34 and counting. HB Jon.

The Paris 2024 Olympics

Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images

REUTERS - Christian Hartmann

J
Juliette Armanet and Sofiane Pamart performing 'Imagine' afloat a flaming piano (Image via Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

It was a Friday coming into the weekend, and what a week it was son. Ending into a new era of consciousness and blessings in my personal journey.

It was always a fresh new personal beginning for me and your day was marked by the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Finding online comments and reactions strangely negative, even hostile, I, on the other hand was totally enthralled by the 5-hour long opening ceremony that marked the coming of age of human creativity and ingenuity in the telling of the story of the Olympics in the modern era to people of all ages. 

The French did just that by bringing French culture- art, history, music, dance, fashion, theatre and digital storytelling to the streets, skies and rivers from the cities of Marseilles to Paris turning the entire opening ceremony into a long and extended indulgent foreplay with no end in sight. Until the opening speeches at the Trocadero, one would guess that the Olympic cauldron would be lit, at the base of the Eiffel Tower erupting at the top of the tower as the climax, but it wasn't to be. 

It was instead designated to another venue of significance when the torch emerged, from it's long journey, under the catwalk of the Trocadero to continue it's extended journey to the Tuileries Gardens. Located just outside the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris to a flying cauldron- A ring of fire 7 meters in diameter harnessed to a hot air balloon. 

The French Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon in 1783 and launched it at the very same spot. Once lit it hovers 60 meters over the city at night turning itself into another breathtaking landmark or 'skymark' to compliment the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysees during the games. You'd make an excellent conversationalist, commentator, pundit, writer, journalist, historian and fanatic when it comes to these things I guess.

Time has passed quickly since your sixteenth and two weeks after your sixteenth. Eighteen years have flown by in a heartbeat. In comparison, gfh now aka gfhX is on our 27th year and growing. 

One can only imagine how magnificent you look at 34. But then again, you have looked magnificent since the day you were born. Seeing you at thirteen, fifteen or sixteen is witnessing a phenomenon unfold like a flower from the bud. As you stride into proper adulthood you're probably just a more substantial, more matured, more thoughtful, kind and compassionate human being. Shouldering the weights and burdens of this world with a light-heartedness that only you know how. You'd have your fair share of heartaches, heartbreaks, joy and happiness, disappointments and unexpected blessings and you'd treat all these imposters just the same. With nonchalance. With a disenchanted wonder. Because you know that life is ephemeral and if I might add, that one should not attach oneself to people, places and things that are impermanent.  

"A flower is only a flower because it falls." ~ Lady Mariko in Shogun. 

Nothing delivers the message of impermanence more than a flower and no other race of people understand the certainty of death more than the Japanese. Perhaps that is why they kill, and are willing to die so readily. 

Despite their brutality, cruelty, and lust for power and conquest, the Japanese seem to have regaled in an extraordinary past and to a lesser extent in possession of a beautiful present as a wonderful legacy gifted by the ancients. 

The games ended last night, Sunday 11 August, 3 days after your departure on the 9th. 

What an eventful and enjoyable fortnight of 26 July to 11 August and what a brilliant & fitting coincidence to celebrate your 34th. 

My personal highlights (apart from the opening gambit) of the games were as follows;

• two bronze medals for Malaysia by the men's badminton singles and doubles team. Lee Zii Jia silenced his critics with silence. This makes Malaysia the most successful country in the Olympic Games winning 15 medals without winning a gold medal. 

• a tenacious, spunky and quick as lightning 22 year-old singles badminton player from India, Laksya Sen who lost to Zii Jia and the bronze medal in a thrilling three setter. 

• the surprise gold medalist in the mens 200M finals- Letsile Tobogo 21, won Botswana's first gold medal at the olympics. 

• another super feat was achieved by Julien Alfred 23, from St. Lucia who soundly beat 3 American sprinters to the tape in the premier event of the womens 100M finals to win her country's first Olympic medal- a Gold. Three days later she was edged out by an American by two tenth, and settled for the Silver in the womens 200M finals earning 2 medals for St. Lucia with a total delegation of four athletes. 

