Exchange Diaries

Such a coincidence, straight after our cell's sharing on Thursday night, I rec'd another email from Stephen. I had some quiet thoughts that night, passed through the night like a shadow, yet were brief snatches of sanity which hopefully had a permanence in this inconstant world. I want to grasp it. These emails can be treated as a self-reminder, as long as I don't want to rewrite it!



From: Hilda Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 2:41 PM
To: Stephen Austin

Hi Stephen,

It's a very good Friday! I woke up at 6:30am and immediately found a message sent by my friend (sister in church). Lying in the bed, I replied her message immediately. Just like kind of reflective action, straight and instant. This feeling is amazing. Actually, I wanted to send her SMS yerterday night but my mobile was short of power. Our cell group had a very good sharing yesterday night and I still have fresh and heartfelt gratification & peace. I deeply hope my friends/family or even those walk-by people share the same feelings.

I am really glad that you keep on reading and writing, and keep on writing to me as well (even though I do not necessarily give you a reply always)! You know, we Chinese have a proverb, "Knowledge is the beginning of action, action is the triumph of knowledge." (知乃行之始，行乃知之成). I don't know whether my translation is good enough for you to understand, that's why I try to write down the Chinese version for your further investigation, if interested. We people always live in a status of knowledge and thoughts without actions, or just 3-minutes enphusiastic-status. We lack of the endurance and courage of facing adversity/difficulties and thereby always stay at the same point (or even moving backward). So, I suppose, once we really find what we dream of, or what we admire with, we should grasp this feelings and strive for it. I believe motivation is a precious ingredient in life. It gives us hope and power to move on. I hope, everyone have it, grasp it and don't let it go!

Thanks for your email and it arouses me some further thoughts.

Have a nice weekend!

Cheers,
Hilda

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Austin Friday, January 08, 2010 12:43 PM
To: mybookcot

Hi Hilda,

So here we are on another Friday, and it was a cool and cloudy morning. The clouds have since lifted and we can see some sun shining down. It looks good for a pleasant weekend. I hope this finds everything going well for you. I haven't bumped into you in the park for some time. I look forward to the next time we can.

I went down to the supermarket this morning. All over the place were decorations featuring a tiger's face. This reminded me that 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, and that Chinese New Year is coming. I don't rely so much on luck, but on actions, these days. Yesterday I had a good day of sorting and reorganising some files. It always feels good to dump things that are no longer useful. I now have a new plan for some of my files and this should help get me working on more writing. I need to expand this activity this year. I did a lot of writing on the society and politics of Hong Kong; now I need to work on making some fiction and essays not necessarily connected to the city. This is my plan for the year and so far I'm keeping up with it. This is the hard part, because we find it easy to make new year resolutions but most people drop them after a week.

You'll be glad to know that I'm keeping up with my reading, so I'm one of the good Hong Kong people who walk around with a book instead of a kung fu comic. Have a great weekend.

Stephen.