Monthly Archives: April 2023

LAPC: Environments

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My contribution to this week’s “environments” challenge from Tina at Travels and Trifles:

University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

I started teaching right after I graduated from university, so I have always spent more time in campuses than anywhere else, and when I travel, I like checking out university campuses as well. For almost 18 years I’ve been living on campus, so for this week’s challenge I’ll share photos of the campuses I’ve visited and liked best. And the one I’ve lived in.

Seoul National University
Harvard University
University of British Columbia
Jimei University

If you want to join the challenge, check out the details in Tina’s post here.

On Mortality

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Two weeks ago I had to undergo a surgery to remove what my doctor believed to be a benign tumor. The night before I had to go the hospital I told my husband I didn’t want to go through with it. I was afraid of what would happen if the surgery didn’t go well, like ending up with facial paralysis, etc. But my husband wouldn’t have any of it and assured me it would be OK.

On the day of the surgery I was not really scared, and my husband and I were even joking as he helped wheel me through the operating room. My attitude was kind of the same as when I had the C-section — just get it over and done with.

It wasn’t my first time to be put under general anesthesia, but this was the longest I was unconscious — two hours and a half. And when I woke up, I felt like days had passed instead of just 2 and a half hours. I was disoriented for days after the surgery.

It didn’t help that I couldn’t sleep for about a week. Even now I still feel weak and don’t feel like my normal self.

It feels so strange how you’re up and so active one day and the next you’re too weak to even walk half a kilometer.

Two days before the surgery I helped organize a webinar which was more successful than our professor and the department ever expected. I played a big role in organizing it as I had invited the speaker and some participants from other countries.

After the surgery, the excitement over the successful webinar was just like a dream.

Two weeks after the surgery I still wonder about the time I was put under for two hours. I was unconscious. It was not like sleeping at all. When you wake up from a sleep, you know you had been sleeping. But when I woke up from anesthesia, I felt like for a few hours, I ceased to be. My world stopped. I was gone. And it made me wonder if death is just the same. When we die, is it like our consciousness has been switched off? If death is just like that, what’s there to fear?

I think I’ve said it here before. I’m not really afraid of dying, but living in pain, or leaving behind people who need me, like my son.

But I know some people who are afraid of the uncertainty surrounding death.

My interest in the subject of anesthesia led me to this article about anesthesia for dying patients. Quite an interesting article.

Thanks for reading. I hope you have a good week!

The Tree

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You’ve always watched over me
While I’ve only ever seen you from afar. 
Today I look up at you, 
and see 
how you have given me 
air to breathe,
shade in the scorching sun, 
quiet comfort in turbulent times. 
You’ve always remained 
sturdy, reliable. 
Shaken yet unbowed.

LAPC: Glowing moments

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This week’s challenge is “Glowing moments.”

I like these glowing moments from nature that I’ve witnessed.

The glow from the moon.

I took this photo during an evening walk by the lake on our campus in Jimei.

At sunset.
Sunrise.

I could have started with the sunrise and ended up with the moon photo, but I like to end with hope — a new day for glowing moments.

Read about the challenge here: Lens-Artist Photo Challenge

LAPC: It’s Tricky!

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Clouds coming out of the tree?

In this week’s challenge, Donna asks, “What tricks do you use to get the shot you want? Do you love reflections in raindrops? Is there something hidden in your photo, or the unsuspecting behind a wall. Have you ever found ice cream clouds, or illusions in a waterfall at sunset? A unicycle? ”

For my entry, I chose these two photos taken a few years ago, of the sky and clouds and trees. Whenever I see blue sky and a few clouds, I always imagine seeing a huge painting. I don’t know if there are many people like me who like to look up at the sky when I’m walking, that is, in wide open spaces like on our campus where I took these photos.

Energy coming out of the tree and up into the sky?

I don’t need to go to a museum to be moved by a painting. I can look up at the sky and see what new painting there is to view.

Happy Sunday!

Therese

LAPC: New Experiences

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Lens-Artists

Ferris Wheel in Xiamen’s Sea World Shopping Center

When I heard about the new Ferris wheel in Xiamen, I decided to take my son there for his first Ferris wheel ride.

It was a beautiful cloudless day, and we got a lovely view of the city.

I like how I was able to capture this scene of the Xiamen Airlines plane with Haicang Bridge on the foreground.

Thanks to Anne for this challenge. Check out her post for more details on this week’s challenge.

On Originality

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Is there such a thing as an “original” idea?

Folk tales have no known authors because printing was not yet invented when they were first told. There were no publishing companies nor patenting offices to which one could go to for claiming ownership of the tale.

Isn’t it true that sometimes we come up with an idea which we think is so original only to find out a few days later that someone somewhere in a far, far away place across the ocean, someone had already thought of it decades or centuries ago?

Maybe there’s no such thing as an original idea, but that some are more fortunate than others in having access to a technology that can make them claim ownership of a particular idea.

I know this musing is not original either. Someone somewhere in the same town or across the ocean must have thought the same, either a minute ago or centuries ago.