​AUDREY CHIN 

From the winning entry for the Asian Women Writers Festival Short StoryCompetition... It takes 38,000 mgs of ibuprofen to kill yourself.

A fifty six year old on a swing

We’re just back from remote Lugu Lake, Yunnan China where my friend Choo Wai Hong traded in her high-flying high-stress corporate lawyer’s life for this: – the view from her front window – a handcrafted tribal living room – and time and more time to look back at her choices and write all about it. It was a huge change going from tropical rush-about Singapore to the quiet of these Northwestern Yunnan mountains to live among the matrilineal Mosuo. For our friend, it was the rig

The best made holiday plans can be upset. Weather, short-staffed inn-keepers and unforeseen road closures can conspire to turn an itinerary upside down. Often the disappointment poisons the whole vacation. But, it only takes a pause to change our perceptions and save the day. In Queensland, we ran into road closures along the Gold Coast. Our hotel in Cairns couldn’t check us in early because they’d been fully booked the night before.  It rained for 4 of the remainder of our 5

Have I prayed in vain? Wai’s funeral was yesterday, Ish’s more than a year ago now. Kwan is in a deep coma. There’s very little chance he’ll wake. No. Despite the fact that Wai and Ish died, that Kwan isn’t likely to wake up from his hospital bed, prayer helped. It comforted, it left a legacy… I first began to circling the park with my rosary beads because of eighteen year old Ish. I didn’t know Ish but her mother was part of my women’s prayer group. When she was diagnosed wi

THE GALLUP POLLS – SHOULD WE IN SINGAPORE CARE? Photo Credit: http://www.stanford.edu According to Gallup Singapore ranks as the least emotional country in the world and also the least positive Is this heartbreaking? Should we be concerned? First, lets see what the poll questions are  – Gallop measures daily emotions of a sample of about 1,000 persons in each country. The questions that they ask residents are: Did you feel well-rested yesterday? Were you treated with respect

SILENCE! Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com Dani Batz’s photostream I’ve just returned from my 3rd retreat. When I first started going, people kept asking me “Why?”The question was usually accompanied by a concerned expression or a caring touch. “What was happening with my life?” “What was getting too much for me to bear that I needed to check out? To re-arm and recuperate?” I had to re-assure everyone I was fine, I wasn’t re-treating from anything. It was more a call from

It’s taken me almost a lifetime to learn to sit and be with myself, to be aware of my now and to let go. Animals, they do it naturally...

With each birthday, death becomes more forward.  Good face days become fewer and farther apart. Death begins to make her presence felt...