“Hello, sister! Nice to see you.”
“Hi, Father! Nice to meet you.”
“Are you from Korea?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Oh? I have a Korean friend. I will bring her here.”
The priest went away for a while and came back with a Korean lady and her
Malaysian husband who met each other during a conference on marketing in
Singapore. They fell in love and got married two years ago. So our encounter
began during a book display at one of the local churches.
Once a week as a volunteer, she came to help sisters of the Missionaries of
Charity taking care of about 30 aged people. On the way to her willing service,
she dropped by our house to share some foods and fruits that I always
appreciated and very much enjoyed.
After looking at my Facebook page, her husband came up with the idea of making
photo cards featuring my poems. I simply and gladly accepted his initiative
because his intentions were good and worthwhile. I contributed 10 poems, and
they chose 10 photos they took while traveling. They were willing to support
our Pauline mission.
Finally, he made two packages with five photo cards each with the themes of love
and encouragement. He shared his thoughts on a greeting card as follows:
“Sending a greeting card is a great way to show our friends and family our love
and support. But greeting cards tend to have a very short life span. Within
weeks (or even days), they get thrown away, which we feel is quite wasteful.
The sending of greeting cards is also very quickly being replaced by emails,
SMSs, and social media, which is a shame. And we would like to revive it.
This collection of cards is designed not only to help you express your love
and support for the people that matter most in your life but they are also meant
to be cherished as keepsakes rather than thrown away...”
With much joy, sympathy, and compassion, they dedicated their time, energy, and
money.
In fact, I did not have enough time to write new poems. So I chose 10 from my
collection of those I had previously written. Some were written 23 years ago,
but I still felt they were relevant, with minor revisions here and there. I am
happy to share some of them with you here:
This Very Moment
What I have
is only this moment
this very moment
To live and love
this very moment
is our endless journey
What I have
is only this moment
this very moment
Beyond obstacles
and distance
I am glad you are
here with me
Facing the light
I live a day
Following the Way
the Truth and the Life
Only a day
a day, I live
I would like to thank Korea Times readers for reading my humble poems.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2013/11/162_146709.html
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ November 23, 2013
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