Autumn in My Garden - Visiting Autumn

I've had just enough time...  to reacquaint myself with autumn

I love autumn so much I planted autumn in my garden...

Memories hanging

Like the last leaf of autumn

Reluctant to fall

So I can be moody even when the sun is shining brightly...

After the last leaves -

Silhouettes of trees lined hills

Desolate beauties

Because sometimes, one just want to be melancholy...

I love autumn or I love the romantic fantasized idea of my imagined autumn. Melancholy, bittersweet, beautiful whether in glorious colors or gray outlines of desolated trees. I imagined sweet loneliness, long walks in snapping cold, chilly winds that cuts and reminded me to preserve this fragile body, time to go deep into reflection, to visit the boundary of depression and know that dark country, to slow time down and view the false promises of progress, ambition and speed; a time to gather, recharge and wait for the hibernation of winter and the rebirth in Spring. Maybe the actual autumn is none of these. Maybe it is just my illusion having never lived through an entire autumn though I have visited autumn in several countries over a long span of time. Maybe those living in autumn countries will laugh at my ridiculous notions. Maybe they are living too close to autumn. Whatever, I love my idea of autumn. So much so that I planted autumn in my garden so it can lead me there even under the tropical sun. And as fate would arrange, I'm going to reacquaint myself with autumn - tonight.

I am traveling again, flying off tonight. This time to Billund in Denmark and then off to Parma and Milan in Italy until the end of the month. So this is the last post until then. See you when I get back...

We Are Blind Because We Can See

I've had just enough time...   to learn that truth can be hidden in plain sight

You may not see the truth even if you have compound eyes...

I was so sure of my sight because I could see

Better than others, I thought

So I did not heed those close to me

"Beware! Things are not what they seem"

But I trusted my sight more because I, could see

We were so sure of the rights we fought

That we could not be wrong

Justice, compassion, transparency, truth

I thought all who came under the banners

Fought for the same God

The battles had been fought and lost

The banners strewn on the battlefield

With the corpses, as I retreated I reflect -

Blindness is such a strange ailment

We are blind because we are so sure we see

Taken of the moth in my garden who reminded me that truth can be hidden in plain sight...

How our eyes deceived us. We would not have been fooled if we were blind. I saw the path I was shown. I saw it lead straight to the castle. And we charged. But we did not see the swamp that bogged us down. That made us easy preys to the hidden foes and the circling vultures. We felt the slings of arrows taking up arms against a sea of troubles. No more! I lay down my arms but not before I reluctantly slay the beautiful illusive dream. But worry not about the dreamer, he dreams new dreams without bloodshed instead...

叶子 - Leaves

I've had just enough time to...   be thankful for leaves

Taken in the garden village of Sungei Buloh, Malaysia

I was in the town of Sungei Buloh (River of Bamboo) shopping for orchids before the Chinese New Year. In those old less enlightened days, this place was used to isolate a leper colony from the general populace. A vocation was needed for these displaced people and in an ironic way, growing flowers and plants was the profession chosen for them. Now it is a thriving town engaged predominantly in the gardening business. The city has expanded and engulfed the area making it a very valuable real estate. Now, those once shunted lepers and their descendants are not only businessmen and women but also millionaires putting a final irony to the Town of The River of Bamboo.

Everyone was looking down because there were flowers in glorious bloom everywhere. On both sides of the small lane, on every multiple racks, in every stall and corners, any space that can be squeezed in, flowers of all varieties and colors and forms smiled back at you. But my attention was up, at that wondrous spread of rain tree branches and the millions of tiny leaves blinking at me. Whenever the wind stirred, a few shook themselves from the branches and floated down in an erratic but graceful dance to join the other fallen leaves on the roof. 

I love flowers but it was the leaves that talked to me that day.  And leaves always reminded me of that sad song  叶子yèzi (Leaf ). I heard that haunting voice as I stood by the road shoulder looking up feeling deliciously sad while boisterous trading were happening all round me. And what made it even more poignant is that I will never hear her singing a new song again. '阿桑' (Ah Sang) had a hard life. She was discovered singing in a pub and “Leaf” made her famous. Just when it appeared that Life is finally giving her the break she deserved, she quietly left the entertainment scene. Not long later, the world was shocked to learn that she has succumbed to breast cancer. She was only 34.

叶子                                                                         Leaves

阿桑                                   Ah Sang

叶子 是不会飞翔的翅膀                   Leaves are wings that cannot fly

翅膀是落在天上的叶子                    Wings are leaves dropped in the sky

天堂 原来应该不是妄想                  Heaven is not wishful thinking after all

只是我早已经遗忘                           It's just I've forgotten long ago

当初怎么开始飞翔                           How it is then, I could fly

孤单 是一个人的狂欢                      Loneliness is the reverly of the lonely

狂欢是一群人的孤单                       Reverly is the loneliness of the crowd

爱情 原来的开始是陪伴                 Love has its beginning in togetherness

但我也渐渐地遗忘                           But I've gradually forgotten

当时是怎样有人陪伴                       How it is I had you for company

我一个人吃饭旅行                           Now I eat and travel alone

到处走走停停                                  Wandering aimlessly

也一个人看书写信                           I read and write alone

自己对话谈心                                  With myself, conversing

只是心又飘到了哪里                       But where is my heart floating to?

就连自己看也看不清                       I can't see clearly

我想我不仅仅是失去你                  Just feel it is not only you I lost

How Do You Love Your Flowers?

I've had just enough time to...   love my flowers

Taken of the orchids in my garden...

How a flower looks

Depends very much on where it appears.

Will you go near a flower

Blooming on a cow dung’s heap?

Will you tame a jungle

To get near a wild bloom?

and the dancing ladies doing a wild dance in the wind...

Do you appreciate the common petals

Grown in your own garden?

Or do you covet that

Grown in your neighbor’s yard?

Do you value a flower

Because of its rich surrounding?

And not give a second glance

To that flowering in a junk yard?

while the prosperity flowers welcome the God of Prosperity, still waiting...

Do you love flowers for it beauty?

Or do you love flowers for its virtues?

Or do you love flowers because they are flowers?

Its Beauty Speaks For Itself.

I've had just enough time to...   appreciates the beauty of my orchids.

Taken of the orchids in my garden.

There is never any need to praise the beauty of an orchid, 

Its beauty speaks for itself, 

Silently and elegantly.