Category Archive: faith

To start off the year well

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Thu. January 1, 2009

So, some people say that how you spend January 1st is an indicator for how the rest of the year will play out. Well I certainly don’t say that, but hey, for this post I’ll play along. The day isn’t exactly over yet, but I think I’ve gathered enough empirical evidence to be able to make a statement. I say, this year I will: grow stronger in faith, be more active, and be likely to make multiple racial faux-pas.

So, first thing this morning, I went in to church because today’s a day of obligation. I couldn’t go with my parents because I had other plans that I had to squeeze in before noon. I felt all right about being there so early in the morning, if only because it’s a fine way to start the year. Consider the Japanese. It’s customary on January 1st to make a trip to visit a shrine or a temple.

Anyway, after mass I rushed home, got into my running gear and drove up to Markham for this year’s (last year’s, I guess) Resolution Run. It’s a 5K round the block affair meant to symbolically mark this year as one where I’m going to commit to living a (relatively) healthy lifestyle. Yeah, plus they give a free jacket if you register which, I’ll admit, was incentive for being there. I layered up well: running tights, track pants, long sleeve shirt, t-shirt over, jacket, mesh baseball cap, and gloves. The weather reports were indicating that it was going to be cold, so I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t going to suffer from being too cold. I mean, I’ve been on too many runs where some part of me is unbearably cold making for a miserable run. The crowd was large, though smaller than last year’s run. The course was, for the most part, similar to some of my regular running routes. It involved some steep inclines–which was cool because it meant a lot of downhill breaks. Conversely it meant there were a few challenging uphill climbs.

I wasn’t intent on really doing the race really fast. With all of the ice and snow on the ground, I knew that I was going to have a hard time through some parts. That’s basically how it was. Some parts of the sidewalk weren’t clear. Running on the snow was hard on the ankles. I just kept on going. Everything was smooth going downhill. I felt like I found a rhythm, but I also felt like it was a bit more difficult than usual. As I rounded the turnaround point, I felt myself slow down. Heading back up the big hill was just brutal. My breathing was hard, and sweat was streaming down my face. I was regretting having so many layers on. Well, by the time I got to the top I was shocked at just how much difficulty I was having so I decided to pump up the effort for the last kilometre back. The result? Well, the race wasn’t chip timed, although, according to my watch, I made it back in a faster time that my PB at the Island race. Whoo! So, if the paths were clearer I can say that I might have done even better. Nice! As I was speaking with people back at the store, just about everyone was commenting about how the uphill climb really took a lot out of them. People were attributing it to partying hard the night before–so what excuse do I have? Hmm. Overall the race was really fun. It seemed like most people there knew me. I got a lot of “Happy New Year, Jason!” greetings, so much so that some random people I didn’t know started joining in to greet me. That amuses me greatly.

Anyway, so here’s where the racial faux-pas comes in. Back at the store, at the snack table I spotted this Chinese guy who had also run the race. In my mind a lot of alarms were going off. This was one of the guys I ran with during the 2007 Run for the Cure. At least, I thought it was–I wasn’t sure. It’s been a while. So, I went up to the guy, and I said, “Hey, I think I know you.” He just looked at me blankly and said told me otherwise. I smiled and with an “oh, sorry” I ducked back into store. Well, sure, cases of mistaken identity happen all the time, right? I normally wouldn’t tie this in as a racial thing. However, within the past month at work I was passing around a link to All Look Same to my colleagues to see how they’d do. I can say that I did a little bit higher than the average probably indicating that I can discern a little bit better than the average person. Hahah, then this happens. As a result, I felt kind shitty. I know I’m over-thinking this. No matter.

In any case, the year’s off to a good start. May many blessings come this way this year.

Tags: Chinese, church, race, running

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A hopeful man

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faith

Sun. August 3, 2008

A priest from Kenya visited our parish today to celebrate mass and ask for monetary aid for his diocese. He was really well-spoken and knew how to delivery the homily with emphasis. I just wanted to share one thing that stuck out at me from the words he spoke:

A hopeful man is someone who can face anything that life throws at him; it’s because of hope that he can do so.

That’s pretty deep. I think those words will stick with me for a while.

Tags: church

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Restoring my faith in the city

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Sun. June 1, 2008

After my last post or two, it may seem like I’ve lost a bit of faith in Tokyo. Fair enough, you know? I mean, it almost seems like this whole experience is just one insult to foreigners after another, right? It almost seems like all you can do is to just go along with it and not pay too much mind. Well, I have to be fair and say that Japanese people are really friendly. I think any misgivings that arise are really as a result of a few things. First, there’s a great deal of shyness that the locals have when communicating with someone that speaks English. As much they’ve been trained, there’s not much practical time when it comes to putting the language to good use. So, the result is that a lot of people are just plain afraid to try for fear of making a mistake. Frankly, I’m pretty much the same way when I try out my Japanese–I’m painfully shy! I can make the effort, but I’m also hung up on whether I was using polite language, or maybe whether I was using the correct inflections or vocabulary, etc etc. Lately I’ve been getting better at making the effort, but it’s still a struggle.

