Nessun Dorma

It’s been a long and beautiful night. I had thought it would have been more difficult, but once again, I surprised myself. From somewhere deep within me, there was a quiet calm, and it slowly spread through me in warmth. Strangely enough, I think a peace protects me. And I am grateful.

It’s been a night of reflection and remembering. In replying a long email from a very dear friend whom I’ve known since Sec 2, we talked about some things that we didn’t use to be able to talk about years ago. There’s a quiet comfort there, realizing how well we understood each other even when so many things went unspoken all these years. *smile*

Then, it was another email to my best friend, to thank him for the amazing way he loves me. I marvel at the effortlessness it takes for him to understand how I feel, and the complete acceptance and encouragement he offers me. These past weeks especially, his sympathy, humour, and abiding love has been a soothing salve to me. I am profoundly blessed.

Then, on a whim, I took out my old autograph book and read it from cover to cover. Some of the people who had written in it are still my friends now, and closer and better friends than ever. It is sweet and amusing to see how far we’ve come since 1995. It has been a long time since I read those words that friends, classmates, and teachers had inscribed. It’s amazing how relevant they still are today… I was amused at the number of entries exhorting me to not get too stressed with work, to sleep more, to take care of my health (comments which I still get from concerned friends and family today). Reading that book also made me muse that even as I grow and mature, and am a different person today than I was all those years ago, the core of me has never changed. I am deeply grateful to all the people who had taken such time all those years ago, to pen down such detailed and sincere words. Who would have thought, that 11 years hence, I would be uplifted and encouraged by them? Tonight, each and everyone of those friends were remembered…many of whom I haven’t kept in touch with.

The friend who wrote on the last few pages of my autograph book closed with 1 Cor 13, and it was the perfect reminder for me, especially tonight. And so, I will close this entry with that quotation too, since these words are always true.

Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love never comes to an end. As it is, these remain: faith, hope, and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love. [1 Cor 13:4-8, 13]