• China's men and women's dominance on the diving platforms were breathtaking to watch. 

• The most individual gold medals was won by 22 year-old new French swimming superstar Leon Marchand. He won 4 golds and 1 bronze. He was also the athlete given the honour to carry the Olympic flame contained in an antique lamp to be extinguished at the closing ceremony. 

Thus ends another instalment of the greatest show on earth in the form of the Paris 2024 Olympics. What fitting tribute it was to a sportsman like you for it to fall on your birthday. 

Happy 34th son. 

Au Revoir.

The Journey.

Every once in a long while, a voice silently creeps up and whispers loud in my heart with the journey that brings great respite to my journey. Walk on. 

 One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice --

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voice behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do --

determined to save

the only life that you could save.

 

 Mary Oliver

The Journey

1986

(Edited 15/6/24)

What this poem means to me?

It’s a near perfect description of the journey

I have traveled over the last five years. 

From the start to the present. 

I was caught in a vortex of cosmic proportions

that wrenched my insides outside. 

I have never felt so lost in my life.

I have been lost before but each time only momentarily.

Only because I always had my family to go home to.

I have had an abundance of physical and emotional

comforts all my life.

But not this time. It’s been five years and counting.  

I now know the meaning of pain, encompassing regret, longing,

missing, yearning, wishing, desiring and dreaming.

And I also know how to put all of them behind me except dreaming.

That is what I hang on to dearly, long inspired by this short poem;

“ Hold fast to dreams,

For if dreams die,

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.”

~ Langston Hughes

My dreams have kept me sane as I descended the abyss.

I have blessed every pain and suffering I endured.

I am truly grateful to have walked this path. 

I realised that the person I need to love and forgive is myself.

Only then can I love and forgive others. Unconditionally. 

I am finally free. 

I do not ask for or expect love in return. 

I am in no need for external love or validation. 

I am whole. I have loved. I am loved. I am in love.

I am love. 

Like they say in Motown;

“...baby I can give you all the loving you need.”

May Your Journey Be Fulfilling. 

I love you. Happy New Year.

A Holiday

Sunrise @BeachHut by PineForest

I left on the 2nd day of Xmas for my long awaited holiday (anticipated for several years) & returned on the 13th day of Xmas. 

I flew as far away as I could to the remotest, deserted islands within the region. I had a fabulous time every single day. Even the day I had a disagreement with a female trigger fish. I was snorkelling at a small island T, stumbled upon her lair and startled her. She attacked me, pursued and bit me on my left achilles heel. 

Perhaps the most significant experience of my entire trip was the meeting I had with myself. I had decided to book a last minute escape from party island to a quiet island to spend New Year's eve in silent retreat. It was the most basic, rustic, authentic beach hut on a near deserted beach save for chickens & cows. No air-con, no hot water, no attached bathroom, no sink for washing. Just a fan, a mosquito net, a comfortable large mattress with hard pillows in a sturdy wooden hut on concrete stilts. After almost a week of people and activities on party island, I was yearning for some quiet time with myself on a deserted island. I was ecstatic at the idea.

On the second night, I awoke suddenly like a scene from a horror movie at 3.38am feeling fearful of my surroundings. I immediately sat up on my mattress, drank some water and sat in silent contemplation in my hut conscious of the huge banana tree in front of my door. I needed to overcome the gripping fear of Mara looming outside my door. I recalled childhood horror tales related to banana trees bearing young fruits & female ghouls dressed in white. I was all alone with no one around me and nowhere to go. 

I took refuge in feeling what Siddhartha felt the night before his enlightenment when he sat to meditate against Mara's torments & temptations. He was under a bodhi tree and he finally succeeded. I was under coconut trees and succeeded too, two hours later Mara fled my life. I sat and meditated relentlessly and felt indescribable bliss at dawn. Despite the beach, the breeze and the waves, it was just the silent stillness that I felt.The stillness solidified into a thick immense cloud swathing me as I merged into it. 

