Painted Faces by Ren Zhengyu

Mother Teresa 

"We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls." -- Mother Teresa

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." -- Mother Teresa

Lee Kuan Yew

"The ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of its people." -- Lee Kuan Yew

"I always tried to be correct, not politically correct." -- Lee Kuan Yew

Albert Einstein

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." -- Albert Einstein

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." -- Albert Einstein

About the Artist:

Born in Tianjin in 1976, Ren Zhengyu graduated in 1999 from the Oil Painting Department at Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, where he currently works as a lecturer. His talent was recognised and appreciated by renowned galleries and distinguished collectors throughout China, and he achieved fame in Europe through his distinct portrait series of historical and political icons such as Andy Warhol and Chairman Mao.

In his works, Ren plays with a wide spectrum of colours that are juxtaposed to create a unique expressionist interpretation of famous faces and experiments with texture and layering built on to reinforce the portrayal of faces from different perspectives.

Source: Ode to Art (www.odetoart.com; sales@odetoart.com) 

Revelation for the New Year 2018

You don't need no new resolutions for the New Year. What you need is a fresh revelation to follow through with actions. 

One plausible revelation would be: You have the power to change your life for the better by making some adjustments to your daily routine. 

Photo credits: Free-Photos (Courtesy of Pixabay)

John C. Maxwell said, "You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine." The diamonds are hidden in your own garden, after all. 

For example, you can learn one new word each week and by the end of the year you would have learnt 52 new words. The little actions do add up if you maintain consistency. Nothing dramatic is required. 

Likewise, if you reflect hard enough, you would be able to find and journal 365 unique reasons -- one for each day of the year, on why you can be happy or thankful. Try it and you will see your life in a whole new light, and you will be a brighter person from the inside out.

Making a change to your life pattern is doable and charged with possibilities. Many studies have concluded that, in general, it takes about 30 days of consistent practice to change a behaviour pattern. The decision is yours to make. 

Photo credits: geralt (Courtesy of Pixabay)

Mark Hughes, President and Founder of Herbalife, said, "I believe that success begins the minute you start working toward your goals. The actions you take to fulfill your dreams and attain your personal desires make you a success today, not the end results you will get tomorrow."

Start with one change at a time. For example, sleeping an hour earlier and getting up an hour earlier so that you can beat the morning traffic congestion and have a head start in your office. Once this new routine is established, then you may wanna consider taking on a new challenge. 

As you do so, your days are gonna get brighter. You are a star in the making!

Photo credits: geralt (Courtesy of Pixabay)

Thank you for reading and sharing Daily Refreshing blog. May 2018 Be Your Best Year Yet!

Are You Oppressed?

If you feel oppressed by other people, let the following Psalm offers you an avenue of comfort and strength in the knowledge that God watches over us and He is the avenger of the righteous.

Psalm 64 King James Version (KJV)

1 Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
3 Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
6 They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.

7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.
10 The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

In your low state, the transition will come when God intervenes like in verse 7 "But God shall shoot at them with an arrow...". So don't let not-good persons keep you down as they are also subject to a higher power -- God Himself.

Maintain a righteous walk and treat other people well no matter what. God is the One who judges and vindicates. Call upon Him and He will hear your plight so as to help you. Don't despair; God is your refuge and strength, a very present help in time of difficulty. Don't give up, look up to Him for the help you need.

Metallic Roadrunner

When the following delivery scooter zoomed onto the pavement this morning, it caught my attention due to its uniqueness.

Photo credits: skeeze (Courtesy of Pixabay)

Unless I am mistaken, it sure does resemble a roadrunner with its slanted forehead and upturn boot.

Find Your Power, Harness It

Image credits: robertschoenholz (Courtesy of Pixabay)

"WHATEVER IT IS THAT MAKES YOU FEEL CONFIDENT, THAT IS YOUR POWER. YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY."-- HEIDI KLUM

Image credits: freeGraphicToday (Courtesy of Pixabay)

No Mere Lip Service to the Arts

Thanks to the many benevolent women who heeded the call to contribute their lipsticks, the following the Lipstick Art Installation Project organised by CapitaLand in their Raffles City complex could be staged by Ms Chng Seok Tin.

Seok Tin said, "I decided to transform all  the lipsticks into many big and small lotus flowers, which encapsulate all the good wishes of the ladies and convey the sweet message: "Do Good Deeds, Speak Good Words and Think Good Thoughts".

