the oven, Nick was so fascinated by my collection of Spode china and silverware that he surfed the web for more information. I am afraid that he is going to start collecting the same pattern as well.
When the turkey was done, we made the gravy from the juices and drippings of the roasted turkey, set the table, took some pictures, I carved the turkey before we sat down. What a wonderful Thanksgiving feast we had! Everything turned out so delicious and tasty! We talked and laughed while enjoying the dishes and the red wine that Nick bought. After dinner, Michelle helped me clean up the dishes, pots and pans, I joked that it's not easy to have a Thanksgiving dinner, but we all felt that it all worth the trouble. Around 10:00 pm, they finally left my house with the a pumpkin pie, a loaf of cranberry tea bread, and container after container of leftovers.
I give thanks not only for the abundance of what I have, but for the heartfelt Thanksgiving that I had longed for finally came true. It always pains me a great deal when family conflict arises, especially as the result of crashes between two opposite cultures and two generations. As I get older, I am more keen on making conscious efforts in maintaining the family relationships that I have. At the end of the day, I want to be able to say that I have done everything I can do and I don't have any unfinished business with my family. God help me!
Note: This is one of my two Christmas catcus plants that bloom around Thanksgiving every year.
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| From when east meets west |
1. Organic Herbal Roasted Turkey
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| From when east meets west |
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| From when east meets west |
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| From when east meets west |
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| From when east meets west |
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| From when east meets west |
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| From when east meets west |
Sunday, November 16, 2008
The Last Gifts, by Jillian Brasch
My Dad was very ill for 7 months before he past away in 2005. When he was dying, I was looking for books that would give me practically ways, in addition to pray, to take care of him during the final journey of his life, but I found so little available. I finally realized that in the American culture that people in general are not comfortable around someone who is either dying or whose loved one is dying. It's very different from the culture in Taiwan where I was originally from. I felt so lonely and isolated then, wishing that there were more supports out there for me while I was dealing with the illness of my Dad.
I appreciate Ms. Jillian Brasch's contribution in this scarce field in a practically way. I highly recommend her book to anyone who needs it.
I appreciate Ms. Jillian Brasch's contribution in this scarce field in a practically way. I highly recommend her book to anyone who needs it.
Monday, November 3, 2008
What a hectic October!
I can't believe it's already November and Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner. I was so busy at work this October that I worked two weekends in a row, but the work still keeps coming and my responsibility keeps increasing. There is no end in sight, at lease not for another five years in this 350 million dollar program!
In today's staff meeting, my boss told me to start planning the resources (time, cost, staff) for two new projects that I will be managing. It's exciting yet scary, how am I going to juggle them in addition to what I am doing now? Oh, boy! I just have to manage it!
One would think work should slow down as one approaches retirement in less than ten years, but that's not the case for me. I keep getting more and more responsibility as I get older. Is there anything wrong with it? When can I slow down and smell the roses?
In today's staff meeting, my boss told me to start planning the resources (time, cost, staff) for two new projects that I will be managing. It's exciting yet scary, how am I going to juggle them in addition to what I am doing now? Oh, boy! I just have to manage it!
One would think work should slow down as one approaches retirement in less than ten years, but that's not the case for me. I keep getting more and more responsibility as I get older. Is there anything wrong with it? When can I slow down and smell the roses?
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