Perhaps I remember this episode most of all is the fact that it was the only spiritual experience I could intellectually recall. 

The other intellectually exhilarating experience I can recall is the vibrant underwater life fringing the islands especially the remotest ones within reach by boat. The corals & underwater flora and fauna were tourist brochure worthy. While I am convinced that nature is very much alive & thriving, the threat of plastic pollution is real as sunset. It permeates every facet, phase and strata of human existence and excesses. Every morning, plastic debris of all shape and size wash ashore polluting the most pristine of beaches with waste excreted from the cluster of neighbouring islands. This is probably the biggest elephant in the room that the whole world is ignoring with apathy. I see native islanders themselves littering, children tossing candy wrappers as casually as pushing back hair from their sun-browned little faces. Plastic pollution, like most problems facing our world needs to be addressed from the grassroots by individuals not only government. The owner of my beach hut, Gun, a strapping islander who harbours ambitions of being a politician bent on improving the lives of his fellow islanders by mitigating the plastic menace. I wished him success as he, accompanied his wife and infant daughter transported me by boat to the main island and by car to my next destination.

I stayed on the main island for the rest of my holiday. Throughout, my trip was dotted with interesting meetings and connections with locals and individuals largely genuine. People and pets living in paradise and realising they do and those who wished they were somewhere else. I sat more with the former kind, shared stories and meals with them while nursing a swollen foot that seemed to have crept up on me exactly a week after the underwater altercation. 

Doctors and nurses from two nations could do nothing except prescribe a cocktail of antibiotics and pain killers for the swelling. I ditched both after 5 days of no visible results and hobbled along while observing the phenomenon on my foot for several weeks. I resigned myself to the fact that there is no known medication for trigger fish bites. Yet.

Best Friends in Paradise by PineForest

Best Video capture this year by PineForest

Sunset in Paradise by PineForest.

Happy New Year 2024.

I love you. The story of Deepavali.

 

Ramayana- The Deepavali Epic.

On the eve of his coronation, Rama was told by his father, the outgoing King Dasharata, that he was to be exiled to the forest for 14 years. Without a second's hesitation, he obeyed his father's decree and promptly prepared for his departure at day break. 

Accompanied by his newly wed wife Sita, and his half-brother Lakshmana, thus began The Ramayana aka Rama's Journey.

Ramayana is the first of two great epic poems of India written in Sanskrit, the other being The Mahabharata (therein contained the Bhagavad Gita). The great epics or Itihasa focusses on the teachings in Purusharta - Kama, Artha, Dhama, & Moksha. Or the goals of human life portraying intricate relationships, ideal roles of mother, father, servant, brother, sister, husband, wife and king. These are teachings of ancient Hindu sages, warriors and Kings. 

Deepavali is the day Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman reached Ayodhya after a period of 14 years in exile after Rama's army of good defeated demon king Ravana's army of evil, rescuing Sita in the process.

These epic stories are fantastic, dramatic, filial, full of devotion & dedication to ones duty and deep-seated commitment to family and personal bonds. They provide us an in-depth view of the human condition and perhaps a plausible explanation as to why the Hindus live as they do and more importantly providing us with a blueprint as old as time to live a life of consciousness and enlightenment. Free from suffering. 

Watch the full length animated film version (1993) produced by Japanese director Yugo Sako & his team.

Ramayana. The Legend of Prince Rama.

I love you. October?

 What did October teach you?

Ever since I was a child, I would often hear my big brother bellow like a baboon; “Patience is the mother of all virtues” and I would look up & stare at the big monkey perched on the jambu tree and wonder wtf was he saying!

Anyone who hasn’t seen or isn't going through tough times these days could be living under a rock or has deep pockets. Having to travel in early October in the early hours of the morning, saw signs of life returning to the usually crowded terminal at KLIA2. Most flights were full as optimism slowly returned to the travel industry only to be dampened by a local airline going bust jettisoning thousands of passengers with bookings.

