This post is dedicated to my Singapore family and board members of the Singapore America Business Association and SingaporeConnect.

Growing up in Singapore, I spent many Chinese New Years basking in the carefree banter of a huge extended family, soaking in the vibrant festivities, collecting Ang Paos (red envelops with money!) and wolfing down bak kwa (jerky), pineapple tarts and candy.

We went from relative’s house to relative’s house in a convoy of cars – parents, uncles and aunts with screaming, gleeful kids in tow.  I played and ate at every stop, not realizing those were precious familial moments I would come to miss as I moved to the United States years later.

Well, it’s been too many years since I spent Chinese New Year in Singapore.  I have gotten used to simply celebrating as a little family, and have grudgingly accepted that this day is a regular work day this side of the Pacific Ocean.

But thankfully this year, my spirits lifted with a “shot of inspiration” from the Singapore America Business Association (SABA) and SingaporeConnect (SC).  My husband and I signed up for a SABA-organized Chinese New Year dinner party.  I dressed in a mandarin-collar outfit, sauntered into the Great Mall Mayflower Restaurant in Milpitas, and had a blast!  Well, literally, lion dancers “blasted” into the restaurant as cymbals clashed and drums rolled.  Some 300 people (including many kids) stood mesmerized by their agile jumps and kicks.  Catching up with friends old and new, partaking in a delightful 10-course meal of lor hey (new year dish), pepper crabs, roasted chicken, steamed fish and more, plus getting charmed by karaoke entertainers, I was transported that evening to a “home away from home.”

There are so many of us living in the Bay Area, in the larger United States, who left pieces of ourselves behind when we left our home countries.  How often have we thought back with nostalgia of the many festivities and family members who used to fill our days?  Now in our adopted country, these feelings become stronger during Chinese New Year.

But for that evening, some 300 of us who were far away from home experienced a slice of home.  Many amongst us didn’t have the chance to fly back for that reunion dinner, but we were able to eat, drink, laugh and ring in the Year of the Tiger with our “extended family” in a big and memorable way.

Special thanks to SABA and SC, especially Isabelle Lee and William Chang, for creating community home away from home.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

I haven’t stop thinking about 94-year-old Carmen Herrera ever since I read about her in The New York Times. Her story is such a shot of inspiration that I just have to write about it here.

The story goes that Carmen has a deep love for painting.  It was a compulsion, something she simply couldn’t stop doing.  She started painting back in the 1930s, when she was in her ’20s.  Her paintings focused mostly on geometrical shapes and lines, forms and colors, and were considered  “ahead of her time.”

Carmen Herrera's Painting, Image by cliff1066 via Flickr

Carmen was born in Cuba, lived in New York and Paris and eventually settled in New York.   Through the years, she labored quietly and produced a huge quantity of paintings.  But it was many, many years later, at age 89, that she sold her very first painting.  Today, her art is in in high demand and a recent painting sold at a whopping $44,000!

Now, at age 94, while homebound, resigned to a wheel-chair and afflicted with arthritis, she receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Walker Art Center.  The New York Times story quoted several people on her late-life success:

To bloom into full glory at 94 — whatever Carmen Herrera’s slow rise might say about the difficulties of being a woman artist, an immigrant artist or an artist ahead of her time, it is clearly a story of personal strength,” Mr. Zugazagoitia said.

We have a saying in Puerto Rico,” he said. “The bus — la guagua — always comes for those who wait.”   This came from her good friend Tony Bechara.

Indeed, the bus did come for Carmen and she is now basking in her success.  Reading Carmen’s story teaches me one thing:   If you have a passion, keep at it, keep at it, keep at it.  I’m willing to bet that even if Carmen didn’t receive the recognition she recently received, she will still paint, paint and paint and love, love and love it!

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read these as well:

• Success Or Failure, Does It Matter?
• How Did A Poem Save Nelson Mandela’s Life?
• Moments Of Gratitude
• Wishing You Time… To Do The Things You Love

This poem is dedicated to my wonderful friend, Leslie Shen, who taught me how to take time out to “smell the roses.”

Simply Time for Me

Simply time for me,

Simply time to be.

Time to take a walk and deeply breathe,

Time to calm the mind and hear the rustling leaves,

Time to slow the heart,

Say “bye bye” harried day.

Simply time for me,

Simply time to be.

Time for curious eyes to feast on nature’s gems,

Like the sun’s gentle rays kissing the rippling lake.

Hark, the water glistens and glows, and it says to me,

“You are always welcome here!”

Simply time for me,

Simply time to be.

Time to lift the face toward the heavenly skies,

Time to stretch the arms upwards, in sweet surrender and in trust.

Time to pause, to open the heart,

to let the evening’s rays bathe my grateful being,

From head to toe, from inside and out…

Sweet joy it is, to delight in simple pleasures, in nature, in life.

It is simply time, simply time to heed,

That happiness is to simply be…

Right here, right now.

~ Sharon Sim-Krause

Image by Tattooed JJ - very busy via Flickr

I await each day with bated breath,

The quench of thirst due to water fresh,

The tingling of nose due to breakfast smells,

The “vroom, vroom” sounds as my car takes off.

Most of all, I love the “curtsies” that greet my mind.

No, they do not come in human form, of dainty ladies or sweet little gals.

To be honest, these curtsies are only imagined.

What greet the eyes are wondrous mysteries, priceless gifts,

Each day, a different one.

With trembling hands and hungry eyes, I peel each gift with gingerly care.

I polish each day’s experiences with sandpaper precision,

And practice my craft and refine my life.

So I can await another day with bated breath!

~ Sharon Sim-Krause

I’m writing my first blog on “Shot of Inspiration.”  I hope to share beauty, inspiration, glimpses and reflections about the people, places, stories, books and the myriad of things I chance upon.

In a world of information overload and demands of modern living, may this blog serve as your respite, a “pick-me-up,” a mini re-charging zone as you go about doing what you need to do and have to do.

Today, my little wish for you is this, “May you have lots of time, to do the things you LOVE to do!” If this seems impossible,  start small.  Do you like to sing?  Well, sing in the shower!  Do you like connecting with friends and family?  Well, talk on the phone (with a headset of course) while on your commute home from work.

Incidentally, I recently discovered a new love in photography and spent an enjoyable few hours capturing the incredible beauty that exists in some incredible sea creatures at the California Academy of Sciences… enjoy!

Jellyfish