About Water

“Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.”

 “Don't be ashamed to weep; 'tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there must be sunlight also. A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us.”

“Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” 

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea.”

“The only drink I like ice in is water, because you can’t water down water. I’m like that with love, too. Don’t you dare add any ice to the hot liquid loving I’m trying to pour all over you.” 

“Anger is like flowing water; there's nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human.”

“The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea.” 

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”

“It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things.” 

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”

“A Kiss is a terrible name for a piece of chocolate shaped like a water droplet, because kisses are hot and would melt chocolate—even if it is wearing an astronaut suit made out of tinfoil.
”  At even one penny, this blog would be overpriced. In fact, free is too expensive, because you'd still waste time by reading it. 

“She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.”

 “I just bought a small condo overlooking the water. The water is in a cup, one floor below my unit. 
”

 “Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.”

 “No matter how much water a sink takes on, it never lives up to its name. The Titanic would never have sunk if it were made out of a sink. 
”

 “Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong
Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell.”
― William Shakespeare, The Tempest

 “The ocean was the best place, of course. That was what she loved most. It was a feeling of freedom like no other, and yet a feeling of communion with all the other places and creatures the water touched.”

 “I don’t drink water, because if water can erode rock, think what it can do to flesh.
”

 “Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

 “Water is the driving force in nature.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

 “Ocean: A body of water occupying two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.”

 “You never really know what's coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity.”

 “I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now I've thought maybe my mother drowned in both.”

 “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.” ― Kahlil Gibran

 “An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.”

Barefoot Dr Tan Lai Yong Inspiring Humankind

• View PhotoDr Tan Lai Yong spent the last 15 years in rural China running village doctors training programme and working with disabled people. (Photo courtesy of Tan Lai Yong)

This post, we bring to you a local doctor who spent the last 15 years helping villagers in China.

At 50, doctor Tan Lai Yong counts himself fortunate that neither he nor his wife feel the pressing need to do “something significant” with the rest of their lives.
But that’s because they have already led a “full life”, having spent the last 15 years in rural China, where Tan ran a village doctors training programme and worked with disabled people.
In 1996, Tan, his wife and one-year-old daughter moved to Xishuangbanna, a small Thai-speaking town in the southern tip of Yunnan. There, he spent four years training doctors and working with the disabled before relocating to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan.
Tan then joined the Kunming Medical University and trained village doctors and hospital doctors.  He also led medical work with non-governmental organisation Bless China International, which is based in Yunnan.
“The past 15 years have been a sweet dream,” described Tan, who studied medicine in Singapore before making the leap to work in a developing country. 
Tan’s experiences have been featured in several publications. Most recently, he was interviewed for the Singapore Medical Association’s (SMA) magazine and conferred the SMA lectureship, which is awarded to distinguished people who have made significant contributions to medicine and the community.

his briefing to students, Tan tries to get them to understand and empathise with the villagers.

The doctor, who moved his family back to Singapore in 2010, is now studying full-time at the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He’s on a scholarship to do a master’s degree in Public Administration.Tan continues his outreach to the less fortunate by volunteering at local voluntary welfare organisation HealthServe, which provides help to migrants, and the disadvantaged and poor in the local community.
He also gives talks to other Singapore groups who plan to go to China to help villagers. Recently, he coordinated among 10 volunteer groups to take turns to help build a school in Longling County in the Yunnan province over two years. 
Tan acknowledged that some people may argue: Should teams be doing this, spending all this money to go overseas? Is this a kind of charity tourism?
“It is, but since they’re already doing it, it’s not my job to fight the tide and say ‘Don’t go, we are wasting people’s money,” he said. “(My job is) to say, “Since we’re doing this, let’s do this best practice, do it safely, sensitively, do it sweetly.” 
Inspiring the younger generation
When Yahoo! Singapore met with the doctor, he was at Temasek Junior College (TJC) briefing students who were going to Yunnan and Cambodia as part of the school’s overseas outreach programme.
“I love interacting with students, teaching. I would like to go into teaching of some sort (in the future),” he said. 
The TJC alumni bantered with them, shot questions at each student and prepared them for what to expect. Importantly, he provided these students with a deeper understanding of villagers they may encounter.
For instance, it’s a common saying that villagers may be poor but they are happy. That’s not necessarily true – they may be friendly and full of smiles but it doesn’t mean they are happy, he told them.

Tan has been helping TJC with its overseas community projects for the last few years.

And there will be challenges as a volunteer.
Sharing the difficulties he encountered, Tan said his Mandarin used to be so bad he even wrote his Chinese name wrongly when he was in JC. He had to get a tutor when he went to China.
As a newcomer to the community, there were times he felt “useless” because he was not part of the “information flow” and villagers also questioned his “agenda”.
They would ask, “What’s in it for you?” he said, sharing the frustration in such a situation.
And even after he managed to win over their trust, getting them to make the changes he recommended was another hurdle because they were used to the old ways of doing things. 
There are times too when a volunteer may feel moved to help someone but for practical reasons, such as budgetary constraints, it is not possible, he added.
What matters is helping in a way that is sustainable, like planting trees, he said.
“You can really tell that he believes in what he is doing,” observed 17-year-old Sarah Tan, who met Tan for the first time at the briefing.
“He’s very engaging. He knows how to connect,” she added, glad to have gleaned greater insight on the Yunnan villagers.

Tan hiking with his daughter along irrigated fields in Yunnnan. (Photo courtesy of Tan Lai Yong)

It’s apparent that Tan still has a heart for the villagers, so why did he leave China?The health conditions were changing, he told Yahoo! Singapore later.

There was growing concern over lifestyle diseases (Tan focused on infectious disease) and there was a need for stronger protocols, technical language, all of which were not his strong suits. 



In addition, he felt it was time for him to step down as team leader after one incident two years before he left.



Tan explained that his team had been debating if they should head over to “town A” or “town B” and when Tan suggested the team visit the former because he knew the mayor would back them, the team agreed.
It was a signal for Tan to step down.  
“On the basis of my connection, on the basis of my words, it swayed the decision. And I felt this was really unhealthy for the team. … If my words supercede due diligence, supercede the basic facts, sooner or later we will get into trouble,” he shared.

Tan's wife and children in their younger days. (Photo courtesy of Tan Lai Yong)

 And there was one more reason for Tan to pack his bags and head home. He wanted his children – a 13-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl – to get the chance to develop lifelong friendships in their home country, he said.
“It’s the parents’ job to invest in their children’s friendship,” believes Tan.