The balloons

I imagined last Monday, straight after waking up

that there was a huge balloon of peace in my room

And guess what! There was a tremendous amount of peace

 

I loved the peace, I wanted it to stay forever, but then 

a frustrating thought from the previous day entered my mind

and like a needle it punctured my balloon of peace

 

        And peace was gone

 

I imagined last Tuesday, straight after waking up

that there was a huge balloon of love in my room

Tender love! There was a tremendous amount of love.

 

I loved the love, I wanted it to stay forever, but then

a thought of anger from the previous day entered my mind

and like a needle it punctured my balloon of love

        And love was gone

I imagined last Wednesday, straight after waking up

that there was a huge balloon of beauty in my room

Fascinating beauty, there was a tremendous amount of beauty

I loved the beauty and wanted it to stay forever, but then

a thought of disappointment from the previous day entered my mind

and like a needle it punctured my balloon of beauty

 

        And the beauty was gone

I imagined last Thursday, yesterday, straight after waking up

that there was a huge balloon of creativity in my room

Amazing creativity, there was a tremendous amount of creativity.

I loved the creativity and wanted it to stay forever, but then

A thought of strife, from the previous day entered my mind

and like a needle it punctured my balloon of creativity

        And creativity was gone

Today is Friday and without having to imagine, I know 

how much peace, how much love, how much beauty, 

how much creativity is surrounding me in the morning.

Needle-like thoughts of frustration, anger, disappointment and strife

will make them disappear like bursting balloons. 

I have decided to not think such thoughts and keep 

the peace, the love, the beauty, the creativity, all,

for a bit longer today, at least until noon. :)

Let us all keep the peace and love of the morning

the beauty and creativity, at least until noon...

 

 

 

The eagle, the monkey and the monitor lizzard

The eagle flew over the sea

He had the most wonderful view

But he did not enjoy it

Because he was focused so much

On his hunger 

 

The monkey was jumping from tree to tree

He experienced most wonderful sensation

But he was not aware of it

Because he was focused so much

On finding food

 

The monitor lizard could not fly nor jump

But he basked in the afternoon sun

He sat quietly and fully enjoyed

The energy that came his way from the sun

He was focused on silence.

 

The most talented have the highest potential to enjoy what they do

but there is a need of awareness, a need for some wisdom :)

 

Home-based care

My dear friends,

 

Here  is something I want to share

It is about a dream to start a home-based care

about ten years ago, there was no such thing

in the place where I was living. 

 

Things then started happening so fast

hard to believe, if I think what has passed.

A lecturer in our department was there

he was interested in palliative care

 

We talked to YOKUK, our local NGO

and we soon got a green light to go

we found a bit of funding and started small

a team of one driver and a nurse; lots of soul.

 

After one year the CEO of the organization

Approached a big company for a donation.

Just one team we wanted to add

The company saw the potential, we had

 

They decided to fund not one team but four.

yes quadruple the amount we were asking for.

We had never thought, it would come that far

They would provide also for each team one car. 

 

We needed a coordinator for all the teams

the one we found surpassed all of our dreams

She was an ex-matron, with a very strong motivation

to help and serve our patients needing palliation

 

Now years later, many people, poor and sick

have received help, extremely efficient and quick

a truly holistic approach with lots of love and care.

I hope this initiative will forever be there. 

 

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I did not initially intend to make it rhyme, but when I started to write, the words "share" and "care" seemed to rhyme perfectly and from there the rest of the small poetic version of this message flowed. 

 

It has been an almost miraculous series of events and that led to the establishment of our palliative care in Kelantan. What is written above is only a fraction of what has happened. The lecturer in our department, Dr Fahisham, who was interested in palliative care has done a superb job in establishing and guiding the teams throughout the years. Sure enough, the journey has not always been easy and seeing the suffering among the patients has been tough, but big positive differences have been made in countless miserable situations. There are so many touching, heart warming stories.

Over the years we have had educational events and we did some useful research. We have tried to tackle the problems faced by the family members who provided care for the palliative patients at home too. Just today, I received the fantastic news, that we may be able to expand our service in a major way. 

 

I want to say thanks and congrats to Datin Suliana, the CEO of YOKUK who made the whole initiative possible, Dr Fahisham, the superb paediatrician guiding all staff through the tough tasks they took on and Puan Wan Maimunah, our nurse coordinator for all the teams. Also Puan Sulaini, an amazing steering committee and most of all, the staff manning the teams making the home visits are to be thanked and congratulated. Superb team work. Blessed by so many good things.