Turn Your Lives Around

I’m spending today entirely at home. And what have I accomplished thus far?

Today, I started and completed a 187-page book, “Yakuza Moon” by Shoko Tendo.

Usually when we think of Japan, we think of anime, sushi & kawaii girls. We think of high-tech products and outlandish fashion styles. I would recommend this book to those who want to get to know a darker side of Japan. However, due to some graphic content, only read this if you are above 18 years.

Shoko Tendo tells her story: of growing up in a yakuza (gangster) family, being ostracized by neighbours and classmates, and being bullied because of her father’s background. Pushed into a world of drugs, addictions & sex, she starts a downward spiral and it is nearly 20 years before she manages to extricate herself from this web. Dragged through a string of affairs and love relationships gone awry, she finally thinks she has found happiness. Yet blows keep raining upon her and her family, as she experiences the loss of her mother & her baby, the gambling addiction of her brother-in-law, and a bout of mental illness & eating disorder.

Reconciliation with her parents turns to grief as she loses both parents. But finally, she picks up the pieces. Eventually, she discovers her real self, covered under years of hiding and pretense. Her tattoo serves as a reminder of her desire to be number one, and to be true to herself.

This is a picture of her full tattoo.

In the book, she writes details about her life and her experiences without hiding the truths. I believe that writing this book was a release for her of sorts, a chance to reflect on her life and her choices. During her life, she made many choices that eventually turned out wrong, but at the end of the day, she was willing to take responsibility for her own actions.

I realise that we can blame many people for the circumstances we are in now. But, the only one who can turn your life around is yourself. You have to make a decision to change your life.

At the heart of the matter, Shoko was a good daughter, who loved her parents immensely, but who was burdened with a strong inferiority complex. Her dad’s final words: “believe in yourself”, really made a difference in her life.

Do pick up this book. It’s short, but her story will make many of us thankful that we didn’t go through the same things. If Shoko herself managed to pick her life up, what about the rest of us?

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HELPING OTHERS

While on this track of picking our lives up, let’s do something for others as well.

Whenever you have the time, do visit this website, FreeRice:  http://www.freerice.com/ 

The concept of this organization to to provide rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger. So as you play the game on the site, for every right answer you get, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice, thanks to their sponsors.

As the site explains, FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide education to everyone for free.

2. Help end world hunger by providing rice

to hungry people for free.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation

or a street child in a poor country,

improving your education can improve your life.

It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment

your donated rice makes in hungry human beings,

enabling them to function and be productive. 

Somewhere in the world,

a person is eating rice that you helped provide.

Thank you.

 

As Pastor Kong said last weekend, let us multiply our giving & allow God to add to our assets. Being able to give is a blessing, so I’m planning to give more to such funds which aid the poor and hungry all over the world.

WAITING

So it’s been an interesting day thus far. It takes some pain away from the process of waiting. After the auditions are done, all that is left for me to do is … to wait. Wait and wait and wait for the callbacks that might never come.

So I’m still waiting …

And waiting …

Waiting …