simplicity ::-:: Walking

Have you ever enjoyed one of simplest things you could do like walking?  I did!  That made me think if we, human, did many things way too complicated so that we forgot how we could finish those things in other simpler alternatives.  Sometimes I wondered myself if I thought too much until I fail into the trap of thinking and got nothing out of it.

Last weekend, I went to see a concert with my sister at Indoor Stadium Huamark.  I normally went to the venue early in order to get a parking space.  I had about 1.5 hours before the door opened, so I was debating myself if I wanted to take a cab or walk to the nearby department store to get something to eat.  It’s quite a simple decision but I couldn’t help giving a lot of thought.  Many things came into the equation, plus the time and the traffic, which was such a disaster, especially on Saturday evening.  Finally, I decided to walk from the stadium to Big C Supercenter, which I thought it’s probably around 2 KM (if I was not wrong).

I cut through Ramkhamhaeng University, passed my high school (Satit Ramkhamhaeng), and reached Big C.  Along the way, I saw many things changed: new buildings in the university and my high school, new landscapes, new faculties, new surroundings, etc.  All old memories ran into my head when I walked pass the field track where we practiced sports; the gymnasium where we learned Judo; the art & music building where we took the ground floor as a classroom in our final year in high school.  Those thoughts made me smile.

Before I exited the university’s gate, on my left were two huge buildings, one was for the kindergarten school and one for primary school.  Almost 20 years ago, Satit Ram had only high school, and now seeing little kids in Satit Ram’s uniform made me happy.

After taking a quick meal, I took another route back to stadium.  This time I took the road to the back of the stadium.  While I was walking, I periodically looked up into the sky and saw clear sky and trees.  Later, I noticed that I did it unintentionally.  One of the reasons might be that on the road was crowded and jam-packed with cars and motorcycles; and I did not want to see them.

It was so amazing that half way through the path I did not see a single person.  There was only me.  Then my eyes shifted to the bus and saw that passengers were looking at me weirdly.  They might think that I was crazy by walking.  Well, what I did was smile.  That’s it!

Almost reaching the stadium, there were a whole lot of different kinds of peddlers and food kiosks along the footpath.  I stopped by the “Pa-tong-go Sangkaya” (deep fried dough with sweet dipping) kiosk and found that it was very fresh, delicious, and importantly cheap.  Further on the footpath were seafood kiosks.  Interestingly enough, they arranged the eating area by laying a piece of plastic sheet and putting a coffee table and some cushions around for customers.  There were more than 30 sets along the stadium fence down to the gate.  Wow, what a fun meal to have!  (though I was not guarantee the cleanliness).  That also made me smile.

This was a walking session full of smile.  I realized that I forgot how beautiful the sky was; how fresh the trees were; and how easy going life could be.  Now I saw that there were more in life.  I did not have to make things too complicated.  More or less, I still could look up to the sky or kneeled down to take a look at the green grass and small flowers.  When was the last time you do that?

For whatever other reasons one might have, for me, this short walking distance brought me back some good old comforting memories and showed me some simple life styles that many others might forgot.  In addition, not to mention that I got a chance to exercise a little bit too.  What else could one ask for in life?  I thought living each day as simple as possible might be an answer.

Moses Miracle

Had you very seen “Prince of Egypt”?  If so, did you remember the scene where Moses plunged down his cane in the sand and the sea was split into a path for people to flee from the Pharaoh’s soldiers?

One day, I read one of traveling magazines while waiting for my iced coffee, I saw this amazing picture of a sea divided into two parts with a sand pathway in the middle.  The caption was “Moses Miracle” in Jindo of South Korea.  It’s a natural phenomenon, which could happen one to three times a year during the month of May to July.  I thought to myself, “How could I miss it when I was traveling to Korea?”  I had traveled to Korea for three times with different places and seasons but never once that I had heard about it.

According to Korean folk tale, there was an old lady, who was left alone because all the Jindo (Island) villagers ran away from the appearance of fierce tigers.  She faithfully prayed to the Sea God for helping her to live and meet her family again.  The Sea God answered her prayer and opened up the sea.

