Food for the soul

"I want 'Jesus loves me' " my niece, Natalie, said to me last month when she was sitting beside me on my bed. I had my laptop on my lap. I was about to play the song "If you're happy and you know it (clap your hands)" in American Sign Language on youtube for her. I normally play that song whenever she visits. So, I was pleasantly surprised when she requested for something different.

Anyway, I played Jesus Loves Me for her. After we finished listening to it, we continued listening to other familiar Sunday school songs such as This little light of mine, It's a great thing to praise the Lord, etc... It led to feelings of nostalgia for my Sunday school days during my primary school years. The music fed my heart and soul and put me in high spirits. I had been feeling rather down because of fatigue due to jet lag after returning to Singapore from Edinburgh as well as a post-covid cough that has lingered for months. I had been back in Singapore for only 4 days. So, it was the very thing I didn't realise I needed.

I realise that although the food I consume everyday is important for my health and everyday functioning, soul food such as healthy relationships with family and friends, physical exercise, work that I love, and my spiritual life are even more important.

Here are some things that feed my heart and soul...

Time with family and playing with my niece. These photos were taken during Chinese New Year in late January.

Catching up with friends. Friends I have known since childhood gave me belated birthday celebration on July 26 at 5 Senses Bistro in Funan Mall. We had such a great time chatting away.

Taking long walks in nature. Shots taken in my first week in Edinburgh in the first week of May. Took a walk by the Water of Leith.

My PhD journey. Now that I am in my third year, I am really enjoying being a PhD Candidate even though it is challenging. I get to read a lot of interesting research and analyze stuff. Research really suits my temperament. Another plus is that I get to meet all kinds of interesting people in the Singapore deaf community as well academics locally and around the world.

Listening to spiritual songs. I really love listening to the Gettys, Laura Story, Corinne May, etc... I recently stumbled upon a new group, Sounds of Reign, and am in love with their music. I like to meditate on the lyrics. Been listening to many of their songs repeatedly in the last couple of days. Two of the songs I have been listening to often are The Lord's My Shepherd and Psalm 19.

Spiritual life I am very excited about being part of an ASL Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) group every Friday morning at 9:30am online with a group of deaf ladies from America starting in September. So thrilled also to have a deaf friend from Singapore joining me. I am looking forward to revisiting the book of John, which will be the focus for the year. I always gain new spiritual insights from re-reading familiar texts.

I am also in the process of creating a new blog on wordpress so that I can blog about the spiritual insights I gain on a regular basis. Of late, I have been feeling that I need a separate blog to write spiritual reflections. I want to keep this site more focused on my professional life with some personal posts here and there. I plan to link my wordpress blog to this site later on when it's ready.

If you're interested in reading more about my spiritual journey, feel free to explore my new blog when it's up. Stay tuned! :)