20-22 Covid-19 Daily Reflections

  Aug 1st was the first day of mandatory mask-wearing inside public buildings according to the bylaw in Calgary. I know that some people might feel uneasy about the whole thing. Some might even want to protest, and to claim the bylaw is unconstitutional and will protest and fight. Most medical people seem to think that mask-wearing is beneficial in preventing the spread of Covid-19. It is kind of weird when we go into a mall for a walk and see everyone with a mask. We can be sinister about what we witness if we want to. It looks like we are being muffled. Sometimes that might be more helpful because we cannot utter too much stuff. It might be beneficial that we become slower in our speech. We pay more attention to others when they talk because we have to do that through a mask. I enjoy seeing people's creativity with their masks as well. Some of them have beautiful designs. Some of them are colourful and bright. Some are just purely boring as mine....

    This weekend is a long weekend in Alberta. It is "Heritage Long Weekend". Heritage is a challenging term nowadays as we witness many destructions of our past. It is hard to talk about heritage when we don't have the needed honesty to appreciate history in its proper context. Here is one of its definitions: "Heritage  is often used to discuss a cultural aspect or tradition that has been passed down through generations."   As we cherish our own culture, history, and heritage, we might want to be aware that no cultural group is free from what we perceive as "corporate sins". We can do wrong to one another as a group of people, a culture, or a nation. We cannot deal with that effectively without having the desire to look deeper into the impact of sin and how it has destroyed and distorted God's beauty and goodness in the world. That is why it is hard to know the solution for what we are dealing with without the freedom to acknowledge s...

      One of my hobbies is flying kites. It is something I learned to enjoy during my years of university. It is something we can do alone or with other people. Kites are both colourful and powerful when they gain their height. That's why I was so excited when a friend's son asked me to go kite hunting with him. We need to understand the shape of a kite to know how to get it off the ground. It is not about power alone. We need to have the rhythm right. Sometimes we need to swing it back and forth. Sometimes we need to pull and then release. The kite's shape dictates how we should move at the beginning. It is like knowing where we are with God relationally so we might be able to exercise our spiritual discernment. Knowing where our heart fits in the heart of God helps us to see things further ahead. When a kite catches the wind and starts flying, we begin to have some fun. The higher a kite flies, the more stable it is. It is intriguing to see how a gentle an...

I went to a vegan restaurant located not too far away from the Buddhist Seminary in Calgary. The food is exceptionally good for a Vegan place. I am not a vegan, but any well-prepared food is lovely for me. My client is a vegan (militant one), so I didn't really have a choice. Her mother died a few years ago and this week is the anniversary of her passing, so my friend needed to talk. The owner came out and greeted us because she remembered us. We had a good conversation. She is going through her education to be a monk after marriage, kids, and a career. She used to work as an accountant before making this significant change in her life. I asked her what have been the main lessons for her during this pandemic time. The tranquillity of the heart is a gift. The restaurant shut down for more than two months. They didn't get any help from the landlord in terms of her rent reprieve for the restaurant. She said she learned that when her heart is at peace internally, the...

    Leadership is what many people are searching for during this time. Great leadership tends to provide some sense of security and direction in times of crisis. The opposite produces chaos and disparity. Many businesses, religious organizations, communities, and social groups depend on good leadership to navigate through this time. So what is good leadership? It has to be a calling to public service. Many folks today get involved in the political scene for power and not for public service. To be in politics is a high calling. It demands personal sacrifices. That is not what we see these days. There is not that much depth and commitments to public service, only slogans and superficial understanding of the high calling. Honesty is non-negotiable. It is hard to follow a leader if we cannot tell whether they tell the truth. We have seen in Canada recently how top federal politicians have shown disregard for the truth and disrespect for the office they hold. It ...

      Let us take a look at some other kinds of fear. Fear is one of the prime responses in human life. It is caused or initiated by different things. It is out human responses to what we perceived as threats. It can be a biochemical reaction or emotional response. It is real either way. Sometimes we have fear because we think about a specific event that might happen to us or our loved ones. Parents deal with this type of fear often. We ask questions like: "What if our kids cannot make friends at school?", "What if our kids date a wrong person?"...Even though it is not a real event that happens, the response is. Sometimes we are afraid if something happened in the past. Our memories play a crucial role in this. We are fearful because we have not been able to make sense of what happened. We have to live with our self-doubts. It takes away our ability to enjoy the present moment, and it kills joy. Many people I talked to during this pandemic have a deep ...

  Yesterday I used this verse from Psalm 112 to end my note: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;     all who follow his precepts have good understanding.     To him belongs eternal praise." As we pay attention to what is happening around the world today, it is not that hard to realize that wisdom is missing. So what does it means to say that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"? Fear in acknowledging that only God knows everything. He knows what is spoken and unspoken. God knows our thoughts, our longing, and desire. He knows something about us that we don't even know ourselves. In God there is no secret in our dealing with life, and that is both freeing and scary at the same time. Fear in acknowledging that we are in great need of mercy. We only know what we know,  and because of that, we make a mistake due to our limitations. We make many mistakes in life. We make some of them intentionally, and we make some others u...