So much has happened within the past year. Some quick updates, for friends (and personal record, and posterity, too?) on what has transpired since January 2011. I took a break from work – a long-forged dream (and old goal) to pursue my M.A. back at my alma mater. It took quite a bit of courage to wrench myself away from the routines of work I’d slipped into by then, the familiar faces and expectations, the unfamiliar but surmountable new challenges to rise to. But even moreso, even as the official handling of affairs itself took awhile - it was the packing up, clearing away of my staff desk (of five-ish years of precious notes both created by and for my old kids, gifts, memories of hard work and well-spent time and toil), spending more fast-fading time with cherished colleagues, friends and students, and the goodbyes that remain evermore precious to mine heart.

With the onset of August 2011, I have begun my major adventure of postgraduate studies back at NUS. As before, I am blessed with awesome Professors and tutorial-mates as well, and even though our classes are mostly evening classes (which mean I get home pretty late into the night), I know that getting to be a student again – this temporary break from work, a sabbatical of sorts – is a blessing in its own right – and I have since resolved to cherish it by the day.

And I picked up French. Et le français est une belle langue, oui! J’aime le français♥ :) Another quiet dream of old – to keep learning languages – taken up, another sweet little adventure begun. And so, thanks to my lovely lessons in basic French, I do love speaking in my (admittedly, primitive) French and belting out fave songs – Pink Martini‘s gorgeous French – and even Italian songs are unmissable, do check them out when you can.

Also, picked up quite a wealth of knowledge (on photography, a latent interest until then), inspiration and sweet friendship through Instagram, a nifty iPhone photo-sharing app. Je savoure les petits aventures d’Instagram, aussi

Perhaps, many achievements of 2011 remain unsaid, but just one more: I have finally mastered the sari, I think. (En fin, ouais!) I’m no longer perplexed by the exacting demands of symmetry it seems to proclaim, and discover this newfound maneagability to be – strangely, I concur – very much like my reaction to…Tolstoy! Heh heh

Here’s to a blessed, brighter and more beautiful 2012, dear all! Bonne année à tout le monde! Take care and signing off with J’y suis jamais allé, a gorgeous track from Amelie, and composed by Yann Tiersen.
minerva*

As for me, I began the new year watching the loveliest cast of Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Brandon Walters drove cattle across the beautiful Australian outback in Baz Luhrmann’s awesome “Australia.” Narrated as an uber-beautiful epic of love, courage and hope in a land rich with the traditional stories of the earth, it’s one of the most gorgeous movies of our time, truly.

Left me musing that… at the end of it all, what most of us are indeed looking for is the one who is able to share one’s pain and suffering, and accept us as ourselves, in this journey we take together.

On a more personal front, am going to keep to what I began in late November-December last year. Am proud to have tried something beyond my usual circles of comfort, and gone ahead to just give it a go to see how far I could enjoy the journey.

So, for this year, am gonna try to keep to this newfound joy in trying out hobbies that might have their own share of exciting mysteries, let’s see. And yes, I shall aim to be nicer (more forgiving, more relaxed towards trying the new) to myself this year.

Take care all!

If you’re feeling frightened about what comes next, don’t be.
Embrace the uncertainty. Allow it to lead you places.
Be brave as it challenges you to exercise both your heart and your mind as you create your own path towards happiness, don’t waste time with regret. Spin wildly into your next action.
Enjoy the present, each moment, as it comes; because you’ll never get another one quite like it. And if you should ever look up and find yourself lost, simply take a breath and start over. Retrace your steps and go back to the purest place in your heart… where your hope lives. You’ll find your way again. – Gilmore girls

And so, this is what I shall hold on to: Everything happens in its own time. And, everything has its own purpose.

Just some updates for dearer souls here:
Am glad to say that these past two months have been an interesting ride. Much like the quote above, I’ve surprised myself considerably by stepping aside from the oft-travelled path and been trying for something new – a worthwhile experience, as it was.

While I do need to start writing again, I might not be doing so here, for quite awhile – but who knows what beautiful mystery the Future holds?

Until then, take care all & may we all be blessed with many more beautiful moments of wonderment and gratitude in our lives ahead.
Love, minerva*
p.s. To Dearer souls: I intend to still blog in brief (and be reached) at this fledgling site – Those Charming Gardeners – a very recently inspired space of Gratitude am trying out. Take care all.

Times are a-changing.
New journeys await.
Let fresh wayflowers blossom along every step, every turning, every new beginning…

Love, minerva*

For I feel, that we all deserve some sunshine to lift our hearts and keep us going, esp. in the days when we feel lost, drained of hope or zest for Life. Nick Vujicic‘s right — Everything is possible – with what we are blessed with, now.

Do take care all & Wishes, as always,
minerva*

It’s been a great long while since my last post, slightly more than a year – and, what a hiatus it’s been. With its own fair share of exciting, draining, lovely memories and experiences, too…

For today, just 1:

One of the highlights of my trip to Germany last December saw yours truly meeting up with my old and dearest freundin, Bettina, and spending the loveliest day traipsing around her old University town, Heidelberg. Was a beautiful trip, in a gorgeous place, with lovely people.

