masterwordsmith-unplugged

Having experienced my share of unpleasant experiences, for a long time, I wondered if I would ever get to meet real, sincere and kind people. Unfortunately, having been disappointed many times, I live quite a quiet reclusive existence believing that with little contact, there will be fewer problems/misunderstandings. That being the case, how would I ever get to meet and make new friends? God has His ways. Realistically speaking, my friends in the past are mostly younger than me. I had never had any friend who is older and wiser than me except for Angela and Linda, both of whom I love dearly!

A very old friend advised me, there ARE nice people around and they are found in the most unexpected places. Don't look for them, for they will come looking for you. How true!

Of late, my faith in mankind has been slowly but surely restored. Perhaps it is because I have been sick for two weeks now. After the first incident caused by claustrophobia and agoraphobia, I have been suffering from severe gastritis or is it GERD or is it H-pylori or was it stress or what was it? The nurse just called to tell me they did not have enough blood to do all the necessary tests so after I put up this post, I will have to make my way to the Dracula chamber for them to draw more blood. If you suddenly hear a blood curdling scream, it might be me :-( for I have a very, very low threshold for pain.

I daresay 2012 has been the most difficult year of my life as I have been sick three times and landed in hospital once. I hope the rest of this year will be good and healthy months for me. The past few months, I have made a few new but precious friends who really showed me so much kindness and taught me the meaning of true friendship. They have been such a blessing to me not only because of their acts of kindness and love but because they have changed my perspective of life and to have trust in people again. Recent experiences drove me to the brink of paranoia and believe me, it was VERY difficult to have faith and trust in people.  I would like to dedicate this post to those who have reached out to me in my darkest moments and shown me much love, kindness, compassion, sympathy and helpfulness. Allow me to introduce to you my treasured and cherished five new friends aka angels of kindness.

The First Angel
First of all, let me introduce you to Mr. T who has not only been reading my blog for years but had also been sending out my posts to his contacts. For years, our exchange was just "Dear Mr T, Thank you for sending out my posts. God bless you and your family." and his reply would be "You are most welcome". I knew nothing about him. I did not know his name, age, background, location and the emails were just like that. Occasionally, he would send me jokes of other interesting materials. Along the way, I stopped using that email for months. One fine day, I sauntered into that email and was very surprised to see that despite my silence, he had still been steadfastly sending me stuff. So I wrote to him and explained my silence. His reply revealed a certain personal physical predicament for a member of the family and weeks later, I visited him and his family.

Amazingly, his spouse and I got on like wildfire. The age difference was no barrier and we ended up having dinner together. His wife and I would keep in touch and two weeks ago, they visited me with their older son bearing gifts and my family had dinner with their family - including their younger son and daughter-in-law.

Today, Mr and Mrs T visited me again - this time with medication for my gastritis and get well wishes. As the weather has been horrid in Penang, I offered to pick up the medication from their home but they said it was fine. What touched me so deeply was that Mrs T was not well herself and self-lessly came all the way from the other end of the island to my neck of the woods. Their kindness is a rare gem that they willingly bestow on those in need. I am truly blessed by their friendship, generosity and kindness. The fact that theirs is a love story that has lasted 58 years is truly very very inspiring. I have never met such a devoted husband who gives his all to care for his beloved. And I really pray that God will bless them and meet their every need. Thank you, Mr and Mrs T for touching me with your brand of kindness and restoring in me faith in mankind.

The Second Angel

I have never met Mr L but I am aware that he has been reading my blog for some time. When I was down with my allergies at the beginning of this year, Mr L was the kind blog reader who sent me Chinese medication capsules that put me on the road to recovery. We always exchange views about religion, health and parenting skills. Mr. L is truly an excellent testimony of God's love. His emails about his faith and experiences with God always touch me like no other sermon can. His sincere faith and humility of character is rare and his pure faith and love for God is another inspiration. He does not know but there have been times I shed tears when reading his emails and went on bended knees to pray, "Forgive me, Lord...for I am not worthy of Your love." And - I am NOT religious nor am I a fanatic. But I am a rebel believer true and through. Hence, throughout my life, only a few preachers and Mr L have elicited such a reaction from me to focus my eyes on heaven above and not on myself or man. Mr L is very knowledgeable in Chinese herbs and traditional medication and has given me some herbs. My husband was the one who collected the plants. Today, Mr L told me that he will give me some plants for my gastric. What a blessing! Last Saturday when I was belching away in my bloated condition, I shot him a SOS email and asked him for help and he advised me to take virgin coconut oil. Indeed, I believe that has helped in my recovery. Thank you Mr L for directing my eyes to God and for your acts of kindness. May God bless you and your family always and meet your needs too!

The Third Angel

For some time, Mr P would send me emails to encourage me or to share notes about our children. He is very supportive and often shares from his personal experience. I have never met him but am touched by his short and kind emails. Despite the fact that we have never met nor engaged in teleconversations, Mr P shared from the depths of his life experiences, especially on health. On top of that, despite the fact that he lives far away, he has also kindly arranged to let me buy virgin coconut oil via his friend who will deliver it. I am indeed thankful and grateful for Mr P for reaching out to me in my time of need.

The Fourth Angel

K and I had exchanged some emails in the past but this time, she really went the extra mile to encourage me to walk in health. A retired nurse, K patiently tried to knock sense into yours truly's stubborn head. Her witty and most interesting emails taught me so much about life, diet, food, nutrition and the importance of not being stressed! Despite the fact that we have not met nor spoken on the phone, her emails to me are warm and exude so much hope and joy in living. I am truly indebted to K for making me realize some things which I took for granted and helping to set me on the road to recovery. Thank you, dear K, for your patience with me and showing me so much about life!

The Fifth Angel

J is a blog reader from down under. We both share a love for anything old in music and he has helped me in many tricky technical situations and we have shared much about health issues too. Today, he called me and made me a very happy woman indeed for he said he would be sending me Tim Tams :-). Thank you for your thoughtfulness and mission to fatten me :-). May your hopes and dreams come true soon!!! God bless you and your family.

The Major Angels

Angela, Linda, Walla, Antares, Joshua, UP41, Freddie, Stephen and other blog commenters/readers such as CLY, Taikotai, Cat-in-Sydney, Dr M. Ch., Dr. M. C, SS, Cynful Pleasure and many other readers/friends and relatives...thank you for being part of my life and giving me your time, friendship and words of encouragement. I confess I did not really follow/accept some of the advice but through time, when I came to my senses, I did. And I believe I have changed for the better in some ways but still have a long way to go :-). Despite my occasional slips into silent mode and my weird eccentricities, thank you for accepting me and for being my dear friend. I treasure and cherish our connection and hope that God will continue to bless you all with good health.

For those of you who read my blog and have never commented, thank you for visiting my blog daily. Your presence here really encourages me for my heart is greatly warmed that you took the time and trouble to swing by my blog. May you always find value in my posts and may God bless you richly!

Most importantly, reach out to someone and touch his/her life today! Take care!