Anyway, despite all of this it’s easy to fall into a state of dislike for the place if you’re caught off guard. Today I did a few things that really helped me restore my faith in the city. First, thing I did was to find a RC church with and English mass and attend. I found one in Roppongi which makes sense due to it being considered a foreigner hangout. Due to an error in time adjustment instead of arriving half an hour early like I’d wanted, I actually arrived half an hour late. Anyway, despite that I felt quite at home in there. I mean, wow, I’ve never seen so many foreigners gathered in one place in Tokyo–not even in the airport. Seriously, I felt like I was back in Canada. So many of them were Filipinos too. It was mind boggling. I don’t know what happened, but for that mass in particular I was really moved. At the end, they asked people new and visiting to introduce themselves to the congregation. After each introduction there was a round of applause. I got to do my introduction, and wow, that was a good feeling. At the end, the announcer said something to the effect that they were happy to be people’s “spiritual home away from home,” I seriously nearly lost it. I was so deeply affected by it that I needed to take a few moments to regather my thoughts just to not start bawling. It’s so easy to feel isolated and lonely here: that’s why the warm welcome really got to me. After the mass, a parishioner came up to me and asked if I was Filipino in Tagalog. I replied that I was. We had a nice mini-chat after which she wished me a nice stay. I felt so good coming out of that place.

Well, after mass, I had a few hours to kill before my friend became available, so I decided on his suggestion to wander around the city and take in the people and the sites. So that’s what I did. I started wandering around Roppongi. I had intentions of going west over to the Meiji shrine and Harajuku on foot, but I got side-tracked and saw a familiar hospital that I passed by in the 2006 tour. Since it was familiar, I decided to see if I could somehow end up seeing any other familiar places. Somehow made it over to Azabu-Jūban. I think only one reader out there knows the significance of this place . Anyway, I bought a Pocari Sweat and drank it on Patio Jūban. Everyone in that district looks so posh! I continued to wander and ended up at Daimon and the area around Shiba Park–both places that I’d seen before. I decided to just keep going and I ended up at district after district. Shinbashi, Ginza, Nihonbashi, Akihabara, Ueno… I was surprised when I got to Ginza. The main artery through the shopping district was closed to cars and only allowed pedestrian traffic. Apparently this only happens on Sundays. Holy crap, why can’t we do that more often in Toronto? Seriously, if Tokyo can do that on what seems to be a major road, why can’t we? It was a popular area–so many people crowded the place. After four hours of straight walking I got tired and ended up stopping at Ueno park. I hit that fatigue point where I just needed to drink something sugary to get my glycogen levels back to normal.

From there, my friend called me to say that he was done with his business and asked me to meet him at Nihonbashi station on the subway. As I was on the subway, I was thinking that on the subway it took only a few minutes to get someplace it took me an hour or two to get from. Crazy. We went over to Yoyogi park and took in a random rave party. Don’t ask me. There was a lot of drunk naked people stumbling openly in daylight. There were kids running around with incense sticks. It’s not normally my scene, but damn, it was interesting to watch the general debauchery. I got a good laugh out of it.

From there, my friend, his friend and I walked all the way back through Roppongi to Azabu-Jūban. That was basically another 45 minute walk–honestly it felt like an eternity. We went there for some really great thin pizza at a place called Savoy. It’s a small place, but damn the food was awesome. The three of us finished off 4 small pizzas–well worth it. From there, we walked from Azabu to Roppongi to get some frozen yogurt.

That’s been my day. I can honestly say that the long walk helped me absorb more of the character of the city. I’m feeling a bit better about being here. It’s like…the city really only reveals its true nuances to those that are willing to explore a bit. All of the walking has wiped me out. I’m going to get a good night’s sleep. I have to be up early tomorrow to start the 7 day tour all over the country. It’s going to be fantastic!

Tags: alcohol, church, Japanese, restaurant, Tokyo, tourist, walking

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Missed intentions

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faith

Sun. March 2, 2008

Today at the end of the mass the priest took a moment to talk about an incident involving one of the other priests. As it went, a family of parishioners confronted the priest in an angry manner regarding the fact that the mass intention that they had requested was not announced during the Sunday mass. From the way the story was being told, it seemed like they were getting all up in the priest’s face. The joke was that it made that priest’s blood pressure go up mid-week. Now, while being confrontational like that is ugly behaviour, doing that to a priest is just bad. And while doing that to a priest is bad, doing that to a priest after receiving communion just minutes before is horrible.

