Pause & reflect…
“Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Selah” Psalm 39: 4 – 5
Psalm 39 was a part of The Bible that inspired Sela’s name, except we obviously dropped the “h!” The word is spread throughout the Psalms and yet, interestingly, the literal meaning has been lost. Some believe it is a direction to pause and reflect. Theologians have studied the Psalms word “Selah” at length. Today I searched for scripture pointing to the fleeting nature of life to be pointed to Selah. Pause and reflect.
When the triplets were in the hospital almost five years ago, many people prayed for them, including the amah community in our building. They prayed much more than we will probably ever know. When the triplets came home the first year was fragile. One of the joys of each day, though, was when a handful of the amahs in our building would come to give the triplets their last bottle of the day. The lights would be dim, everyone spoke in hushed whispers… it was “quiet time” and often when Tess and I could spend time reading with Sebastian before he went to bed. One such helper was Editha, who has lived in our building almost as long as us. Editha has always been willing to help in anyway possible. Editha helped teach Marianne how to cook more dishes last summer. Editha's daughter worked with us for a short period during the transition from Lita & De to Gary & Marianne. Whenever Editha was on the playground with the children she cared for she was always cheerful, pleasant and playful with our own children. Editha has been an incredible friend and support to our family and Gary, Marianne, Lita, De & Mila.
Last night, Editha was coming home from Chi Fu with a friend. It was dark. They got off the mini bus and started to cross Pokfulam Road, a very busy fast-moving street. Standing on the centerline in the middle of the road they checked for traffic. Editha’s friend saw the motorcycle approaching and yelled "Stop!" Evidently Editha didn’t see the vehicle or hear her friend. She stepped out, was hit by the motorcycle and thrown 20 meters down the road. She was taken to Queen Mary Hospital and operated on for several hours. Editha woke up briefly this morning and everyone was relieved.
Later in the afternoon Katie (Editha’s employer) received a call from the doctors saying that Editha was on life support. She is expected to die in the next 24 hours. Editha’s daughter and son-in-law are with her. Her husband and youngest son are on their way to Hong Kong from the Philippines.
Tonight when I got home from work we sat down with the kids to explain the situation. The triplets didn’t really understand but Sebastian did, a bit, and he was sad. Each one of us prayed for Editha – the triplets prayed that Editha would get better. Tess and I prayed that the family would be comforted and for a miraculous healing. Sebastian prayed about Jesus being with Editha. Then we once again reminded them that vehicles are dangerous and that this is why we (1) wear seat belts (2) look both ways when crossing the road (3) don’t play next to a road (4) concentrate and pay attention when crossing the road and (4) hold an adults hand when crossing the road.
As the kids headed to bed, Tess and I went to the ICU to visit Editha. Obviously she is in a coma, one that she will never awaken barring a miracle. We thanked her for being such a loving, supportive friend. We prayed over her and read encouraging scripture. There were other friends at her bedside, including one of the security guards from our building and we were touched to see her.
Tess is weary and now in bed. We are saddened by this situation that happened in the blink of an eye. We have many fond memories of Editha, including the accompanying pictures from Christmas Day 2004 when Tess & I made breakfast for Lita, Mila, Editha and some of their friends. We anticipate the next few days when the family will have the most impossible decision to make, one that in the end seems inevitable.
"Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again Before I depart and am no more."Psalm 39:13
Selah
Aftermath: Editha was pronounced dead less than 24 hours later at 4:19 pm Hong Kong time.
Fintry T4
Those of you who know me well, will appreciate that I love sailing. Signs of a good holiday for me include making a model sailboat. This video is from 2007 when I made “Fintry T4.” I whipped together this 14 inch boat from scratch out of plastic bottles, wax paper, fishing line, a few bits of wood, screws
and silicone etc. I wanted to put together this video for a long time
and finally did as part of the Volvo Ocean Race online sailing game. Right now there are two major international sailing events underway: The Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Round The World Race) that consists of nine legs. The second race is the Vendee Globe Race. The latter is around the world non-stop single handed in 60 foot racing boats and during the last month has come packed with real drama: one of the sailors fractured his femur 1500 kms south-west of Australia. He was rescued about 44 hours later by the Australian Navy. His US$ 4 million boat was lost. Another sailor capsized 200 miles off of Cape Horn! He was rescued by a fellow competitor but lost his US$ 6 million boat!
The Volvo Ocean Race has an online sailing game. As part of it participants can submit a video related to the game. This is mine… for now. Needless to say, this has brought out my sailing passion. The lack of real sailing lately is driving me crazy.
What does it look like?