Come to think about it, there were so many wonderful things in this planet for us, human, to enjoy if we valued them.  The power of nature was so incredibly huge and unmeasurable as well as uncontrollable.  No matter how advance the technology was, I thought that it still could not beat the wonder of nature.  It would be such a shame if all these great natural places were destroyed by us and our greediness and selfishness.  Didn’t you think so?

Next time, if I had a chance to visit Korea, I definitely would not miss going to Jindo Island.

The Fable of Firefly

On Friday night, past couple weeks ago, I watched a Thai movie; and in that movie, there was a song called นิทานหิ่งห้อย or Firefly’s Tale.  Listening to that song again stirring up my nostalgic feeling and flashing some good old memories into my head.  They were the time when I was in high school.  Once we were friends and had fun without worries.  Life was full of laugh, joy, and dream.  Now, I wondered where all of those elements had gone.

That song kept playing in my head for couple days and I had to let it out by writing about it.  A week later, I walked into 7-11 and waiting for my sandwich; on the book shelf there was “a-day” magazine with Prapas Chonsaranont on the cover.  I thought to myself, “What a coincidence!”.

Prapas Chonsaranont beautifully composed this song about 15-20 years ago (though I was not certain about it).  Numerous singers had done covered versions of the song; however I still loved the first original version sung by “ChaLiang“.  My friends and I were crazy about this band.  Another coincidence was that around this time last year, I went to see ChaLiang’s concert.  It was a kind of reunion concert because I went there with a group of good friends who were crazy about the band since we were young.

I still remembered the time when I first heard the song.  I thought it was full of hope, positive thinking, dream-liked feeling, and truth of life.  Here was the song.

นิทานหิ่งห้อย คำร้องและทำนองโดย ประภาส ชลศรานนท์

The Fable of Firefly Lyric & Music by Prapas Chonsaranont

เด็กน้อยได้ยินเรื่องราว กล่าวขานมานาน A little girl heard a tale once told.

ว่าหากใครได้จับหิ่งห้อย มาเก็บเอาไว้ใต้หมอน If you caught a firefly and kept it under a pillow.

นอนคืนนั้นจะฝันดี จะฝันเห็นดวงดาวมากมาย That night you would have a sweet dream; the dream fulled of stars.

ฝันเห็นเจ้าชายเจ้าหญิง ฝันแสนสวยงาม Dream of a Prince and a Princess.  What a beautiful dream!

เด็กน้อยนั่งตักคุณยายไต่ถามความจริง The girl sat on her grandmother’s lap and questioned.

ยายยิ้มกินหมากหนึ่งคำไม่ตอบอะไรส่ายหัว Her grandmother smiled, took a betel nut, did not answer, and shook her head.

ใจเด็กน้อยอยากเห็นจริง อยากเห็นดวงดาวมากมาย The girl desired for the answer.  She wanted to see stars.

อยากเห็นเจ้าชายเจ้าหญิง อยากฝันสวยงาม She longed to see a Prince and a Princess and would love to have a beautiful dream.

หิ่งห้อยนับร้อยนับพัน ส่องแสงระยิบระยับกัน สว่างไสวไปทั้งต้นลำพู Thousands of fireflies glowed with lights and brighten up Lampoo trees.

เด็กน้อยแอบออกมา ไล่คว้าแสงน้อยมาดู The little girl went out trying to catch a small twinkling light.

ใส่ไว้ในกล่องงามหรู ซ่อนไว้ใต้หมอน แล้วนอนคอยฝันดี Once got a firefly, she put it in a beautiful box and kept it under her pillow and waited to have a sweet dream.

ตื่นเช้าพอได้ลืมตา มองเห็นคุณยาย In the morning, when she woke up and saw her grandma.

มาแกล้งถามว่าเจอะอะไร สนุกแค่ไหนที่ฝัน She was asked if she saw anything.  Did she have a wonderful dream?