Also in the early hours on Oct 7, Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israel triggering events of unspeakable horror and brutality that could escalate into WW3.

As if feeling terribly depressed, our ringgit fell to a 25-year low of RM4.77 to the US$, the lowest since the 1997-8 financial crisis.

In mitigation, on Oct 1, in a press release;
"Growth in developing East Asia and Pacific is projected to remain strong at 5% in 2023 but will ease in the second half of 2023 and is forecast to be 4.5% during 2024," the World Bank said on Sunday in its semi-annual economic outlook for the region.
The silver lining here is that Malaysia is expected to perform better (3.9-4.3% growth) in 2023/4 than the last 5 years. (Av. 3.1%)*.

While wine infused lunches still continue for some, some of us have to sip Chinese tea and remain patient as the cycle of life turns to complete the curve of the law of nature, averages, good business practices supported by good governance to prevail.

I now understand my brother’s quote and what October taught me- Patience.
Impatience will surely result in disaster.

May the harmonising force be with you.
May you stay the course with resolve and patience.
May you find strength in finding your gifts.
May November bring glad tidings and peace on earth.




P/s This post is dedicated in memory of multitalented Ray Stevenson who played Baylon Skoll a fallen Jedi, in the Star Wars Clone Wars Series.
Another gunforhire gone too soon.

I love you. HB Zane.

 Today is my son’s birthday. A son. A good son. 

Performance machines with style

What makes a good son? 

A person who is kind and considerate. 

A person who is fearless. 

A responsible person. 

A caring person. 

A person who constantly looks out for his loved ones, his friends, and whoever he cares to look out for. 

A person who does the right thing whenever and wherever. 

But Good Sons are aplenty in this world. 

When a good son becomes your best friend, now that’s special. Really special. 

And that’s what my son is to me. My best friend. 

What makes a best friend? 

A person who spend time with you no matter where or when. 

A person who reaches out to you ever so often just because. 

A person you’re not afraid to be naked with in body and soul. 

A person who you can be totally honest and share feelings with. 

A person who you can get sloshed or stoned out of your mind with. 

A person who will hang out and wait around for you while you do silly things, running around looking for antiquities, experiences or an expedition to absurd places like Cupertino. Or to patiently be present while you slowly squander time in museums & art galleries. 

A person who shares your taste in music and food. 

A person who inspires everyone in his life by setting standards that lifts everyone and everything around him. 

An artist who is kind and compassionate with people yet strict and stoic with himself in maintaining astronomical aspirations in his craft. 

Such a person is rare. And that person brightens up everyone’s life. 

What joy it is to have a good son as well as a best friend. 

Happy Birthday My Son. My Best Friend. 

What you do inspires me to no end. 

Since you were little you were a bright happy spark reaching for the stars. 

That’s where you are from and what you’re made of. Stars and Stardust. 

You can be anything you want to be. 

But you already know that. 

Proud and so happy for you. My Man.

Life's like that.

Here’s a song I have been waiting and yet to dedicate to someone. I am so happy I get to dedicate this song to you. 

Just know that the music you’ve appreciated and shared with me keeps me company for many nights on my balcony. And tonight I’ll be partying like never before to all the music we love and share.  

Queen kicked off tonight’s party. My favourite rock band which I’m sure is one of yours. 

Here's one more...

Enjoy your day & everyday son. 

P/s. And this one of course is gold;

Pp/s; To get the full picture, read my previous post for you on "Music is the sound of emotions"

I love you. HB Summer Gan

 To my daughter on her birthday. 

Happy Birthday Summer 

May You Be Well, May You Be Happy. Always.

Photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash

My daughter taught me many things. 

Here are just some of them;

1. We are born dancers. 

The human body has 202 bones connected by 360 joints. Doesn’t this tell us that we should be moving a lot? Shouldn’t we all be dancing? 

Often reminded of this fact I dance like no one is watching every time I get a chance or when the music moves me. 