I don’t know. From what I’ve observed in weekly mass, the intentions aren’t announced on weekends (at this parish). They never have been. So, just to make sure it was clear, the the priest today emphasized the fact that this was the case. Glad that’s settled.

When we were in the car, my father started venting about how the office should be more careful in making sure people know the deal. I wasn’t sure why he was indignant, but then it became clear that he was still frustrated that I was once included in the prayers for the deceased back in 2006. After all this time, he was still kind of miffed. And yes, after all of this time I still find the whole thing to be funny. I’m stiiiiiiill not dead. Whatever.

Tags: church, death

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Forgiveness 2007

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faith

Sun. December 30, 2007

At the end of every year, during the parish announcements the priest at our church likes to ask forgiveness from all parishioners if there’s anyone there whom he had wronged. It seems like a good practise in order to leave behind things in 2007 that should be left behind. So, for my purposes here I’m going to heavily borrow from the words he used.

If there’s anyone to whom I have said or done anything hurtful or inappropriate, please accept my apologies. I ask for your forgiveness.

(And if you choose not to accept my apology, then that’s on you. )

Tags: apology

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Memento mori

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faith,
family

Thu. June 7, 2007

I think of myself as a guy that does best in periods of relative stability. I think it’s in my personality make up to resist change where possible. My life over the past few months has had this stability. I have my home life, and my work life, and all is well and good. That’s just how things have been. So, when something comes up that makes me have to rethink anything in my world, I sort of panic. I don’t necessarily freak out, but internally, I’m thinking “whoa…back up for a moment.”

ETA: Entry has to do with dealing with the idea of death.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: death

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May flowers

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Tue. May 22, 2007

This past Saturday, he had what was expected to be a small gathering at our house. Every year, in May, my family participates in a prayer group. This weekend was our turn to host. Prior to the day, I had announced my intentions that I did not want to participate. I mean, I was there every year, and it was always pretty stressful for me. This year, I just wanted out. My mother wasn’t too happy about it. It wasn’t so much that she was disappointed that I didn’t want to participate in the prayer part, but that without me there, she would have little to no help. The social aspect of the event seemed to be very important to her. It wasn’t until a few days before Saturday that I relented and agreed to stay. I made it clear though that I was only doing it to help out.

On Friday, we started preparing the food that we’d be serving. I prepared a double batch of blueberry buckle. I also spent a lot of time washing vegetables, cutting fruit and washing dishes. The preparations went well into midday Saturday. By the afternoon, we were all exhausted. As we laid out everything that we had bought and prepared, we started thinking that it was way too much food. Of course, it’s better to overdo things, right? Our long dining table became a buffet area full of the main course parts. The round dining table held all of the desserts. When the prayer part started, we all piled down into the basement. It seemed like we had an average crowd. As it went on, I started seeing more and more people arrive. Those people had also brought food items. When the prayer part was done. I went upstairs to see what was going on. There was a sudden rush to get everything organized. With all of the new food, we were struggling to find spots for everything. The two tables were packed.

Soon enough, the crowd came upstairs to eat. That’s when I finally realized just how big the group was. I swear, there must have been 30+ people there. After people got their food, they were finding places to sit down. All of our main floor got good use. I had never seen so many people crammed out on the deck. As more people went out, my father and I were rushing to the basement, trying to get more chairs out there. The temperature inside the house rose to 27°C from all the people there. The air conditioning wasn’t really helping much at all.

I spent most of my time manning the sink. I took people’s plates and plunked them in the dishwasher. We eventually ran out of cutlery, so I spent a lot of time cleaning forks so that people could get dessert. In between that, I had the coffee maker and kettle going continually to get coffee and tea out. We ran out of some mugs, so I had to clean some out when they returned. This went on for 2-3 hours! I was damn exhausted! I only got a little bit of reprieve when my father turned on the karaoke machine.

(Hey…this was a Filipino get together…of course there was karaoke)

All this time, all I could think was, “man…if I had left, mom would be so screwed.”

I think…many of the people who came did so because of the karaoke and not so much the prayer part. What really struck me as interesting though was that many of the people who were more interested in the prayer part actually stayed for a good chunk of the night. If I recall correctly, in past years, they left in the early evening. I really don’t know what was different this time. They seemed to gather mostly in the sitting room (away from the singing), but they were comfortable having conversations and eating.

In the end, most of the food was gone. My mother and I were lamenting that there were some food items that we never had a chance to eat. Oh man. I can only imagine that next year, when it’s our turn again, the gathering will be just as large. I don’t want to admit it, but I’m sort of glad I stayed, you know?

I slept well that night–and with good reason.