Last word

4 days....
That is all I have, to be with my family and friends.
The clock ticks away in monotone, every minute spent feels like a million bucks.
I am leaving behind everything I call home to sail with 159 other fellow guys to the most happening place on earth.

Iraq...
A country where man comes face to face with the horrors of war. Every single thing I will do has a sacred overtone. Do it like it will be the last thing you do. The weather is harsh, the sea will not be forgiving. We will navigate from the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf, and she will punish us with the fury of her tides...no matter how vigilant we are. Peacekeeping always sounds so simple in theory, but it is the most elusive thing in our hearts and minds now.

Fear...
You sure you want to do this? Are you the only child? Do you have a girlfriend? How do your parents feel? My replies are confident, but there are moments when I feel the impact of the reality. I am afraid. Timidity has always been a faithful companion. I look at my parents, my siblings...my close friend and even the photo of my muse..a beautiful woman I haven't spoken to for a long time... I may not get to see them again Insurance and will aside. I told my best friend, "Take care of my parents while I'm away. Visit them often, so that they may find comfort in your presence."

Liberation...
Memories locked deep within surface once again. The portal of transcendence. I dive deep within, into my soul. He is there, smiling at me, grace and power fused into one. My times are in His hands. He has helped me overcome, He will do it again. Destiny forged upon the Divine anvil. I will cry to him, and He will walk upon the water..like he always did, to carry me away. Every single trial that awaits just breaks down. Calling, purpose...I believe He will take me to the ends of the earth.

Future...
I look forward to the day of return. It will be 3 months from now...as the red lanterns ring in the festivities of the Lunar New Year. Home, the feeling is ever so sweet. It will be an experience. One of the many stories I will tell for a long time to come..as I prepare myself for the next trip through life.

This is so very charming...she just sent this to me. It's that Korean girl that I met a year ago, and I still can't get over her. She was in the cinema, sitting right in fornt of me...with her friends. Couldn't make the face out in the dark. Only when the lights came on and she stood to leave, she gave me that pixie look. Damn...none of of my act-cute taiwanese gals could compete with that. Yes...I'm coming back from war, and I will be going to Seoul, to see her. I really hope her parents don't mind. Oh, and don't worry, unlike the majority of the people there...she's non-plastic enhanced.

Pebbles

A solitary pebble lay in the middle of the street. It had rolled away, from the park where it was displayed with all its friends, as part of the decor for the exotic flowers. That was to be their home. Pebbles live long lives...It takes years of erosion and radioactive decay for them to disintegrate into their molecular constituents.

This pebble however, was not satisfied with its life.

Day after day, it heard the same ramblings among his fellow pebbles. Its home was small, crowded and dull. It wanted to see the world, it wanted a better life. So one fine day, it bade its fellow pebbles goodbye and rolled away.

But the city was big, and this pebble has never been anywhere except for at the feet of flowers and trees in the park. The city was busy, cars raced across the black roads at the command of the walking and standing man. Feet paced briskly back and forth. Horns, rings, shouts, music filled the air in an alternative symphony. The pebble was frightened, lost...and alone.

It was night, and the pebble was tired. It was not long before it crept into slumber that a foot kicked it. The pebble rolled and tumbled a distance. It cursed and shouted at the sudden disturbance. Human beings can't hear the speech of stones, but the pebble had a strange visitor tonight.

"Ah little rock...My apologies for waking you..."
The figure was visible under a tall, umbrella street lamp. He wore a grey jungle hat, a simple round neck-tee with the words "Made in Heaven" and grey broad-cut pants with white sneakers.

"Yeah! You shouldn't have" replied the pebble with total indignation. "How come a human like you can speak my language?" It asked.

The man smiled. He gave a light jump and folded his arms. His feet were pointed for a split second, and it stood or seem to settle, very comfortably into thin air. He came close to the little pebble, and picked it up from the ground.

"Well firstly I'm not human...though sometimes I masquerade as one, to check on their comings and goings. And of course I understand you, I made you from the earth on the third day of creation.."


"OH MY GOD...." The pebble shivered and stammered, it was a familiar presence that roused it from its sleep, a distant entity locked within the chambers of its finite memory.

"Yes yes... Its me." The man lifted the pebble in front of his face. "I've heard you complaining about your life. Isn't a pebble supposed to stay in its place until the element of water takes its life away? You still have many good eons ahead, why are you still so sad?"

"My Lord... " The pebble sighed. "Every other pebble thinks that way. I don't understand why I feel so empty. I want to see the world...to experience life to the fullest, and to be happy. I don't want to stay with all my other friends and lead a normal life, it would be so meaningless.

God frowned at the pebble in his hand. He remembered the last time he did something special for stones. It was billions of years ago. Maybe it was time to do it again?

"Little one, what if you could see the world, but your length of your days were numbered shortly? And your friends were never going to be with you? Would you still want to follow your passion?"

The pebble thought long and hard. What was God going to give it? It could never know the mind of the Maker? Its mind turned to its previous life. Like most stones it was never special. It spent its days in mud and sand. He envied the lives of the other types, the pearls and rubies, but now all that may just change...

"Yes, I would." The pebble answered.

"Do you trust me, little one?"

"Yes"

"IT BEGINS NOW."

The pebble glowed. Thin cracks surfaced on its shell, as the light pierced through with immense power. He gripped the pebble hard, stretched his arm, and flung it into the air
The light grew in intensity as it made its way into the cosmos. It flew for a short while before the right constellation came and it was transfixed, within the universal orbits ordained by God himself.

God looked up at the little star burning brightly. He lowered his hat and walked away. "Now you see the world, little one" he muttered to himself.