About the Artist:

Ms Chng Seok Tin
(Photo credits: weekender.com.sg)

Chng Seok Tin did her studies in art in Singapore, UK, France and USA from 1971 to 1985; she obtained two master degrees from New Mexico State University and The University of Iowa, in USA, majoring in printmaking. She never restricts her practice to creating prints; her works include drawing, painting, collage, mixed media, textile, photography, ceramic, sculpture and installation. Since she lost most of her eyesight in 1988 due to brain abscess and is legally blind; she does more printmaking, mixed media and sculptural works. Her works deal with nature's phenomenon and human conditions.

She has held 30 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 100 group exhibitions in Singapore and abroad. For her courage and contributions to the arts, she was named the Woman of the Year 2001 by Her World magazine. She was awarded the Cultural Medallion by the Government of Singapore in 2005. She is also an established writer and was given the Singapore Chinese Literary Award 2007 by the  Singapore Literature Society. In 2014, she was inducted into Singapore Women's Hall of fame in its inaugural year.

Spotlight on: Save My Bag

If you are looking for a bag that is lightweight, durable and chic, whether for yourself or as a gift, then you may wanna take a dive into Save My Bag to explore their range of bags and accessories.

Aside from felt (100% polyester), their bags are made of a patented Poly-Fabric with Lycra ® that is softer and lighter than foamed neoprene -- the material used in making wet-suits for scuba diving and other water sports

The following is a blurb extracted from their website:-

"Save My Bag was founded in 2013 by Valentina and Stefano Agazzi in Bergamo, Italy. Intended originally as a luxury waterproof cover to “save” a designer bag, Save My Bag has gone as far as a unique “it bag” status all of its own.

The Miss Bag is chic and timeless in design, while its versatile construction is the essence of practicality. Made in over 40 fashion-forward colors, the Miss Bag, with a worldwide registered design*, is perfect for carrying your daily essentials and completing your look.

Save My Bag’s allure is in its ironic, playful and smart contemporary design, as well as its innovative construction. Made in Italy of Poly-Fabric with Lycra ®®, Save My Bag is chic and cruelty free, resilient and refined, super light and super unique. Our signature fabric is a super soft blend that is even lighter than neoprene. We use premiere Italian Lycra® to provide you with a lightweight, durable and chic bag."

Let the following sample brighten up your day:-

Click here to visit Save My Bag homepage.

You Are Not A Failure In Love

The Quest For Love

Image credit: spirit111, courtesy of Pixabay

In the fullness of time love surfaces.

Click here for Enya - Only Time MUSIC VIDEO where the lyrics are as follows:

Who can say where the road goes 

Where the day flows, only time

And who can say if your love grows

As your heart chose, only time

Who can say why your heart sighs

As your love flies, only time

And who can say why your heart cries

When your love lies, only time

Who can say when the roads meet

That love might be in your heart

And who can say when the day sleeps

If the night keeps all your heart

Night keeps all your heart

Who can say if your love grows

As your heart chose

Only time

And who can say where the road goes

Where the day flows, only time

Who knows? Only time

Love Found

The peak of love is in finding someone you love and especially if that special someone reciprocates.

Click here for Ed Sheeran - Perfect (Official Music Video).

Love Lost

Love has its valley and winter. Choose love, anyway, for you are not diminished by the lost of a loved one. You will come through a stronger and more refined person inside out.

Click here for Bruno Mars - When I Was Your Man [Official Video].

Click here for Enya - If I Could Be Where You Are.

Love-turned-into-hatred  

When you have been taken for a ride in a developing relationship, step over it and move on.

Click here for Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts [Official Music Video]. In this video, the white dress could possibly eludes to Miss Havisham, a character in Charles Dicken's Great Expectations, who was jilted on her wedding day and resolved to wear her wedding dress for the rest of her life. That's the negative power of love spurned, but please don't go down this road. You deserve better.

Love Yourself First

Don't be too hard on yourself. Learn to forgive yourself when you missed it or mess up. You don't have to keep up with unreasonable demands and expectations. Love is a a two-way street. Reflect, retreat, gather your thoughts, whisper a prayer in your weakness, make adjustments, change your self-talk from negative to positive and keep looking up for better days which shall surely come. When winter sets, spring arises next, for sure.

Click here for Christina Perri - Human [Official Video].

And, in the following video, you find a gal who didn't like herself and was so filled with anxiety that she could not even get out of her own room. But, with the loving support of her parents and the call of music, she made it on stage!

Click here for The Most Amazing Voice in the World - Anna Clendening!America's Got Talent 2016!

