picture in my mind

 Selamat Hari Raya!

We stopped over at Qiaonan amidst our jalan raya to take photos! 

before our beloved primary school is gone forever.

This raya has been a bit of a downer -- for clear reasons (really, aren't we being quite terrible with all this celebrating while the bombing in Gaza goes on forever? sigh). But for some other reasons too: like the fact that I have got a bad cold and really don't feel like eating much at all (which is probably a good thing, haha). And that I have inpatient training starting this coming week, which means a steep uphill climb and future stress of passing my paediatric dysphagia competency.

And that I have been feeling more starkly in recent times how much of a weirdo I am. But thank goodness I had Jean, who tried to convince me that you know, it's better to be a weirdo and be made aware of certain things; and that she believes I'm really just different in a good way.

After much mulling over these few days, I've come up with this: 

dear God, if you would make me weird, please make me brave.

Actually --

Please make all the souls fighting for justice and for their lives in Gaza brave and patient and strong. And please let help be at hand.

I'm not sure how much scarier this is supposed to get.