ใจเด็กน้อยจึงทบทวน ไม่ฝันเห็นอะไรมากมาย Silently she ran through her thoughts and realized that she did not dream much of anything.

รีบค้นเร็วไวใต้หมอนเปิดฝานั้นดู Then she quickly grabed the box under her pillow and opened it.

หิ่งห้อยในกล่องตอนนี้เหมือนหนอนตัวหนึ่ง Now, the firefly in the box was like a worm.

ไม่สวยดังซึ่งตอนอยู่ใต้ต้นลำพูส่องแสง It was not as beautiful as when it was shining under Lampoo trees.

ยายยิ้มแล้วสอนตาม จะมองเห็นความจริง Her grandma smiled and said that in order to see the truth;

อย่าขังความจริงที่เห็น อย่างขังความงาม You should not encaged the truth and should not imprison the beauty.

หิ่งห้อยนับร้อยนับพัน ส่องแสงระยิบระยับกัน สว่างไสวไปทั้งต้นลำพู Thousands of fireflies glowed with lights and brighten up Lampoo trees.

เด็กน้อยถือกล่องออกมา เปิดฝาแล้วแง้มมองดู The little girl took out the box, opened, and glanced over it.

หนอนน้อยในกล่องงามหรูก็เปล่งแสงสุกใสบินไปรวมกัน That little worm in the beautiful box then shone and flew out.

เด็กน้อยนอนหลับสบายอมยิ้มละไม The girl now slept tight with a knowingly smile.

ใต้หมอนไม่มีกล่องอะไร ไม่มีสิ่งใดถูกขัง There was nothing under her pillow.  There was nothing locked up.

นอนคืนนั้นจึงฝันดี ได้ฝันเห็นดวงดาวมากมาย That night, she had a sweet dream.  She saw plenty of stars in her dream.

ฝันเห็นเจ้าชาย เจ้าหญิง ฝันแสนสวยงาม She dreamt of a Prince and a Princess.  She had a beautiful dream.

I was intended to look for the Chaliang’s original version in Youtube but did not find one.  The most recent and complete one was posted here for you to enjoy watching.  Tonight, I hope that I would have a sweet dream.

The Auspicious Flowers

I think it’s a trend that people were talking about global warming and climate change.  For me, I didn’t know if I could help much on this matter; however, I was trying my best to do all of my activities as friendly to the Earth as possible.  One thing that I was sure was that if everyone on this planet helped little by little, the final result would be big.  It’s a matter of time and self-awareness.  It’s not the thing that you could force anyone to do.  It had to be from the heart.

Anyhow, almost six months ago, I came across an article about growing tree to help reduce the global warming.  So, I was thinking what kind of trees should I grow?  My home had a limited space and could not grow any big tree any more.  So I thought…what if I wanted to grow some trees or flowers, what would be good for me?  I searched the Internet and put down some notes.  Later, I came to think that it might be interesting if I added some feng-shui concept so that it would do some good for the people who planted them.

1. Chrysanthemum:  This was a very popular flower among Chinese and Japanese as it represented a good and comfortable life.  The most popular color was yellow.  It was also be used to make a sweet tea simply called “Chrysanthemum tea”, which was a very good herbal drink.  There was a study by NASA that chrysanthemum plant could help reducing indoor air pollution.  In terms of feng-shui, you could put in in the pot by the window or planted it in the garden.  It would bring you a smooth life.

2. Peony: According to Chinese culture, peony flower was considered as a symbol of prosperity, honor, and beauty.  Many Chinese families liked to grow peony in their home if they had daughters because it would give them good marriages.  In terms of feng-shui, for a good luck in relationship, marriage, and love, you could put it at south-west of your garden.

3. Peach Blossoms:  This flower was a symbol of a good fortune and longevity.  It had a very sweet scent.  For the best feng-shui result, you grew it on the North of the garden.  I thought it’s a bit troublesome to find this tree and grew it under hot and humid weather like Thailand.

