Merry Christmas to Everyone!

It’s that time of year again, with all the festivities and parties and decorations. The streets are beautiful in Geneva with all the lights, and snow. It’s easy to forget the real meaning of Christmas and get caught up in the festivities. We already attended around five Christmas parties organised by various friends! Television tells you that you have to give the most expensive gift you can find, to show that you care, and have the biggest Christmas tree and the prettiest decorations, but the real meaning of Christmas is lost in all this hustle and bustle… What is the meaning of Christmas? The humble birth of our saviour Jesus Christ, the beginning of Christianity, time to value friends and family and reflect on our own lives…


So this year hubby and I thought we will try to get closer to God during Christmas and spend it in Lourdes, France where mother Mary appeared to St Bernadette. It is such a lovely town and I remember when I went there last year I felt more in touch with my spiritual side (my previous visit is described here ). Also the humble life of St Bernadette reminds you of how humble Christmas really was all those years ago. So hopefully this year our stay in Lourdes will help us both become closer to God and each other and really understand the true meaning of Christmas.

This will be our first Christmas together and also my first Christmas without my parents and extended family. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I think this is specially so at Christmas… so I wrote this poem for my parents to wish them a Wonderful Christmas and New Year!

This card is sealed with lots of love
And coming from afar,
To let you know that at Christmas we’re with you in Spirit
Though physically in cold Geneva.

Although we’re now across the miles
It’s times like Christmas that reminds us…
To tell you that you’re always close in our hearts
And to appreciate all the wonderful things that a parent does

If we forgot to say Thank you
For every single thing you’ve done in past 30 years,
Or if we forgot to say I’m sorry
For the hurt we caused or for bringing tears.

This message is also to say Thank you for everything
And even if not mentioned, it is all carved in our hearts,
It is also to say we’re so sorry if we hurt you
Cos you are, of our lives a very important part.

We wish that God would bless you
With all his choicest blessings,
We wish that he would give you
Good health, happiness and days with sun shining

We are who we are, because of you
Every good thing we’ve done has been encouraged by you
So here’s wishing you both
A wonderful Christmas a happy year that’s new

I shall end this post wishing each of you and your families a Blessed Christmas and Wonderful New Year ahead.

Good, Truth, and Usefullness

These days I'm back in Sri Lanka for a 5 week vacation. The feeling of freedom I have thesedays is amazing, I'm spending so much time with friends and family. It;s lovely to be able to chat without looking at watches and thinking of what to do next but just to be able to live in the moment and value the time spent with people the people I love

Another thing that I was thinking of as I chat was how we sometimes seem to have this bad habit of trying to gossip or find fault with others. This reminded me of the famous saying by Socrates.

One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"
"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Test of Three."
"Test of Three?"
"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take a moment to test what you're going to say. The first test is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
No," the man said, "actually I just heard about It."
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second test, the test of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him even though you're not certain it's true?"
The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.
Socrates continued. "You may still pass though, because there is a third test - the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

I don't know if it's really something Socrates said or a rumor, but it really spoke to me, and I thought specially during this Christmas Season and for the New Year I will try to think if what I say is True, Good or Useful before talking about others.

French Snow!

Last couple of months have been really busy and interesting, guess you could say I was too busy living my life to blog about it ;) I visited a few more cities in Europe including Rome and Naples, which were simply amazing! (will have to write a separate post on it). Now as I’m getting ready to go home for Christmas and I thought I’ll just do a small post before I leave cos I’m sure the next three weeks in Sri Lanka are going to be crazy, cos there are so many people to meet and catch up with.

I’m continuing to study French, my goal is to be able to carry out a conversation by the end of next year. I was just wondering about how it’s so much easier for children to learn a new language than it is for us, I guess it’s partly cos they are not ashamed to make mistakes. For me I always feel embarrassed to make a mistake or pronounce a word wrong, and so end up not even trying. Often I would just ask “Vous Parlez Angaise?” And with the world becoming more global and international most people will at least speak basic English or understand it and will say “un peu”. So usually it ends up me speaking in English and them in French and both trying to understand the other but me never speaking, so now, I’m trying to force myself to speak, cos I know that if I don’t do it now, living in a French speaking country, I never will...

It’s been snowing heavily during the whole week and it’s really beautiful, everything covered by a sheet of snow! These are a couple of pictures I took yesterday from office (we’re on the 8th floor) while a lot of my colleagues who are used to seeing the snow thought that I was crazy! This is highly unusual for Geneva at this time of year though. (OK it's not French snow, more like Swiss snow...)

This morning, I couldn’t help smiling while walking from the tram stop to my office as everything was so white and pretty and I loved watching the snow flakes fall, it gives the feeling of a new beginning…I literally just stopped in the middle of the road and tried to take it all in, the work of God's hand, more beautiful than any building or structure that could be made by man...

But I must admit, however much I find the snow pretty, I’m really looking forward to going home for a nice warm Christmas!

So if I don’t blog before Christmas again, just want to wish you all a Wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Christmas!!!!

I spent a lovely Chistmas day with my family and cousins and thought of sharing a picture of all the cousins. Bit busy right now with Christmas and work, so will keep this short.

So this is Christmas…

What have you done? Another year’s over… a new one’s just begun…

This song was going on the radio and got me thinking… Last year was an amazing year for me, I learnt so many things and became so much more independent and I think I’ve grown up a lot last year too… but as a person what have I done for others?

Have I become indifferent to the sufferings of others, and become overwhelmed in my own world… Especially while in UK I rarely saw any poverty and even the beggars singing at the tube stations don’t seem to be as poor as the beggars that I see here everyday… But just because I cease to see them, that does not mean that they do not exist…

So what is the meaning of Christmas? Surely it’s not having lavish parties and shopping till you drop… Is it helping those in need and visiting friends and family, but shouldn’t that be done all through the year, and not just once a year? I guess it’s better to atleast think of others once a year rather than not at all…

Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ in a manger; the people who came to welcome him to this world were poor shepherds and their sheep, so isn’t it ironic how people celebrate such a holy day by partying, and how the media has commercialised it so much that the way to show that you love your friends and family is by buying the most expensive gift!

Last weekend some of my friends and I visited and organised a party at Freedom House, in Kelaniya which is a home for the mentally disabled people who have received treatment and are better but have no place to go to as their families have disowned them due to the stigma of having a mentally ill person in their homes. It was very sad, as some of them talked about their own families and how they’re hoping that they would visit for Christmas. One person had found out that his parents had migrated to Australia without even telling him… We could see that they really appreciated the company… Made me think how lucky I am…