Great Saturday is great

 Live the moment

Yes! Today was really a great Saturday hehe. Don't you just love it when your day goes according to what you have planned since the day before haha. Just makes you feel like as if everything is going smoothly which is good of course. I went for an impromptu dinner and drink with Chris last night and when I reached home I just fell asleep haha. What a good sleep though.

Went to Vithya's house for jamming practice session again. Kai was slightly late so we were watching TV first haha. It was a great jamming session though! Got my chords and fret positions sorted out so now I can play it freely. Then we had a small chat after that before I rushed home. Just love making music and jamming, let your stress and feelings out! :)

Then I rushed home cause I'm going for THIS (Thus Have I Seen) Buddhist Film Festival! It's my first time going for a movie alone, and going for a film festival as well! And yay yay yay I went for the opening film which is Souls of Zen. It's such an inspiring and thought-provoking movie, though sadly there were a few technical glitches here and there. But it's fine, at least I get to know and understand the flow of the entire movie. Really good though.

So basically Souls of Zen is a documentary about how Buddhism plays a role during the aftermath of the March 2011 Tsunami in Japan. Surely we all know how devastating it was, but the media doesn't really cover the Buddhism aspects of the disaster. How the Buddhists in Japan help in the situation, offering aids in refuge, food, and of course, funerals.

I find some parts of the documentary scary, especially seeing the real footages (which I've never seen before) of the tsunami. Just listening to the stories of the monks, like how they have to wrap the bodies with sheets, and since they have no enough coffins they have to put them in boxes. How the survivors have to identify the bodies of their loved ones, how some of them are still looking for missing people months after the disaster in March. These stories are just... Scary, and sad.

Made me think how fortunate I am to well, have not met any huge-scale disasters.

And at the same time I'm also touched by the generosity of the people in Japan. The monks, the people and many more. How they started raising donations days after the disaster. How there was no looting though disaster stroke. People from different walks of life and religions giving counseling talks. The monks offering place of refuge in the temples and so on.

However one particular scene that seriously got stuck on my head is this.

So due to the disaster, many graveyards were swept away. And the tradition of the graveyard being passed to the next male generation (or something like that) makes it quite difficult for single women especially, when their time has come. So there's a place in Tokyo where they make graveyards underground, where urns are stored. And also you can sort of "reserve" your name there when you're still alive.

There is a woman who was being interviewed. So she's a member of that place and now that she's living alone, she spent her time there with the other members. She's in the chorus club and she said that when a chorus' member time has come, they will sing a song for that member. So she was saying she couldn't think of the song she wants the chorus to sing. And somehow... She looked rather positive and "happy" talking about death. Laughing, smiling. Instead of fear and dreading.

After the movie this got me thinking. Like... Well don't deny it, but there are parts of life when we fear death. We wonder what will happen after death. And there are times we wish we would never die. But of course that won't happen. After all humans' final destination, is death. All of us will go there for sure, just a matter of time.

Of course, as well, I have never met anyone who's like "I can't wait to die!" or something like that. I think death is a destination that no one looks forward to huh? Unless we've lived a life we all want and we got sick of it and like we wish we would just end it. And if this happens most probably you're having severe depression.

As the quote says, is not the destination that matters but the journey. Surely we all have a journey to embark before we all die. And this journey is what matters the most. From born, till we die, we create a story and embark on a journey that no one else can ever experience, but yourself. A story you'll never get tired of, a journey worth suffering and embarking in every moment.

But still, why do we fear death?

Oh cheeeem talk! Haha. I guess THIS' slogan is true. It's "Open Your Mind" Surely watching the first movie has opened my mind to many things. I still have 3 more films to watch next Saturday! Can't wait! ^^ Especially the closing film, One Mile Above :D

After the film I decided to go to Chinatown to take photos of the lanterns-lit streets! Made the right choice to go there, took some awesome shots and I really love it hehe. Reminds me of that time in 2010 when Sandra brought me there to teach me how to take long-exposure shots! Damn, 2 years passed by, feels like it was last year! So thank you Sandra! Without you, I wouldn't be able to take those shots I take today hehe. And hey it's mid-autumn once again! :)

Yup that's all for today I guess. Can't wait for tomorrow! Going to Ubin with my DBS 1.5 people hehe. Gonna have a great time together with them! :) I'll see you again! What an awesome weekend :D Enjoy, refresh, relax and unwind~