2. Dancers are the most meticulous thinkers. 

They have to remember every single move in a dance routine down to that intricate little gesture. A dance routine can last from 3 to 30 minutes and more. Imagine how many moves, steps and little details a dancer needs to remember performing on stage. Some of us can’t even remember 10 things to save our lives. 

I have been so intrigued by this truth that I am excited yet intimidated at the prospect of having a conversation with a dancer. After all how does one interact with a genius?

3. Some dancers can sing and act. 

They're called “triple threat.” Accomplished dancers, actors and singers can do all three. 

These people are truly gifted and talented to be able to sing, dance and act at the same time. Imagine the complexities of memorising the script, lyrics and moves required in a scene let alone an entire show or movie! That's how movie or film stars are made. 

What type of work could be more demanding yet so fulfilling to all? 

I can’t think of any. 

Aren’t they then the most perfect humans on the planet with talent, poise and compassion? 

Aren't they artists who do insane things with great beauty to delight us and keep us sane?

I have a good feeling that my daughter is doing well in her chosen path in life. 

Having balanced her emotions carefully, she has embarked upon her professional career in full flight. 

Whatever multiple roles she is pursuing I would just like to stand by the wayside and cheer her on, on her birthday. 

1. You are enough. Ten thousand times enough. 

You have everything it takes to do whatever you are doing and more. You know it deep down. 

Keep going no matter how hard or easy it gets. You’re on track to greatness. Believe it. 

2.  You have great focus. 

Whatever you choose to focus on you will excel. You have done it many times before. 

Your single minded focus has won you many medals. Keep going. Our ceiling is your floor. 

3. You have great compassion. 

It is embedded deep in your heart- more than passion, you have compassion. It is what differentiates great from good. When you do things with compassion you can’t help but to move people. 

Keep going. The world need great artists with sensitive hearts. 

Remember you have come so far all on your own. 

Know that I think about you constantly and that I hope you get to spend quiet time with your inner self through deep contemplation or meditation. I hope you do it daily. 

With love. 

Pxxx. 

P/s. “Scientists are dreamers of doom. Dancers are doers of delight.” 

Pp/s. I've dedicated this Bob Dylan classic for you today- Forever Young. Hope you like it. 

I love you. Merdeka

Celebrating National Day 2023

For a long while, Merdeka Day didn’t mean much, because our leaders then didn’t amount to much.

But this Merdeka it feels as different as events & news, weeks and days running up to the day, hold much hope & promise of impending change on the horizon.

There seem to be a new hope as the new leadership takes back the wheel nudging the trajectory of our nation’s course back to the founding fathers aim set 66 years ago today.

Admittedly hopelessness and fatigue have long set in since we lost count of the number of pretenders for the top job in as many years.

With this new fresh breath, it is apt for me to give light to a quote I will always remember tattooed long ago on the arm of a loved one that read; “ when you feel like giving up remember why you started in the first place.”

So just when many of us may feel like giving up, we can now draw upon and channel the purpose and energy of the Man and his team who steered this great nation to independence.

Happy Merdeka everyone.

Keep the faith.

#tunkuabdulrahman #merdeka2023 #anewhope #healingmalaysia 

 

I love you. Jon's 33rd.

Dear Jon,

I have a confession to make. 

I had planned a reunion of sorts on your birthday because I was stumped about what to post for your 33rd. So an event or a meaningful meeting would definitely give me something to write about. 

On Monday I texted a certain someone whom I've not seen in a long time asking her to join me for a cup of coffee on Wednesday. It didn't happen. 

I also scheduled a much needed, long awaited dentist appointment late in the afternoon on Wednesday. 

That didn't happen either. My dentist had an emergency. 

So there I was at two minutes past two wondering what to do, seeing the futility in plans 'of mice & men.' My phone rang almost immediately. It was my dear techie friend AL asking if I wanted coffee. The universe works in mysterious ways I mused. Yes! I replied almost immediately. 

