A Movie and A Book

The Movie
On my flight back from Italy, I watched a movie titled "Be with me" by Royston Tan. It contains a documentary of a 61 year old Singaporean lady, Theresa Chan Poh Lin, who has been blind and deaf from a young age.  She is an inspirational figure because she continues to lead life to the maximum despite her handicaps.  She even managed to pick up English despite her handicaps, and remains positive about life. This movie won a Special Mention Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2005.

Many a times, I complain and even get angry at the smallest things (e.g. the Chinese man who cut my queue at the airport this morning), but God has shown me that I am so blessed. So blessed that I can see the beauty around me, hear my son's adorable voice, and being blessed with the ability to appreciate life to the fullest. I have had some downs in life, but they are minuscule relative to what this courageous lady had gone through.  I should be more appreciative and really, seriously, count my many blessings. May God bless this lady richly.  

The Book
One of the privileges of having great in-laws is that I can travel with A, catch up on my sleep, and read a book.  I started to enjoy reading in the past few years, but reading becomes a luxury and an almost impossible task when one has a young and active toddler. Anyway, I had the opportunity to read during my Italy holiday and picked a book from Amazon's list of bestsellers.  The title of the book would grab anyone's attention - Heaven is for real, A little boy's astounding story of his trip to heaven.

I believe in Heaven and Hell, and this book offers glimpses into what is awaiting us after this life.  It offers hope to those who have lost loved ones and reaffirms the faith of those who believe. In one of the chapters, the little boy shared that he met his unborn sister in heaven.  He did not know that his mother had miscarried previously and his sharing helped to heal the pain his mother had carried for years, as well as soothed the grief of another lady who gave birth to a stillborn. 

Obviously on the extreme, there can be 2 reactions to the contents of this book - as aptly displayed by A and myself.  A is not a believer and thinks the father (who is a pastor) could have cooked up the facts.  I believe in the truth of this story - what good would it do to falsify a story like this, and besides if he were really a pastor, he would know that it would be terribly wrong to do so.

This book will serve as a reminder to me how life should be led. When heaven is in perspective, it makes me look at things differently.  I will recommend this book to anyone because it has blessed me so much.