Someone asked me the other day what our home looked like on Christmas Eve, with presents under the tree and stockings stuffed. “It must look magical!” she said. Yes, pretty close. The sun was just coming up when I snapped this picture of the tree and stockings. We had quite a good Christmas Day. All the kids knew and understood that nothing would happen before 7 AM. Sebastian awoke at 6:30 AM with Jasper not far behind him. I parked them in front of the TV in the playroom with half a chocolate pop-tart each (chocolate pop-tarts was a specific request from Sebastian for Christmas morning). Carys awoke fifteen minutes later. The movie and sugar fix kept the kids occupied until 7:30 AM when Sela finally got up. The extra sleep for Sela was a real blessing because she was building quite a nasty sleep debt = grumpy. The rest of the day went very well. The kids were quite well behaved and reasonably quiet considering the fact they had lots to excite them. Midday we went to some friends’ home on the Gold Coast of Hong Kong (Kowloon side) for an afternoon Christmas brunch. (There were six adults and nine kids.) We ended up staying until 8:30 PM, since everyone was having such a great time and the kids well behaved. We got home about 9:15 PM and needless to say, it took no time for the kids to fall asleep.
The singing of the Angels…
Tess gave an early evening update on her blog of our Christmas Eve activities. After the kids were in bed, Tess and I were wrapped, packed and stacked by 9:30 PM. We managed to get two episodes of Frasier, Season 6 under our belts before I headed out to the Union Church Candlelight Service at 11 PM. With the exception of the light illuminating the cross, all other lighting came from candles. If you are a sucker for ambiance, this service would have brought you to your knees. Pastor Greg Anderson's Christmas message, "The Angel's Anthem" might have brought you to your knees, too. This was quite possibly one of the top ten sermons I have ever heard. Pastor Greg even quoted Will Farrell from the movie "Talladega Nights." At one point in the movie Ricky Bobby (Farrell) prays to "little baby Jesus" at the start of a family meal. The blessing is long, tedious and funny, with Farrell repeatedly referring to Christ as a small, infant baby until his wife says, "You know, sweetie, Jesus did grow -up." Her point is that Jesus is much more than a baby. After reading from this movie's scene, Pastor Greg planted a seed in people's mind by saying, "I don't want to insult your faith but some of us have a Baby Jesus faith. We think of the little baby in the manger but we forget something…"
Pastor Greg concluded his message with this quote from Pastor Howard Thurman. "There must always remain in every life some place for the singing of the angels. Some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful. Old burdens become lighter. Deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old hurting. Despite all the crassness of life, all the harshness and harsh discords, life is saved by the singing of the angels."
May you find the angels singing for you this Christmas and in the coming New Year. With love from Team Caldwell in Hong Kong.
Pastor Greg Anderson's inspiring Christmas message "The Angel's Anthem" can be heard here.
Sebastian’s Art 2008
Today, in anticipation of moving in several months and the installation of a new flat screen TV for the kids, we were cleaning out corners when we found some of Sebastian's art from this past year. Note… some of this is a year old! The first piece is from a collage Sebastian did when he first entered Primary 1/Grade 1 in August 2007. Then we have a colourful rendition of his name from the end of P1.
The certificate at left is from the completion of a special reading and writing course Sebastian completed during P1 last spring. He is now quite an accomplished reader and his writing skills improved considerably. (Sample to follow one of these days.) Next we have what I call "The Grid," completed at some point in the last six months.
The Owl, The Stocking and The Man sound like the title of a book and could even be used for illustrations in such a book. Sebastian just informed me that he completed all of these masterpieces last year in P1, NOT this year! (He was very specific about this fact.) Seb also hadn't seen these pictures for a long time, and was quite amazed they'd made their way onto the computer.
Next we have The Bear and The Boots. I love The Boots because they are so colourful and festive. Sebastian explained to me that he did both these pictures last year in P1. The Boots were actually two sides of the same boot merged together in Photoshop… you can see the slight line down the middle.
This item, The Cereal Car, is from the beginning of this school year when the class did an engineering project. Each student selected pictures of a car (Sebastian picked James Bond's most recent Aston Martin… sigh) then studied the pictures in class. Each student then supplied items for the class that could be used to build a car. Items were shared and the end result of the project was building a car from scratch after making designs on paper.
Last but not least we have a very curious picture/piece of art completed by Sebastian in P1. Sebastian calls it "Being Cross" but I have been refering to it as "Dark Mood" because the picture looks more like Sebastian when he is a bit moody verses cross. Regardless, Sebastian that the teacher said he could be any mood he wanted. Sebastian chose being cross. "Then," he continued with glee, "I got to decorate it!"
