And so, with our last gathering last night, and with ICPE going home, SOW has come to an end. It was graceful, it was grand, but make no mistake, it was the end.
I had a very random conversation today about SOW ending. And when I was asked, “Do you miss SOW?”, I replied:
“Not really… … I guess I kept the knowledge that SOW wasn’t meant to last at the back of my mind. In that, as much as I tried to enjoy as much of it as I could, I also never really got attached to it much…”
But reflecting again, perhaps I misrepresented myself. How can I not miss SOW?
How can I not miss the liberating feeling of grass under our feet when we play captain’s ball (tavistock grass sucks pls. so many twigs ugh)? How can I not miss Poey's imba massages (haha!)? How can I not miss the little sparkling jewels of sharing just before we sleep? How can I not miss the few steps that I had to walk to simply reach the ado room to find solace and peace? How can I not miss sitting at the stone bench, chatting with friends and enjoying their company, or simply just reveling in solitude, nature and the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit? How can I not miss journeying in faith so closely with people of faith? How can I not miss every opportunity that I had to sincerely praise God with all my being? How can I not miss loving people around me? How can I not miss loving God? How can I not miss letting him love me?
How can I not miss SOW? We all do, I guess, to some extent or another.
We’ll have opportunities to work together and meet up again definitely. And friendships will remain if we but work at it. We are, after all, bound by this awesome shared experience that will never come again. Yes, I say again, this is something that will never come again.
Let us have no delusions about this. SOW is something that we can neither relive nor re-experience. SOW was never meant as an end in itself. SOW was and IS the means for greater things to come and for greater things to be done. We cannot hope to cling on to something that was never meant to last.
And perhaps, in time to come, it would simply seem that all SOW had ever been was a dream – a dream of spring and dawn and rays of sunshine. And this… this is the beauty of it. This, in the grand scheme of things, is sufficient. Because that which is dreamed can never after be undreamed.
We can never again re-create this exact moment, for it is truly unique and special; but what we can do is to carry it in our hearts, in our dreams, and in our memories where we will immortalize these moments of miracle and magic in our life. We can make these 6 weeks a “secret springtime in our hearts” that we can go back to, whenever we meet up, look through our journals or flip through our notes.
But more than that, we can use this experience as a wellspring of faith, hope and love – faith, for the seeds that have been planted in us have bore much fruit; hope, for we have learnt to surrender our will, our anxiety and our fears; and love most of all, for we have received in abundance and it is now our turn to give.
And so I end off with a quote from Dream, “Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.” Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost.
Let us draw our consolation from this then: yes, SOW has ended and yes, things are going to change. But we have lost nothing. Instead, we have gained everything.
“To know God and to make him known.” We got to know him, let us make him known =)
Name: Foo Guo Zhong Melvyn
Age: 19+
Affiliations: MSHS (Pri), Rosyth, RI, RJC, SFX (LoG)
Bday: 14th Nov
Email: mel_protoss@hotmail.com
And so, with our last gathering last night, and with ICPE going home, SOW has come to an end. It was graceful, it was grand, but make no mistake, it was the end.
I had a very random conversation today about SOW ending. And when I was asked, “Do you miss SOW?”, I replied:
“Not really… … I guess I kept the knowledge that SOW wasn’t meant to last at the back of my mind. In that, as much as I tried to enjoy as much of it as I could, I also never really got attached to it much…”
But reflecting again, perhaps I misrepresented myself. How can I not miss SOW?
How can I not miss the liberating feeling of grass under our feet when we play captain’s ball (tavistock grass sucks pls. so many twigs ugh)? How can I not miss Poey's imba massages (haha!)? How can I not miss the little sparkling jewels of sharing just before we sleep? How can I not miss the few steps that I had to walk to simply reach the ado room to find solace and peace? How can I not miss sitting at the stone bench, chatting with friends and enjoying their company, or simply just reveling in solitude, nature and the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit? How can I not miss journeying in faith so closely with people of faith? How can I not miss every opportunity that I had to sincerely praise God with all my being? How can I not miss loving people around me? How can I not miss loving God? How can I not miss letting him love me?
How can I not miss SOW? We all do, I guess, to some extent or another.
We’ll have opportunities to work together and meet up again definitely. And friendships will remain if we but work at it. We are, after all, bound by this awesome shared experience that will never come again. Yes, I say again, this is something that will never come again.
Let us have no delusions about this. SOW is something that we can neither relive nor re-experience. SOW was never meant as an end in itself. SOW was and IS the means for greater things to come and for greater things to be done. We cannot hope to cling on to something that was never meant to last.
And perhaps, in time to come, it would simply seem that all SOW had ever been was a dream – a dream of spring and dawn and rays of sunshine. And this… this is the beauty of it. This, in the grand scheme of things, is sufficient. Because that which is dreamed can never after be undreamed.
We can never again re-create this exact moment, for it is truly unique and special; but what we can do is to carry it in our hearts, in our dreams, and in our memories where we will immortalize these moments of miracle and magic in our life. We can make these 6 weeks a “secret springtime in our hearts” that we can go back to, whenever we meet up, look through our journals or flip through our notes.
But more than that, we can use this experience as a wellspring of faith, hope and love – faith, for the seeds that have been planted in us have bore much fruit; hope, for we have learnt to surrender our will, our anxiety and our fears; and love most of all, for we have received in abundance and it is now our turn to give.
And so I end off with a quote from Dream, “Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.” Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost.
Let us draw our consolation from this then: yes, SOW has ended and yes, things are going to change. But we have lost nothing. Instead, we have gained everything.
“To know God and to make him known.” We got to know him, let us make him known =)