The world of Tzu Chi September 2020 (Vol.126)

2020 • 09 56 ellness Translated by Woon Xiao Rui S ingapore reported its first confirmed Covid-19 case on January 22. Instead of forwarding images of love and cares to family and friends, I decided to do it the old fashion way. In the two weeks that followed, I made it a point to call two to three family or friends every week. For those who live outside Singapore, I sent them messages detailing the situations here and expressed my love and care for their well-beings. To me, personal interaction in this manner is more precious and meaningful. Since the implementation of the Circuit Breaker* measures in Singapore, I have made more telephone calls to my family and friends of all ages, listening to their stories of dejections and worries resulting from the pandemic. We always ended our conversations with blessings for each other. Elderly people with chronic diseases are more vulnerable to Covid-19, hence they ought to stay at home during this critical period, and leave the grocery shopping to the younger people like us. In line with that, I called an elderly woman in her 60s, who lives with her husband in a community about five kilometres away from mine. I asked her who was helping to do the grocery shopping for them. She said, “My daughter is doing the grocery shopping for us once a week. We can’t go out, so we sit at home all day long, and feeling less hungry these days. Yesterday, I cooked two simple dishes to go with porridge – French beans fried with ginger, and eggs fried with preserved white radish. Today, I stewed potato with chestnuts and tofu to eat with rice. We eat just enough to fill our stomachs, so we won’t trouble our daughter too much. She’s working from home, yet she has to cook, do the house chores, and help her two children with homework. I don’t want to add to her workload……” With just a few simple words, she showed me the values of understanding and supporting one another. She later suggested that I should buy foods that can be kept for longer time, such as chestnuts, potatoes, carrots, cabbages and pumpkins. She encouraged me to cook simple meals that are good enough to fill our stomachs. Not only did both of them stay vigilant during the pandemic period, but they were also unperturbed by the change in lifestyle (and eating habits), living their days in slow and sturdy strides. Their life story has given me so much positive energy and joys. The simple meals that they take now reminded me of similar meals that I used to eat as a child. My husband often mentioned that in his childhood days, his family only had sumptuous food that is high in fat and salt contents (mostly meat and seafood) a couple of times in a year. It was the same for my family. AWrite-up from the Circuit Breaker Period Surprisingly, Rui Jia never complained of boredom. Instead, it was as if she had been through a new life experience that had awakened her, she told us, “I can actually live a good life without window-shopping.”