Sunday, 26 August 2007
J1 retreat
Came back from the J1 retreat last night. Got home at 10.30pm, went to bed at midnight and slept 12h straight. The retreat wasn't as bad as i feared it would be, but it's still far off from what i've experienced in SJI, the RME retreats, legion camps and chalets etc, and dare i say it isn't even as good as church camps. The retreat was mostly about making choices and finding happiness. Or at least i think it was. It was cool to have Eugene Wong as my facil. He happens to be one of my older friends from Legion. i think he made the difference in me having a meaningful retreat.
Anyway, i guess i did take something away from the retreat. About the happiness and all. It's very difficult to define happiness and we all have different definitions of it. The sessions on happiness really made me think about where i derive my own happiness from and why i don't really feel happy nowadays. Something Eugene said kinda struck me, he said that sometimes we don't need to pursue happiness, it's already there, it's whether we able to realise it. A lot of people think that i've more or less got it all, i come from a well-off family and have pretty much everything that i could ever want. So naturally, i ought to be happy right? And maybe it's cos i'm unable to realise this, that i'm unhappy. Well happiness is always so much more. right now, i'm struggling to find purpose. Life has become so mundane. Week in week out it's the same thing, mon-fri school, sat mucking around at home, sun church, visit grandparents. Well i guess the retreat has made me think more about making a choice and a commitment to an action, an action that will bring me happiness. I've made my choice, it's a choice to bring some purpose to my life and in bringing myself happiness, trying to spread happiness as well.
True happiness may be but an idealistic pursuit, so maybe it's time to realise the happiness i have now, as Eugene said. Take the positives, turn the situation upside down, and maybe life as i know it would be a happy one. And when happiness is achieved, it's time to pay it forward.
flyaway
2:35 pm