Patty Griffin - Mary

I heard this song for the first time tonight on "Sons of Anarchy." they played it when the mother told her son & husband that she had been raped, beaten, and left out in the cold. it made the men in her life realize how important she is. This song is beautiful. when it says "Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place" it sends chills all down my back. it tells what important roles mothers, or any woman, plays in the world. You should really watch that episode of Sons of Anarchy and see the totally different meaning the song takes. You can actually feel this song!!!

Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ashes
You're covered in rain
You're covered in babies, you're covered in slashes
You're covered in wilderness, you're covered in stains
You cast aside the sheet, you cast aside the shroud
Of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
On some sunny day and always you stay, Mary

Jesus says Mother I couldn't stay another day longer
He flys right by and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place

Oh Mary she moves behind me
She leaves her fingerprints everywhere
Everytime the snow drifts, every way the sand shifts
Even when the night lifts, she's always there

Jesus said Mother I couldn't stay another day longer
He flys right by and leaves a kiss upon her face
While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory
Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place

Mary you're covered in roses, you're covered in ruins
you're covered in secrets
Your'e covered in treetops, you're covered in birds
who can sing a million songs without any words
You cast aside the sheets, you cast aside the shroud
of another man, who served the world proud
You greet another son, you lose another one
on some sunny day and always you stay
Mary, Mary, Mary

It may all be gone tomorrow

Make time, take time, make a plan, say the words you want to say look around you, drink it all in, appreciate what you have coz it may all be gone tomorrow.

We are influenced directly and indirectly by events around us, no matter if it is your birthday, the passing away of a relative, earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, either one or all will effect you. The problem with that, is with people in general, coz all of this is a phase, while its still an issue its at the front of your mind and you will feel it then it fades away. Maybe that's why they say grasp the iron while it is hot.

I appreciate life, no no i aint gonna be a vegan or roll temple to temple ( no disrespect) but I do appreciate life, I want to live to the fullest I can, try all that I can within my financial and physical capabilities as I grew up not having such opportunities. I do not forget my obligations to my son, my mom and my friends. My junior is my pride and joy, while we may not share the same page but we have loads of fun, I try to mask the challenges of life and the problems that emerge from the functionality of a family but he will soon have to learn and adapt to the real truths that I shield him from.

Still I love him like no other I can only say this, you got to be a DAD to know what it is like to love your son.. its different from a daughter.. (I do wish I had a daughter too but that chapter is closed)

I sometimes wish I has the patience and forgiveness that my mom has but i am not cut that way... my ball game is I will take what ever you can dish out then no more.. I dun visit back the same chapter twice... life goes on... my dad used to say I had no feet till I met a man with no shoes.. why i say that is no matter what challanges and hurdles life throws at me I can live with hope or illusion or physiological advantage someone out there got it more worse then me. When facing the dad to day challenges of life and family and finance and friends I often re-visit the quote I heard in the TV series West Wing President Bartlet "...every time we think we've measured our capacity to meet a challenge we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless..."

I knew my father the first 7 years of my life then in bits and pieces and come the end of the month it will be 22 years since he passed on and I still remember that train ride alone to Kluang, I would never forgive my Uncle for that singular moment anyway that for another blog.

Again I wish I could forgive easily but some things are not meant to be forgiven, its not the end of the world if you dont forgive just move on but dun forget. Its a crime when you keep revisiting that incident and harping on it.

Tomorrow it may all go away, true but I live today for today, I have good frens, so so fren, and enemies, before I look for imperfections with them I know my imperfections.... it never easy but I take a positive spin on it. It may not be easy for my friends to understand me but make a point to understand them, for the latter is far more better weight to carry.

I love my friends to bits, at time I may not hit the right notes with them and vice versa but thats what friendship is all about. It about taking their punches and not complaining about it, To quote a fren who share a table with me after last night hockey "at 4.30am I got a call from India my father had died I had to bring the body back, I called my friends and all offered to help, one guy just said, Dont worry, I will handle the body back to KL, and he delivered" withing 24 hours the body was back and not a single compliant or bitching.

The true testament of friendship it being there for them rolling thru the punches and stepping aside when you know its time to let go.... not about advertising your mile stones with them

Never forget humility and mannerism, never forget where you came from and never forget your friends birthdays... however insignificant as it may, I make it a point to remember birthdays, anniversaries, significant moments in their lives, I do it again and again for it may all be gone tomorrow

to quote the lyrics of a song

Where did I go wrong?
I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Because after all, you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
Things you told him all along
Pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

And where did I go wrong?
I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things:
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Death is inevitable but we should ....

“We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” - Chuck Palahniuk quotes

In the past few week I have come to celebrate the birth of nephews and nieces...In the past few week I have come to celebrate the birth of nephews and nieces and birthdays of the young ones.. I watch my self in the mirror as I grow a year older a couple of days ago and in a couple of week will watch my junior do the same.

However last night I received news a relative that I admired and respected passed on. We all say death is inevitable and, whether willingly or unwillingly, everyone passes on but it is upon death of people around us, especially people close around us that we will reflect.

When my cousin that I loved and respected a lot passed on early this year, there was a lot of anguish and there was more pride and the journey he had accomplished battling cancer and life's obstacles to get to where he is.

Last night when the uncle passed away, I too reflected, in a day and age where earthquakes and tsunami are taking place, bombs flying from ships to land, the world that gripped in disputes and overthrowing of governments, there remains one fact that is undisputed, Death. No matter what religion, group or sect one may be attached to, the fact of dying is not refuted.

I watched how this uncle and he loving wife raised their children, brought them up and accomplished is a mile stone it self, and he had laid many milestones in his life.

I look at the world I am living in, what I am providing for my junior, what I cannot provide for him and realise its not a bad patch of cabbage where we are not. I have lived with the roll of the dice, while some may have a difference of opinion, I can still smile. Yeah death is inevitable but I am living life on step at a time.

Births should be celebrated so must death. Not the passing but the life that was lived. I have echoed this fact many a times to my cousins and friends, should the time comes for me to pass on... have a wake, no crying but enjoy the life that was lived...remember me for that!!


The best quote I can choose to tell about this Uncle is from the movie The Last Samurai

Emperor Meiji [about Katsumoto]: Tell me how he died.
Nathan Algren: I will tell you how he lived.

I love this game

I love this game, I learned it from my teaches, I played it, I coach people in it, I have umpired it, I have manage teams in it, I have organized it, pretty much done everything for the love of the game.

Its not a sport you make money out of it, doing what I do it is a sport they you do have to spend a little money. But the pleasure of getting the job done, playing the game, forming a team, battling it out on the field or turf or courts the rewards and unmeasurable.

so it becomes pretty frustrating when people set up blockades and tai-chi and try to create problems for you. It is unfortunately they did not have the courage to say it to my face but choose an opportunity when I am not around to blackball me.

Have the guts to ask me question on my face instead of trying to influence the people behind my back.. and to the people who are listening to these fella... I got 3 words for you "BE THE MAN"

This is beautiful

A wonderful celebration of the fact of being alive, shot through with
excitement and exhilaration and sheer unbridled joy:

Get Drunk!

Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!

 On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"