4. Magnolia: The flower was white representing purity and many believed that if a single tree was planted in front of a house, it would bring happiness to a family.  However, if you grew it at the back of a house, it would bring you a prosperity.

5. Lotus:  If you had a pond or a water space in your garden, you should consider adding some lotus into it.  Lotus was a symbol of peace, satisfaction, and good opportunity.  In addition, it also had a related meaning with the Buddha.

6. Bamboo: There were many meanings associated with bamboo.  One of them was that it represented a power to protect you from evil spirit.  Furthermore, it was also thought of as a symbol of patient and endurance because bamboo could grow all year long.  For the best, you should grow bamboo on the left of your house.

7. Pine tree:  Any pine tree you could find locally.  A pine tree was a symbol of strength and honesty.  I thought it was a good choice for me since there were so many kind of pine trees to choose from here in Thailand.

Actually there were many different believes regarding flowers such as flowers associating with your birth day, flowers of love by your birth month, flowers according to your birth sign.  However, this was just a short list relating to feng-shui that I had at the moment.

Well, these auspicious flowers that we could grow in our garden not only for a wonderful feng-shui, but also for the good health of the Earth.  Like everything, we had to take good care of them such as watering, fertilizing, trimming, and etc.  Hope that we can make this planet, little by little, a better place to live.

In Search of Satisfaction and Happiness

Would I, as a human being, be able to find the satisfaction in life? This question came to me unexpectedly a couple nights ago. Later on, one question led to another. Would I be able to live a happy life?  Would I be satisfied after I died? What else did I want to do in this life so that I would not regret? I knew that these were difficult, hard, and serious questions.  For years, I have been seeking ways to become happy from within and be satisfied with what I had.  I had talked to friends who suggested me many ways such as psychological books, self-improvement books, meditation, etc. I had used trial-and-error in many things in life.  Some worked and some didn’t.  Still, this kind of questions kept popping up in my head very often.  Even now, I haven’t stopped looking for answers.

Things that triggered my thought was one of the Korean series that I watched.  It was about death and unfinished business.  Many times we heard about a spirit of a dead person wandering around trying to finish the unfinished business when he/she was alive. That made me ponder. Why?  Weren’t they satisfied?  Did it mean those spirits that roaming around were not happy when they were still alive? What a sad situation to be when thinking about it.  Neither happy while alive nor dead.

In Asian culture, the thing about spirit was rooted in our mind even though we did not aware of it.  At times, we made our decision upon some spiritual reasoning.  However, the answer that I was looking for was not related to those psychics or mediums businesses.  I was searching for something that was deeper.  For a couple years of reading and studying, one thing became clear in my mind, which was–happiness came from within.

When you were happy, you would be satisfied. But if you were satisfied, you might not be happy. Happiness was such a big word in my opinion. It was priceless. I knew that definitions of happiness were different for each one of us. Ways to reach it were also different. What worked for me might not work for you. Each one of us had our own path of being happy.

I just did not want to be a roaming spirit once I was dead.  I wanted to finish all things that “had-to-be-finished” within this life, while I was breathing.  “Would it be possible to do that?“, I asked myself.  I thought, it’s possible as long as those things were things that I was happy to do.  Each one of us has an unequal amount of time to live. So do whatever you were happy and had meaning in life for you.

We might spend all of our life for money-grabbing or greediness, but forgot to ask ourselves–What was the meaning in life?

Some of us might spend all of our life for hate, revenge, or jealousy, but forgot to ask ourselves–Why?

Many of us might even spend all of our life for living in the miserable past, but forgot to ask ourselves--Why? Weren’t we still breathing in the present?

We also might spend all of our life for honor or fame, but forgot to ask ourselves--What for?

Now I realized that living in the present was the most reasonable thing to do.  Living each minute with happiness things we wanted to do.  Living each breath with positive thoughts.  And most of all, living in the present. I did understand and knew first hand that it’s difficult to do.  I was trying to practice myself little by little everyday so that (I hoped) I would not be regret after leaving the “body” that I now were wearing behind.