Week Beginning 8 September 2008

What’s happening…
Monday, 1st September, was a Labour Day and a national public holiday here. Apart from joining Professor Frendenburg and Professor Doyle at 10 a.m. in briefing the students on the Family Life programme, it was a fairly quiet day. A kind of little pause before the rush of the week.

The semester kicked off with an Opening Ceremony on Tuesday morning, when the university management team, the faculty members, and the students got together. We were introduced to the university community. We recognise this great privilege to be a part of the Family Life Department, and a part of a unique and reputable university.

After the ceremony, we were off to the lectures. It was quite an experience for us. After 26 years of absence from the university life, it was kind of nostalgic to be ‘back to school’. The major difference this time is that we are studying things which we are deeply passionate about. Therefore, we are enjoying every bit of it. Nonetheless, as expected, it is a life of tons of reading and keeping up with assignments.

We were glad to come to the end of the week. Friday night, we all went out to a special dinner, celebrating Jennifer Freudenburg’s birthday. After that, we were joined by Sara (Professor Freudenburg’s younger daughter) and her husband Tom, and their daughter, Markey. Markey is a special girl to all of us. She is just so beautiful.

Early Saturday morning, we left for a small town one hour from Ann Arbor, to an orchard to pick apples with the family of Cori (Professor Freudenburg’s older daughter). She and her husband, Matthew, have three young children (Caleb, Adelaide, and Micah). Again, the children are just so adorable. Caleb, the big brother, is the inquisitive one. Adelaide is shy and gentle, while Micah is very friendly. We enjoyed immensely the time we spent at the orchard and the lunch we had with the Freudenburg family afterwards.

A major part of the Saturday afternoon was spent in preparing the food for the Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. This dinner was organised by the Freudenburgs to give us an opportunity to thank all those who had contributed to arranging for us to study at Concordia University and the furnishing of our campus apartment. We cooked curry chicken, beef satay, and laksa for the guests to try.

Many people came and we had a wonderful time together. Great group of people with the genuine heart for serving others. We are just so thankful to live in the midst of a great university community.

Just Pondering…..
There is a blessing in disguise in this delay of finishing the blog write-up for this week.

I read an incredible piece of news on Tuesday (9 Sept) about how a 3-year old girl, Leona, in U.K. got sucked into a hole in the middle of a puddle of water on a playground and was carried for 230 feet in an underground pipe before she was rescued by her own father. Her father watched her disappear and saw her again at the other end of the pipe.

These are some of the reported remarks of Mum Beverley Baxter.

'She just vanished in front of us, one minute she was there, the next she had vanished.’

'I thought I'd lost her. I thought that was it. I just kept saying to Mark "we've got to get her, we've got to find her".

I reflected on the great anguish of Leona’s parents as they witnessed the stark reality of losing their child. All parents can easily identify with these feelings of loss, though at varying degrees.

I always wonder, as a parent: When did this tremendous love we have for our children begin? Something inside me happened before the arrivals of Nicholas and Douglas. That something, loosely referred to as parental love, causes all parents to give their all for their children, even their very own lives. This is something special, very special. Without that something (love), I don’t think I could do the many things that I did for our two boys. Likewise, for all parents, this special kind of love came from somewhere. It wasn’t there before.

Where does it come from? Here is something to think about for the week ahead!

Word of Wisdom
A quote on parenthood: ‘Parenthood always comes as a shock. Postpartum blues? Postpartum panic is more like it. We set out to have a baby; what we get is a total take-over of our lives.’ Though what Polly Berrien Berends says might sound negative, the reality is that having children is our way of giving a part of our life away, a part that wasn’t there in the first place. It (love) was given to us to give away to a special group of people – our children.

What’s ahead!
The pace of student life is going to pick up during the week ahead. Some assignments are due. We are about to be swamped. But again, we are telling ourselves, ‘This is what a student life is!’. I guess it is for us now…for another 3 months+

A Week In Passing

Acknowledgement…

This blog is updated with the creative input of Miss Trish Wong, an incredibly talented multi-media IT savvy young lady. She may be contacted at (blueshores86@yahoo.com)

Week Beginning 1 September 2008

What’s happening…
We wish there was more than just this week to take a breather before the heavy schedule of the semester sets in on Tuesday.

