Author: charlesinhk

Signs

Wonderful Tess and I have some decisions in front of us and I have some decisions in front of me. Not light decisions, either, and some of them directly plugged into my spiritual world. Some background: on Friday I attended a Christian breakfast where a friend gave a testimony about his time in prison. This individual was released from prison in January 2010 after serving a 3+ year sentence related to financial irregularities and wrong doing in his former business. He shared how regardless of our lot, station or cell in life, many of us are imprisoned by something. For my friend he was imprisoned by society's laws, spending three plus years in Hong Kong prisons. For many of us we are imprisoned by possessions, money, career, relationship issues. We are even imprisoned by dynamics that we may not even know are at work on us: shame, guilt, fear.

In time, content to be shared but one of the decisions in front of me is whether or not to take on a significant leadership role in the next Walk To Emmaus retreat. Normally this would be a no-brainer – YES – the fluidity of other pieces of my life have me questions whether or not I should say, “Yes” or might be better to say, “Not Now.”

I have been hesitating on this decision. I didn't sense I had clear indication or confirmation that now was the correct time to fulfill this role.  The other day while driving, I received a phone call from the person who extended the invitation on behalf of the Walk To Emmaus Community. Just after answering the call – yes I was wearing a headset – a white truck pulled in front of me. My friend and I spoke for about fifteen minutes, debating back and forth how one would know if they were following God’s will for one’s life and if I was to accept this invitation. I explained to Dave that I wasn't getting a clear sign to pursue this role at this time and I was worried about the time commitments.  Deep inside I felt as though I was being silly and the answer was an obvious yes… just be obedient and follow God. The discussion went on for about twenty minutes while I drove from one side to the other side of Hong Kong – the entire time following the white truck.

Unexpectedly the truck’s signage connected with my self-centered mind. “Oh my gosh, Dave,” I said. “The entire time we’ve talked I’ve been following a Trappist Dairy truck.”

“You're kidding… Trappist Dairy,” Dave replied, “you don’t see those very often!”

“Wow, what a sign. I think this answers the question that I should be the Lay Director,” I said.

“It would be hard to dispute that,” Dave confirmed.

I love Trappist Dairy milk and buy it whenever available in the supermarkets. I also love the Trappist Haven Monastery on Lamma Island. Although I have yet to visit personally, I have always heard great things about the place.

From Wikipedia: The Trappist Haven Monastery (Traditional Chinese:熙篤會神樂院 or 聖母神樂院) is a monastery at Tai Shui Hang (Chinese: 大水坑), on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It is home to a number of Roman Catholic monks of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, or Trappists. It adopted its new, official name Our Lady of Joy Abbey on January 15, 2000.

The monastery is famous for producing the Trappist milk (known as Cross Milk 十字牌牛奶 or Priest Milk 神父牌牛奶 by Hong Kongers).

Are we ready for more?

One of the things I often do before going on business trips is mail Tess a magazine. I have been doing this for years. The goal is for a representation of me to arrive in the mail a few days following my departure. The gesture is a small way of saying, “I love you and I am still here” despite not actually physically being around. Since starting this practice, I have taken license to deface the magazines I send. We call them “getting Vinced.” Vince is the younger brother of a small cartoon character I invented in high school called “Buppy.” I saved all my Buppy drawings and someday might make a hilarious blog.

Back to the mags – I take a permanent magic marker, drawing funny faces on The Gorgeous People no doubt airbrushed into the magazine. I unairbrush them in a fun way. After a while Tess objected to the vandalism. Turns out she was getting confused. On the cover beneath the markings she was sure it was Hilary Swank marrying Brad Pitt, only to learn later it was Angelina Jolie. Sorry, Tess. The vandalism ceased, unless I thought of something really, really clever that I knew would provoke an uncontrolled, spontaneous outburst of laughter from Tantalising Tess. A few months ago such an opportunity arose with the accompanying cover. Some couple in the US who’d had dozens of kids was ready for more. I took an old picture of Tess and I from when Sebastian was first born, glued it to the front cover. Tess was only mildly amused. Perhaps the cover got under the skin a bit. To be honest, even as I was tapping into my Andy Warhol creativity with the magazine I too felt a small bite… Tess and I still have a six pack on ice. Someday, in the not too distant future, we have to deal with both the practical and spiritual implications of that frozen in time life. Any suggestions?

