Heart Prayer

Tâm Nguyện

Tâm hướng về Tam Bảo
Mỹ đức vững vẹn tòan
Hội tụ từ bi hữu

Literal English Translation version:
My heart taking refuge in the Three Jewels
Keep firm to remain a person of integrity and faith
Nourish compassion for self and for others

Sunrise Sunset

Dưới ánh nắng chiều tà
Trong ban mai nắng sớm
Bầu trời xanh vời vợi
Mây trắng lượn tung tăng
Chim bay về tổ ấm
Ngập tràn tình yêu thương.

Literal English Translation version:
Under the late afternoon sun
In the morning sunlight
White cloud is floating leisurely, high up on the far away blue sky
Birds are flying back home filled with overflowing love.

Family

Here is my mother.

That is my father.

This is me. And, it’s our family!

Dalat 1983 - Three Persons: Father, Mother and I

As my mother quickly pointed out that my playful act is getting caught in film at the sudden "clack" of the camera’s shutter, my father held on strong to me as I get my hands washed in the water running off from the near by Cam Ly waterfall.

It was 1983, our first trip visiting Dalat, capital of Lam Dong Province in the Vietnam's Central Highlands.

Love Within

A mother’s love is last forever. . .

Tình mẫu tử là tình thương yêu thiên liêng, cao cả và bất diệt.

Bông hồng đỏ con cài trên áo
Lòng hân hoan có mẹ trong đời

Bông hồng trắng cài trên áo mẹ
Ngoại ra đi để lại nụ cười

Nụ cười trong mắt mẹ
Ngấn lệ ước hoen mi
Niềm vui nào khôn tả
Ngọai đang ở trong ta

Từng phút và từng giờ
Từng lời ru, giọng nói
Từng vòng tay âu yếm
Ấm áp tình yêu thương

Bông hồng đỏ con cài trên áo
Một mai đây dẫu có phai màu

Tim hồng đó truyền dòng máu đỏ
Mẹ thân yêu vẫn mãi tươi cười.

Gift

Don't be afraid, just have faith.

- says the Lord, our God

Rigid hospital bed. . . the clean smell of fresh linen. . . the usually unfavorable and often funny looking tie back cotton gown. . . pull string plastic bag for putting away change clothes.

For a brief moment, nurses chatting quickly disappeared in the background. . . The tick. . .tick. . .tick. . . sounding from the vital signs monitoring apparatus filled the ward. . . IV drips dropped silently marking their long distance travel.

All, once provoked an uneasy feeling of a dreadful and undesirable place. But, not today. A surprisingly calm sense came running through, being peace and at ease.

More than ever, the joy, hope and happiness were felt at best - right then, in the present, love and being with the loved ones.

DISCLAIMER:
This work is a product of the author’s creativity. Any resemblance in referencing to one’s work is entirely coincidental.

This is LIFE - the gift from God had given to me!
I’m taken it wholeheartedly.
Being given for or taken it all away. . .

Won’t get lost in the noise of this modern life
While one can find peace in silence reflection.

This is the LOVE that I wanna share
Share to all the people out there
Making the world a better place. . .

No more pain, worry or unhappiness that have left in us
As joy, hope and happiness have arrived in every moment.

Writer’s Notes
Those are lines popped up in my head and I have scribbled them down on a piece of guide paper given to me by a nurse at the pre-operative waiting room. I was with my Dad on that day as he was getting ready to have biopsy done at a general community hospital. And the book I brought along to read was Mother Teresa - A Simple Path compiled by Lucinda Vardey.