Update to dearer souls:

While there’re pretty major changes coming up in the work arena this year, am gonna try to make time for at least one post per month, just to break this terribly enervating spell induced by my current work demands these last few semesters. (I know that those nearest-dearest to me, including Bettina dear, have always been advising yours truly gently to take a break – and so, yes, finally, a formal break is in foreseeable order.)

That’ll be it, for now. Hoping all dear souls are keeping well. Do take care all and stay lovely!

Signing off with a lovely poem and hearty wishes, minerva* (yes, am back )

* * *

Via 3QD:

The Rarest Thyme

By Thomas McCarthy

For you, I would have built a herb-garden,
Not a pathetic patch for mint and chives

But a real olitory, with old-
Fashioned southernwood and rarest thyme.

I might have built a wooden seat between
Two plants of rosemary, their astringent

Scent seeping through your workshirt to the clean
Flesh of your back. I would have grown a plant

Of  basil for you to stroke into form;
And, certainly, a row of lavender

To infuse carefully over a warm
Stove, for you to sip at whenever

The world became darkened with sick headaches,
Or a loss of blood whitened your small hands.

Well, as a brief update: Been coping with heavier work duties this past semester culminating in pretty demanding (and draining) ones, and yours truly needs a good hiatus (a la sabbatical) away from the responsibilites she’s been delving in, of late.

So, here’s hoping all mine dear souls are keeping well, and just to add a ‘lil cheer your way, a much-needed weekend musing.
Take care all, minerva*

* * *

Via Poetry Foundation:

The Gardener (85)

By Rabindranath Tagore

Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence?
I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds.
Open your doors and look abroad.

From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before.
In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across an hundred years.

* * *

Via TED,Yann Arthus-Bertrand‘s poignant capture of humanity and our shared space. Beautiful!

*Note to kindred souls: If you do have a wee bit of time, do catch the dear sir’s awe-inspiring movie, replete with his trademark breath-taking photographs, entitled “Home.”

***

Via 3 Quarks Daily:

Poverty

By Pablo Neruda

Ah you don’t want to,
you’re scared
of poverty,
you don’t want
to go to the market with worn-out shoes
and come back with the same old dress.

My love, we are not fond,
as the rich would like us to be,
of misery. We
shall extract it like an evil tooth
that up to now has bitten the heart of man.

But I don’t want
you to fear it.
If through my fault it comes to your dwelling,
if poverty drives away
your golden shoes,
let it not drive away your laughter which is my life’s bread.
If you can’t pay the rent
go off to work with a proud step,
and remember, my love, that I am watching you
and together we are the greatest wealth
that was ever gathered upon the earth.

* * *

Translation: Donald D. Walsh
from: The Captain’s Verses (Los versos del Capitán),
New Directions Publishing, 1972

La Pobreza

Ay no quieres
te asusta
la pobreza,
no quieres
ir con zapatos rotos al mercado
y volver con el viejo vestido.

Amor, no amamos,
como quieren los ricos,
la miseria. Nosotros
la exterparemos como diente maligno
que hasta ahora ha mordido el corazón del hombre.

Pero no quiero
que la temas.
Si llega por mi culpa a tu morada,
si la pobreza expulsa
tus zapatos dorados,
que no expulse tu risa que es el pan de mi vida.
Si no peudes pagar el alquiler
sal al trabajo con paso orgulloso,
y piensa, amor, que yo te estoy mirando
y somos juntos la mayor riqueza
que jamás se reunió sobre la tierra.

]]> http://minervanmuse.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/together-we-are-the-greatest-wealth/feed/ 0 minervanmuse ..remember, my love http://minervanmuse.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/kindle-the-magic-flame/ http://minervanmuse.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/kindle-the-magic-flame/#comments Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:47:06 +0000 minerva http://minervanmuse.wordpress.com/?p=636 Continue reading →]]> Heya all,
Taking a brief respite from pretty draining times of late. Hoping all dear souls are keeping well, too.
Here then, our weekend rendezvous.
Do take care all & Wishes, minerva*

* * *

Via 3 Quarks Daily:

World Builder, a short film by Bruce Branit.

A beautifully poignant tribute to the human Imagination, our human endeavours (of Sci-fi/ technology) & of course, at the end of all things, our purest passions (of love, humanity).

* * *

Via Bartleby.com:

A New Theme

By George William (A.E.) Russell

I fain would leave the tender songs
I sang to you of old,
Thinking the oft-sung beauty wrongs
The magic never told.

And touch no more the thoughts, the moods,
That win the easy praise;
But venture in the untrodden woods
To carve the future ways.

Though far or strange or cold appear
The shadowy things I tell,
within the heart the hidden seer
Knows and remembers well.

I think that in the coming time
The hearts and hopes of men
The mountain tops of life shall climb,
The gods return again.

I strive to blow the magic horn
It feebly murmureth;
Arise on some enchanted morn,
Poet, with God’s own breath!

And sound the horn I cannot blow,
And by the secret name
Each exile of the heart will know
Kindle the magic flame.

]]> http://minervanmuse.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/kindle-the-magic-flame/feed/ 2 minervanmuse