Here are some gentle reminders:

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead." -- Oscar Wilde

"Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love." - Saint Teresa

"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." -- Ann Landers

"We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end." -- Benjamin Disraeli

Photo credit: Bess-Hamiti, courtesy of Pixabay

What is Happiness?

Source: Anonymous

Is Your Anxiety and Insomnia Caused by Noise Pollution?

In a world inundated by noise pollution stemming from the traffic, jet planes, radio, television, mobiles and a whole lot more of man-made stuffs, you would find the following extracts from an article "On Sound Bites and Silence" written by Rev Dr Jimmy Tan for Trumpet newsletter (Dec 2017) useful for your reflection:

Photo credit: Pixabay

"Unfortunately, some have gotten so used to living with noise that they seem not to be able to live without it! The common sight of people walking with headphones or earpieces is testimony to it. Yet, being constantly exposed to noise has dire consequences. A brochure by the National Addictions Management Services in Singapore lists noise as a major contributor to stress-related illnesses such as anxiety and insomnia.

Prolonged exposure to noise is detrimental to our health. Over time, we lose the ability to hear not only sound but also our own thoughts and emotions. We lose touch with ourselves.

Sadly, many do not know how to be quiet despite knowing the benefits of silence. They dare not retreat into it, for sheer silence seem deafening to them. Yet, the practice of silence is not only good for our physical, emotional and mental health, it is especially important to our relationship with God.

I wish to highlight some benefits the practice of silence brings to our relationship with God and with others.

The Greek word for silence we wish to consider is hesychia. It describes that God-produced calm which includes an inner tranquillity that supports appropriate action (J. Thayer). We notice two aspects here. First, the calm that comes through the practice of silence is produced by God. It is an inner tranquillity. In other words, it is peace that is much deeper than just than absence of noise. It is the inner assurance of God's control over the chaos of life which sets us at peace -- that which the psalmist echoes in Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God." ...

This brings us to the second aspect of Thayer's definition: the appropriate action that stems from inner tranquillity. Silence is not the same as passivity; rather, it is the depth from which arises an appropriate word or action. We become less reactive to external stimuli but more able to respond from an inner solitude forged by God. We are more alert to what God is doing -- and wants us to do. God purifies our minds and hearts and enables us to relate better to others. This is a fruit of silence. ...

The practice of silence is sorely needed in a world polluted by noise. It not only rescues us from the destructiveness of excessive noise but releases us into serenity of life in God. It helps us not only to hear and follow God but also to hear and love our neighbour."

"Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom." -- Francis Bacon

"Silence is as deep as eternity, speech as shallow as time." -- Thomas Carlyle


Bibliography:
"On Sound Bites and Silence" by Rev Dr Jimmy Tan, Trumpet (Dec 2017) published by Trinity Theological College (Website: www.ttc.edu.sg)

Catching A Bite of Grand Castella Cake

The much raved Grand Castella cake from Taiwan has reached the shores of Singapore and you are about to find out why this sponge cake is hot.

The Grand Castella Cake - hot off the oven

Poking it to release the heat

Measuring and cutting it to size

Join the queue to place your orders

Click here for Castella Cake in Taiwan on the cutting process.

The cake is soft and fluffy, and its original flavour was pleasant enough without being outstanding. 

You have to queue to place your order and come back later to collect the cake when it is ready. My take is that it is like catching a huge grouper which would draw in the crowd and, if you cut it up, the customers can get their hands on a slice of your prized catch.

Click here for Huge Goliath Grouper Caught at Naples Fishing Pier, Florida.

This is a big marketing lesson on the power of perceived value and crowd psychology which could translate into handsome returns for your benefits. 

If the cake was baked in the exact size that it was sold, it would not likely be flying off the table. You don't need a shelf here as the cakes are gone soon after they come off the oven. (Hmm, would this marketing approach work for pizza, as well?)

Thankfully for the huge grouper in the above YouTube clip, it was allowed to swim off after making its grand landing to please the crowd.

Second Shot of Epic Music

For your revitalising, click here for 4 Hour Epic Music Mix - Worlds Most Powerful Music Ever - Mark Petrie.

Awaken the warrior in you. Be strong and courageous. You were made for the purpose of fulfilling your calling from on high even in the face of the darkness surrounding you in your most difficult times.

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." -- Mark Twain

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'" -- Eleanor Roosevelt

"You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor." -- Aristotle

Photo credit: Pixabay

Take The Stairs to The Top

Image credit: Ajay Babla Photography

Yesterday Once More

The voice of music never fade away. With the advance of technology, you will never lack good music to refresh and enrich your life globally round the clock.

