I was doing my 10km run on this side of Ulu Pandan jogging track (Holland Grove View side) yesterday morning.

With this run, I completed the first 100km of a 550km run to raise donations for needy children at Rainbow Centre via Fundonate. I am asking 55 friends who are 55 this year to each donate $55, $1 for every 10km I run so we can all share & relish the joy of living all these 55 seasons of our passage on planet earth , and many afterwards. 🙂

My mind was wandering as I ran thinking of living, eating, cooking…

Eat to Live…Live to Eat…Eat to Live to Eat..one of those cliches we talk about ( kind of like chicken or egg?) occasionally but with no particular meaning or importance attached..indeed so..as we select words & phrases to capture what is important to ourselves & the same words or phrases extract different thoughts (or depth of what they represent) depending on what we attach to them.

My mind went jogging too, 10km was short for the body, 1hr+ was long for the mind..haha. 🙂

I think in my younger days I “eat” to live, or do everything else to live – study, work, business travel, entertain, network, struggle with business start-ups, etc..the goal (but what is the goal?) was important so the process was a blur – like the movie “Click” – and you don’t know what you are “eating” basically since you eat to live..

Now I am kind of live to eat…ok I like food, I am greedy..and now I talk about worthwhile calories, worthwhile cholesterol. and maybe they are just excuses to eat unhealthy food, but I guess one can say also there is some perspective to it – that if you have to eat unhealthy make sure they are food you really really like & enjoy and feel “shiok” not something so-so, can do without – hopefully there are not so many such food in that category everytime! 🙂

anyway my own solution to that is just compensate, make-up (just as in managing relationship)..if you have more this time, skip or have less next time! if you miss a run this time, make-up another (but MUST make-up la otherwise won’t work right..) 🙂 just like relationship, if you miss an appointment, if you are not there for someone this time, pro-actively do it next time! don’t angst over the eating, and don’t angst over the relationship…

So I live to eat, “eat” being everything else in the perspective of savouring & relishing the process, so that there is joy in the living..and for me there is no right or wrong or best way about this..everyone’s needs are different..I am applying this for myself only..say for my children, they do need to focus & work on their studies, their future careers..they have their own needs and what are important to them..and everyone do need to work hard (and work very hard in Singapore & really anywhere else – China, Vietnam, major cities like New York, London, Tokyo etc) to get the results, and the process of working hard & achieving something are themselves very rewarding, and sometimes with a perspective shift (haha..very “sian” to hear paradigm shift) maybe the process is more rewarding than the physical material rewards…whatever to each his own. 🙂

To me perspective is the key though of course like everything else it is easier said than done. We say 退一步海阔天空 or 山穷水尽疑无路, 柳暗花明又一村..buddhists talk about attachments as the source of suffering & pain…so if we can, change or see the perspective…if we cannot, well i also have no solution, think of some other ways to make up lor. 🙂