Birthday Musings 1

I celebrated my birthday on 27th Nov recently. It was a Sunday and my wife had a wonderful surprise for me. She secretly arranged for my younger son, Andrew, to fly back to Singapore just in time to spend my birthday with me. It was a fantastic present for me. In addition, it was  overdue as he needed to come home for some quality family time.It was a lovely secret and a wonderful surprise from May. I am hugely grateful to her for making this once in a lifetime experience which any father would cry with joy.

Thank you. I was beset with joy as you would expect. 

I had no inkling, and the day was like any other, except that when it came to dinner, I exclaimed, : "Woah, Andrew, how in the world ???". The best things in life money cannot buy like a family together. I have and I am so blessed to have a lovely and supportive wife, 2 young men who strive to build up their lives and careers in an upright manner. 

What more can a father (parent) expect ? Ha ha. I know the answer !  

My happy family.

From left : Noel, Andrew, May and me. 

We try all our lives to lead good lives and create meaningful relationships with the people around us. No one is perfect, except God and while we have our failings, we must never give up on ourselves or with our loved ones, for with the positive human spirit, we can always try to make life a little better. While we are privileged to be living in a post modern Singapore, there are people who fall between the cracks and need support. So, that is where I want to position my 3rd age focus when I actually get to it.

 

The world is facing unprecedented challenges in population, (8 billion), climate change, sustainability, food shortages, oil shortages caused by war in Europe, the tensions between US and China, escalating prices in food, electricity and everything, it is scary to think too deeply about whether we can actually retire in comfort, in say 5 or 6 years time.

Rather than fall and feel depressed about the future, we can take firm steps to ensure we have saved enough and to have proper medical insurance covering every conceivable scenario

We need to make sure that the next generation is well prepared to take on the big challenges of the coming decade. 

It is not for the faint hearted.