Let the following sample of timeless hits bring you back to yesterday once more and bring you forward to chase your dream with renewed strength.

Click here for Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence - Madison Square Garden, NYC - 2009/10/29&30.

 

Photo credit: Pixabay

Click here The Carpenters - Yesterday Once More.

Photo credit: Pixabay

Click here for ABBA : I Have A Dream, HD. And, this dream will help you cope with reality.

Photo credit: Pixabay 

In The Mood For Love

In the stillness of night you might wanna to listen to "In the Mood For Love", repeated several times over into one composition, as you reflect on your relationship with your loved ones, past or present. 

Click here for In the Mood for Love - Shigeru Umebayashi.

What is in a number?

Yesterday when I returned to the barber after lunch the LED display was showing "200", which meant that my turn would be next. 

But, when I took out a number slip from my wallet it was showing "2018" (number on the right of the above picture). But, I remembered distinctly that my number was "201". 

Then, I looked into my wallet again and found the correct number slip. The other number was from a bank taken much earlier on, which had slipped my mind. 

As the numbers "201" appeared twice and "2018" signifies the coming new year 2018, I decided to take the above picture.

That said, as you wind down for 2018, here are just some thoughts for rumination as you take stock of 2017:

* There is a great difference between resting and quitting. Rest is cessation from your vocational work. If you do not get enough rest by taking leave or going for a holiday, you may find yourself at the brink of exhaustion and thereby wanting to call it a day.

* Working long hours does not mean that you are working productively. Do not measure your success by the hours you put in, but by the outcome you achieve using the least of resources such as your precious time. Learn to work smarter by banking on your experience and reflecting on how things can be done quicker without compromising on quality.

* 18 years of working experience does not necessarily mean that you have grown 18 times from when you first started. If you did, you would be the top guy in your vocation or business by now. Focus on your personal growth and not just on goals. Read more, develop your skills, learn from others (think Google and YouTube) and make adjustments.

* Keep focusing on your dream and work towards it. Write it down clearly and visualise it at the start and end of each day. Your operating system will then get it and cause you to respond with resourcefulness to attract your desired outcome.

By the way, if the year end holidays make you feel lonely, then you may wanna to get one of these empathetic friends to keep you in good company:

May 2018 be your best year yet!

  

Go Fishing With Robson Green

Robson Green is an aspiring actor and fly-fishing is his cup of tea. And, he has found the perfect match in television shows on fishing adventure.

Photo credit: Miranda Bleijenberg by courtesy of Pixabay

You could say that he has one of the best job in the world as he gets to fish, hone his acting skills for fun and travel to every corner of this globe wherever fish swims.

That said, his job comes with a fair share of risks such as choppy waters and thunderstorms.

Click here for Robson Green Grand Slam Fishng: Homer, Alaska.

Click here for Robson's Extreme Fishing Challenge : Greenland.

Click here for Robson's Extreme Fishing Challenge - PERU. (2011).

Let Robson reel in the fish and his ideas of fun to let you enjoy fishing in cool comfort online without breaking a sweat while you enjoy your favourite cuppa.

Soothing Music

Let the language of music open your heart to heal, restore and refresh your soul.

Click here for The Best Of YIRUMA | Yiruma's Greatest Hits ~ Best Piano.

Click here for THE BEST SPANISH GUITAR LOVE SONGS INSTRUMENTAL ROMANTIC RELAXING SENSUAL MUSIC BEST HITS. 

Click here for Kenny G Greatest Hits 2017 - Kenny G Best Songs - Kenny G Playlist.

Click here for The Best of Richard Clayderman.

Click here for Instrumental Music 2017 – Best Bamboo Flute Instrumental Music – Relaxing Flute Music for Sleep by Relaxing Channel, which has furnished some stunning accompanying scenery.

Christmas Concert with Andrea Bocelli and David Foster

If you wanna dig-in to a Christmas concert, I think you would enjoy this package by Andrea Bocelli and David Foster in the comfort of your room.

Click here for Andrea Bocelli & David Foster My Christmas Live At The Kodak Theatre.

Click here for Andrea Bocelli - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town which I think you would find refreshing, in particular.

The Minions Are Coming To Town This Christmas

If you still can't get enough of the millions of Minions, they are all over this mall this Christmas to add to your Christmas cheers.

Preparing to welcome the Minions

Yeah, you can start dreaming of a yellow and blue Christmas.