You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Memory Lane' category.
- Dok Mai Hai Koun (Flowers for you) by Jae Danupol Kaewkarn
This orchid plant was given to my mom by my GI Joe sister when she was ill three years ago, today it sits at my dad’s living room. I took this picture in April of this year, and the last few flowers fell off at the beginning of July, that’s over 3 months of blooming.
My mom passed away in January 2007, it has been almost 3 years now. It was kind of odd how the last few flowers fell off, we went to visit her monument in July and was gone for a couple of days, there were still about 5 flowers left on the branch and normally it would fall off one by one. This time was different, the flowers looked very healthy when we left, and when we got back, all 5 flowers fell off, it almost made me think that she wanted us to know that she acknowledged that we visited her monument that housed her urn.
My dad loves orchid and he raised many beautiful ones when we were living in Laos. I’m looking forward to seeing next year’s blooms.
I think I can spend all day by the rice paddy, it’s real nice and cool today, kind of surprised me because at this time of the year it was wickedly hot. Most of the rice pods are out now, just a small section in the middle paddy that didn’t come out yet, and it’s because they didn’t finish planting it until late May. In comparison to last week, the pods are more visible from the road now, and the aroma is real nice, I bet it would be a great spot for camping.
This Kun Tai Na (path walk between paddies) made me think of the time when I was little living in Thailand, I guess I wasn’t the strongest kid back then and I often fell off the Kun Tai Na. One time we had a real scare, I must have been in the 2nd grade, and we were returning home from school and the rice paddies were next to the dirt road, the rice stalks were a lot taller than us, and the pods sort of arched over and practically covered us. It was my older sister, younger sister Sue and I. Then a pickup truck drove passed us. I guess they didn’t see us at first, but once they spotted us, they stopped the car and 2 men came out with burlap and walking toward us. We knew then that they didn’t come in peace.
At that time there were so many incidents of kidnapping and some instances of just wanting your blood, we heard on the news all the times about ’supe leard’ (sucks blood) and I guess there was a black market for it. I also heard that there was, and still is a black market for child labor and pr0stitution, and we lived in a rural area in Changwat Kamphaeng Phet at the time. Our gut instinct at that instant told us that it was not safe to stick around, so we took off running, and screaming at the same time.
After that incident, we’d walk through the rice paddies to get home, and I got better at walking on the Kun Tai Na, I guess practice makes perfect.
This is a translated article from Koosang Koosom Magazine, written by Vanhla of Udtradit in Thai Language, translated by Nye.
I kept this as a secrete for almost 50 years now, please allow me to tell this to Koosang Koosom as the first to know of what had happened.
When I was about 6 years old, the Thai government launched a campaign against the communist, at the time I couldn’t read yet, but heard the grown ups talked about the cruelty of the communist, such as making people work as water buffalo to plow the rice paddy.
Man Pulling Plow, photo by DECLAN MCCULLAGH PHOTOGRAPHY
Photo source.
Or put little kids in a mortal, and smashed down repeatedly with a pestle.
Mortal and Pestle cropped photo by Mozemoua
Those that were against the communist would be killed, especially those that were teachers because teachers teach children to become brighter, so they wouldn’t be easily influenced or brainwashed by the communist. My dad was a teacher at one of the schools in Udtradit (Thailand), very far from civilization, and in the middle of no where. There was no electricity and the only way to reach the village was by boat only.
My dad relocated us with him, we lived in a school housing. My dad’s school had a roof but no walls and they used the blackboards to separate the classrooms, from first grade to fourth grade. There was an old grub hoe (garden tool) hanging by a tree that was being used as the school bell. We didn’t have any book or pencil, the principal gave us each a chalk and small blackboard to write on. We lived at the school house for a little over a month and something unforgettable happened.
That night right before I went to bed, I heard loud noises…Pung, Pung, Pung…
I’m a bit surprised that it snow today, a bit gloomy and I feel like telling a ghost story, check out at the bottom of this post. Even though it’s gloomy, but it’s very pretty to look at.
I’ve not heard back from my oldest sister, she is extremely busy at this time of the year, and was looking for a song for lady0fdarkness and came upon a collection of some Thai classical music, I would say that this is the types of music for your third ears because music isn’t meant for just our ears only, it’s also the food that nourishes our heart and soul.
- Lao Duang Duen
- Khaek Toy Mor
When I listen to this song below, it made me think of only one person, and Thoranee Kansaeung is a funeral song, loosely translated as Mother Earth shielded the light. The last time I saw her alive was on Thanksgiving of 1999, we were visiting her family at the time, and her husband was dying of cancer. She was looking for this song to be played at his upcoming funeral because the doctor said that he only had less than 2 months to live. Right before Christmas, my sister called me at work and said that she passed away, I kept repeating on the phone, “must be some sort of mistake, it’s her husband that you’re talking about.” Sure enough, there was no mistake, they all thought she had a cold or bronchitis, but by the time she got to the hospital it was too late. They didn’t get to play this song at her funeral, but they did play it at her husband’s funeral, sadly he passed away in January 2000.
- Thoranee Kansaeung
Max hates the rain, but he loves snow.
Full Moon Rising by PadburyPhoto
Photo at Flickr
One of the reasons why I chose Tarski theme for my blog was because it made me think of the story of the three branches Bodhi tree in the moon that my mom told me when I was little. At the time, the story seemed so real because there was an image that looked very much like a big tree when there is a full moon, of course, I know better now that there is no big tree up there. But I’m sure we all see different things up there, and I’m wondering what do you see when you look at the moon.
So when I visited Wat Lao Buddhavong of Catlett, VA in July 2007, I was excited to see the real Bodhi tree again, I even wrote a post of ‘The Legend of the Bodhi Tree’, this is one of the biggest one that I’ve seen in the US. Then I visited Laos last year, this one is huge.
The one below is at Wat Xieng Thong in Luang Prabang, Laos. It’s down, but not far gone, still thriving with green leaves.
In Laos, I didn’t have to look for the Bodhi tree, it’s everywhere, it’s even grown in the oddest place, and I’m not sure how it got up there. This one is at the entrance of the temple.
- Reflection by Jim Brickman
It has been 2 years since I started my blog, which means 2 years since my mom passed away. For her 2 years anniversary, we went to Tum Boun (merit making) for her at our local temple, Wat Greensboro yesterday, 2 of my sisters came down from New York for the ceremony, 2 couldn’t make it, so there were only 6 of us, and my dad. My second sister feels that my mom is still around, her spirit has not moved on yet, and often dream of her.
The ceremony started at 10:30 AM, and the items that we donated are the daily necessity items for the monks.
We also prepared meal for the monks, I made my spring rolls, and the monks ate their meal at 11 AM. The ceremony below is offering food to the monks, there were 8 yesterday.
My little niece.
Even though our mom is no longer with us, but we often think of her, and miss her dearly.
Recent Comments