Category: Footprints
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Soldiers’ Valentine
Valentine’s Day happened just two days ago. It is the time when young or old couples use this opportunity to send a box of chocolate or a bouquet of roses in a way to demonstrate their love and affection to one another. As I was serving in the army, each year unofficially the soldiers in the military…
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Closing Our Eyes
Years ago as I graduated from teacher’s college waiting for the government to assign me a teaching job, my mom took me to seek out a fortune teller as to where I would be appointed to teach. The fortune teller who was blink predict where I would be sent to and the prophecy was almost entirely…
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When Minus Becomes Plus
One of the commercial slogans I’ve found most disturbing and devastating is that the more you buy, the more you save. The other day I walked into a Blockbuster store and rented two movies for class instruction. Before I checked out the movies, the cashier asked me to rent one more DVD that’ll be $150…
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Is Convenience Good?
Once in a while my family will skip some delicacies in some restaurants or hearty meals at home and instead we’ll take out food from convenience stores where as the name indicates they offer ready-to-eat food in a quick and simple way. My younger daughter loves rice rolls in the convenience store particularly when during…
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Trophy Or Trip?
One day my daughters placed their school awards in sports, reading, academic achievements, and the like on display above the bookshelf where they can be noticed plainly as one walks through the living room. As I was wondering why those certificates came out of drawers, it occurred to me that we had a special gathering late…
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Granny Chang
Granny Chang, who is invalid, lying in bed all the time in her eighties, could barely speak and suffers some of her memory loss. Each time visitors come to see her, her daughters would explain to her who is who and Gramma would nod her head expressing her welcome or just look at her guests doubtingly without…
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Nothingness Or Everythingness?
Master Sheng Yen, one of the greatest religious leaders in Taiwan, died of kidney failures days ago. His final words were “‘jimei wei lu’ dying out is joy” and ‘”ben lai meiyo wo, shen si jei ke pao’I no longer exist at the outset; life or death can be discarded. Undoubtedly, his philosophical way of…
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On Greatness
This morning I turned on my computer listeningto the U.S. President Barack Obama’s inaugural speech on CNN.com. What struck me most in his speech was about the word “greatness” he marked, which “is never a given, but must be earned.” He said to his Americans to “set aside childish things”, to have hope and to…
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Finally, The Phoneix Is Soaring!
The Arizona Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the National Football Conference championship this morning to advance to the Super Bowl. I am not a big fan of the Cardinals, yet they used to play the ball at ASU where I studied in the 1990s. I still have a strong attachment to the team. The…
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A Hard-Hit, Tested Faith
“You are not aware of what kind of Christian you are until you are tested” is a reminder that we Christian should not be too judgmental as our brothers and sisters are in deep trouble or tribulation and you’re trying to comfort them by saying something like “having faith in God” or “rejoicing in the Lord.”…
TJ Gong 