Because of various things, we are behind in completing the second examination of the Adolescent Psychology. We spent most of the week studying for the 3rd and final examination. We are behind on this.

Friday afternoon, the Family Life Department did a presentation at the Student Admission Office. Professor Freudenburg and Professor Doyle turned ‘salespersons’ for an hour when they pitched their talk on how students could benefit from studying with the department. We discovered that the department was breaking new grounds on cutting edge courses, such as those for Child Life Specialist focus. We were enthralled by the potential impacts these courses could have on the lives of the children who are going through critical illness, as well as their family members.

We are beginning to discover more and more of the mission of this university in making deep impacts on the world through the graduates.

At 3p.m. on Saturday, a special Matriculation Ceremony was held on campus for parents and new students and staff. It was such an emotional scene as parents openly declared their trust in the university community and ‘handed over’ their children to their care.

That evening, we attended our first American wedding of a couple who are graduates of the Family Life Department here.

After that, we had the privilege of doing our weekly shopping with Professor Doyle. We were so honoured to have the Professor with us for a simple Malaysian dinner at our apartment – fried mee hoon cooked by a rare Malaysian ‘chef’ on campus…Rose.

Just Pondering…..
The gathering thoughts of recent weeks prompted Matthew to take three mornings off at the beginning of this week to think and reflect about several matters, knowing that this would be hard to do in the next few months with term work.

Solitude, being on your own for a period of time, is not an easy thing to do. When I (Matthew) first started doing this a number of years ago, I struggled quite a bit, even though I knew in my head from the research on the subject and hearing the accounts of others who practiced it, that it was very refreshing for a man who is constantly on the treadmill of life. Now, for me, I begin to get a fair bit of pleasure out of this. In fact, I kind of look forward to it.

The opportunity of having a pause from the daily dash and to recalibrate the things of life is indeed great. We all do have occasional respites that prompt us to look away from the unending struggles of life for a while and focus on the big questions of life such as ‘what is the meaning of doing what I am doing?’, ‘why am I here on earth?’, ‘does how I live matter at all?’, etc. We do ask these during human crisis situations, such as at funerals, when visiting a loved one or friend who is dying, in major breakdowns of key life relationships (in marriage and in parenting), and so on.

The time to think and pray through what is ahead of us here, what to do after our return (in the not so distant future), the people who are close to us who are going through a rough patch of their lives, has been very good for me. So much has happened with us here since we arrived. So much has happened back home as well. I have not given much thought to what the winning of Anwar Ibrahim in the by-election this week means to our nation. This must be a main thing that grips the hearts of the people of the nation right now.

Maybe you would like to try this thing called solitude, some day. Who knows, you might discover something new there.

I am not asking you to become like a monk or nun in the monastery. You know what! On the issue of monastery life, it is an increasingly popular practice in the western world nowadays for busy people to have ‘silent retreats’ at a real monastery.

Word of Wisdom
An ancient saying: ‘Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.’ Looking up to the clear night sky, marvel at the beauty of the surrounding and things, help us to ‘size’ ourselves up. We are really not as central as we would like to think we are. Yet, what we do matters to many lives. Pause this week for a short while, look around you, think of those big questions of life again. You might find real rest in your soul from such times!

What’s ahead!
We just do not know how to describe accurately the time ahead of us. On the one hand, it will be very hectic with course works and serving at the department office (for Rose). On the other hand, it will be the time when the main bulk of our learning, the reason of this U.S. attachment, takes place. We will be taking 6 courses in total. Matthew will be assisting Professor Freudenburg in teaching the course, ‘Family Life Education Methodology’ and Professor Doyle in ‘Parent Education and Guidance’ course. On top of his, we will be mentored by Professor Freudenburg in the Family Friendly Partnership Network programme which involves travelling to various parts of the United States.

Tuesday is the opening day of the semester. There will be a grand opening ceremony for faculty members and students at around 11 a.m. that morning. We’ll keep you posted next week on how it’s like in the first week of the university year.

A Week In Passing

Acknowledgement…This blog is updated with the creative input of Miss Trish Wong, an incredibly talented multi-media IT savvy young lady. She may be contacted at <blueshores86@yahoo.com>