Nevertheless, there is a funny ending to this story. A few weeks later the magazine fell into the hands of one of our helpers: Gary. Gary thought the cover story was real and nearly had a heart attack when he discovered we were having more children. The lovely and talented Tess has a very clear position on this topic: closed for business. Who could blame Tess? On the other hand, Tess is a Super Mom and could easily double the trouble and none of this explains her re-occuring dream… ask her about it!

Team Caldwell Kids Play Christmas

The kids love to role play. We often find them playing “family” in which Sebastian will announce he is going on a business trip, or pets, when one of them will be our friend’s dog. (The dog recently died but that hasn’t been included in the game.) Today I was sitting at the dining room table listening to the kids playing on the balcony while working on my computer. (Tess was taking a much deserved break, tucked away reading a book somewhere.) Out of the corner of my eye I could see chairs being re-arranged by the kids on the balcony, leading me to believe some creativity was in the making. After listening to them for a while, I couldn’t help but investigate what the kids engineered on the balcony… their own version of Santa distributing gifts at Christmas. Hilarious and caught on film below. The end of the clip features the triplets singing in Chinese. Enjoy!

I also used new software to make this movie. What difference do you see compared to other videos I post on Vimeo or on You Tube?

Team Caldwell Kids Play Christmas from Charles Caldwell on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday, Bronwyn!

Today my niece, Bronwyn who lives in Toronto, turns sixteen. A major milestone as now Canadian laws permit Bronwyn to drive. When I turned sixteen, this was a huge deal for me and most of my friends. We all had our plans of how and when we’d learn to drive. I got my license about nine months after I turned sixteen. Having just been back to Canada last week – for a day in Toronto and a day in Vancouver – I explained to the kids that Bronwyn was turning sixteen. Sebastian was quite curious, connecting the dots that sixteen was only seven years away for him. Tantalising Tess is very good about calling family back in Canada – including gently reminding me – on these types of occasions but with busy lives, ski season and what not there was no answer at Bronwyn’s home. We decided instead to send Bronwyn a birthday video, combining personal greetings with Hong Kong Disney Land’s “Let It Snow” parade, taped from a recent trip to Disney. We posted the video on Bronwyn’s Facebook Wall but it’s also appended below for easy reference. Viewers will notice that Hong Kong Disney parades look very familiar, but also very different.

Happy Birthday, Bronwyn! from Charles Caldwell on Vimeo.

A Social Network Christmas

Here is a touching and fascinating video. The clip is an artistic take on how the story of the nativity might have read had a social network existed at the time of Jesus's birth. Interesting to note that people "unfriended" Joseph when he revealed that indeed, Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit.

Follow this historical period as it unfolds as a digital narrative. This vignette is great for highlighting the truths and circumstances of our Savior's birth in a fresh, unique way. Four minutes long but well worth the time.

U Wish

Conspicuous consumption runs rampant in Hong Kong but rarely to this degree. While on my way to work this morning I found myself stopped behind a gorgeous Ferrari with the license plate "U Wish." Classic, and slightly comical at the same time. Had it been the four door "family-sized" Porsche, I might have found it less comical. Fortunately used cars are cheap in Hong Kong and maybe someday the Porsche Panamera will come down in price enough to make it affordable for me. The Lovely & Talented Tess thinks my Porsche days are over. Tess is the street smart one, so she's probably right. Still, which one of us will say "U Wish?"

Thank you for the very kind comments of the kids picture below. Yes, I know that Tess & I were absent from the photo but stay tuned for our Christmas picture to be posted soon.

Christmas photo – what do you think?