AL swung by in less than 20 minutes whisking me away to the deep recesses of Old Klang Road to a hipster coffee joint serving bagels with cream cheese and spicy potato wedges washed down with gula melaka latte. We sat in the small converted link house enjoying the fare while young local Chinese baristas hustle about the cafe in their oversized t-shirts tucked into tight high-waisted jeans. They seem to be doing fine especially the resident cat. After a healthy dose of single origin African coffee and conversation we left for another new coffee joint in Sect. 14 PJ but it was closed. 

Cafe' Cat by PineForest

So we went to a nearby cafe restaurant owned and run by a friend named Jonathan. Having visited him several times before I could see he wasn't his usual self. He looked depressed, and troubled by business woes. Ever since the post-covid recovery phase, Jon has been struggling to make a living to support his young family and in the past few months business has gotten worse at his cafe at Jaya Shopping Center. 
I tried the standard blanket statement of 'all of us are also suffering bro' but I didn't think he bought it. 

In fact he confessed that in the mornings before he opens his restaurant, he'd sit in the dark pondering the fate of his business, and that of his family, driving him to the brink of a breakdown. 

Here is a man who has had the courage to strike out to practice his craft of creative cooking but circumstances seem too overwhelming to endure. It seems that he was beginning to entertain all thoughts of abandonment and resignation in search of employment. 

I have often wondered how people in business are coping with the post-pandemic fallout. Now I am getting the answers as if in search of stories to mirror my own. The only difference is that I don't have the yoke of a young family to weigh me down or spur me on. Either way, suffer we must. 

Ponder, reflect, contemplate day and night in solitude we must, until we come face to face with our predicament. And maybe if we are patient enough, we will find the answers we seek in ourselves. 

We sat with Jon a long while, listening to his plans pre and post-covid and as he talked us through, it seemed he had a couple of viable options available for him to decide his next steps. We left him feeling and looking much more cheerful than we found him even though he refused to join us for dinner at the newly opened Chinese Muslim Mee Tarek and Mee Hiris Restaurant downstairs. 

So looking at what has unfolded today, if I were to have a man to man talk with Jon the cafe owner, I wouldn't know how to tell him what I think he needed to know in a way he'd understand because it would tantamount to preaching and enter the realm of meta physics. 

Hence I just sat there listening and holding space for that young man to vent. 

However, if it was you Jonathan, my son in a similar situation, I would probably say these to you;

1. Survival is not a problem. Live.

As long as we are willing to adapt, we can survive under any condition. 

If we are used to eating five meals a day, cut it down to two. This will reveal our eating habits are just that - habits we have gotten used to unnecessarily over feed our bodies even though we are not hungry. Our body will thank us for not over burdening the system. 

2. The mind is and always will be our enemy. Be mindful.

Most problems only exist in our minds. We just have to remind ourselves that every problem has a solution as long as we are willing to face them. When we do that we begin to see that things aren't as bad as we imagined. But the mind's primary job is to think and even overthink incessantly. Our job is to control the mind and use it to serve us and not the other way around. To do that, we have to be mindful. To focus on our breath that will bring us to the present moment. To stay in the present is to focus on everyone and everything around us because this is the only reality that exist, right now. So by constantly being here now, will silence the mind and lessen the endless chatter. 

3. Fear does not exist. Live exuberantly. 

When we're fully present, we begin to realise that fear has no place to dwell in our being. Fear is what we encounter when we lose unity with the present moment. Our mind then dwells in the past or gets anxious about the future. 

4. Everything is temporary, ephemeral, transitional. 

All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing. the Buddha said. That is a universal, scientific truth. 

No matter what we are going through, whether it be a joyous situation or a negative one, it will pass. 

After the winter, comes spring. It's only natural hence irrefutable. 

And sure enough the sun will come shining through. 

If it's not shining yet, keep going, singing in the rain, soon there will be laughter in the rain or sunshine. 

Well Jon, this is your post. The message is that I see you, us in every young man especially the ones named Jonathan. Just like you he's talented and hardworking. And I know just like you, he'll be fine.

 

Happy 33rd Dude.

P/s. I've chosen a song by my childhood crush for your birthday soire'. She's a Hawaiian hottie.