Today the girls performed in Union Church's Kids Christmas Show (fantastic production) and in the afternoon we went sailing on some friends' Jeanneau sailboat. (We actually never made it out sailing because the engine conked out, but we still had a fabulous afternoon on the boat, walking, talking, eating!)

Between church and not-sailing, we dropped into Cityplaza to buy some groceries and snacks. Every few weeks Cityplaza puts on a display or show. For Christmas we found a huge display of Christmas settings for people to take seasonal pictures. "Of course, how brilliant!" I thought. 99% of Hong Kong homes wouldn't be large enough for a truly traditional setting, conducive to festive pictures. In lieu, a whole variety of festive living rooms can be found at Cityplaza until January 2nd. We stopped to take pictures of Sebastian and the Terrific Trio. One of the best shots turned up on my Blackberry. What do you think? (A few other samples to follow shortly.)

Sebastian’s Avatar Cake

Sebastian loved the movie "Avatar." Hard not to love the film (albeit some of the violence and swearing) considering how beautiful the film. Therefore, Sebastian asked for an Avatar birthday cake. This year he took a great interest in helping to design/make the cake (and eat the leftover icing) but didn't know it was going to have a floating mountain until the final product emerged. Below is a short video of Sebastian explaining the cake. The cake was shared with his friends Alex and Adam. The party was held at Paintball Headquarters followed by pizza and cake at our place. For the record, it should be footnoted that Tantalising Tess provided considerable creative input in the making of the cake – despite having never seen the movie – thus she is officially co-creator. In fact, Tess baked the cake giving her two thirds writes to its creation. I only added the icing.

The kids love to shave…

The rugby season is off to a good start. At our first tournament, where the Hong Kong mini-rugby league set a Guinness world record of the largest mini-rugby tournament (2610 players), Sebastian's Sandy Bay team (the Under 10s) won two games and tied one game. (Left: officials announce the audited player total for the day. The last record was set 10 years ago in the US with 800+ mini-rugby players.)

The second "DEA" tournament at King's Park we won two games and tied one game. Our last game we played Valley Fort – "the team" to beat – and won 2 – 1. One of the tries we scored happened after Sebastian won the scrum when it was Valley Fort's ball. Seb (playing Hooker) snatched it out of the scrum with his foot, scrumhalf tossed to flyhalf, flyhalf halfway across the pitch to the 1st receiver in the wing who dashed up to Valley Fort's try line. It was a beautiful play. (Left: Sebastian's team celebrate their Valley Fort victory at the end of the day.)

Third tournament, on our home turf at Sandy Bay, we played four games. Valley Fort came back for a revenge game resulting in a tie. The three other games we won: 7-0, 5-0 and 2-0. I am no rugby expert, but the other coach and I (Tim) are focusing on making sure the kids know where they're supposed to be, and what they're supposed to be doing, at different points in the game. (Left: At the DEA Tournament, Jasper outruns Valley Fort on his way to scoring a try. Thanks for the great picture, Dale!)

The triplets are not doing quite as well although they are holding their own! Carys scored her first try in a tournament at DEA. It was as if she'd tasted blood and played like a fiend the rest of the day. So did Sela, who after NOT scoring a try but playing very well, cried for 15 – 20 minutes.  In case you're wondering about the red splotches on the kids' skin… we used leftover fake blood from Halloween to freak out the opposing teams. (Left: proud Carys after scoring her try and the obligatory annual Candy Floss Shot.)

All this rugby makes the kids dirty. We've had a few fun Sunday nights where the kids have "pretend shaved." I give them a big plastic spoon and handful of shaving cream. The boys shave their faces and the girls their legs. In the picture below Jasper watches with a "hair job" from the tournament. Part of the idea is to give Tantalising Tess, who busts her butt all the time for our family, a quiet break. I always attempt to have these baths be "whisper" baths. Can you hear Tess laughing… yeah, these baths don't provide for much whispering and if you think the water looks dirty now, you should have seen it after I washed his hair!