Life can pass us by in the blink of an eye... 

So let’s not forget to catch all those precious, fleeting moments that make our short time on earth so beautiful

時光總在轉眼之間就從我們身邊溜走……
不要忘記去捕捉那些珍貴、稍縱即逝的片刻 -
就是這些時刻讓我們在地球上短暫的人生變得美麗而神奇

Smile

Every day I feel like the world is spinning at breakneck speed. When I go to work, I leap off the red minibus before it comes to a stop. When the MTR doors open, I quickly cram myself in. When I’m done with one project, I immediately move onto the next one.

Sometimes at night, as I wearily wait for the bus to go home, I look up and see the moon, smiling down at me. Sometimes I see our friendly neighborhood courier, or a cranky bus driver, and as we exchange a brief smile, the world seems to slow down for just a while, and everything seems alright.

每一天我都感覺地球在高速地轉……坐紅色小巴的時候，車還沒停就要跳出去，地鐵車門一開就要趕快把自己塞進車廂裡去，完成一個project，就要趕著忙另外一個。 

有時候忙完一整天，呆呆地在等巴士回家，但見到天上的月亮，或者是熟悉的速遞員，或皺眉頭的巴士司機，就會跟他們交換一個微笑。那一刻地球好像慢下來了，我也感覺一切事情會變得OK。

Swing

I love playing with kids, especially when they think you are the same age as they are. Playing with kids is easy… All you have to do is roll around on the floor, make up some silly words, shake your butt around, stretch blue-tack into long, sticky snakes, or throw cotton balls into the air…. And for a moment, you’ll think that you’re four years old too!

跟小孩玩耍最快樂的事，就是他們也把你看作是四歲的小孩。一起躺在地上、亂說一些奇怪的字、把普通的路當作遊樂園的跳飛機、扭動屁股、把棉花拋起來當作是雪花、把寶貼拉成長長的蛇……很快你也忘了自己有多大。

Frog

One time I was digging up dirt, trying to plant basil in my garden, when a teeny, tiny little frog hopped onto the palm of my hand. It was dirt brown and smaller than my pinky. But for a moment, I could feel its little heart beating in my hand, and it was amazing!

I met the frog again a few times, but it always hops away quickly and then disappears. I never know when it’ll show up again but I’ll always remember the brief moment when I held it in my hand.

有一次我在樓下的花園嘗試種羅勒，突然有一隻超小的青蛙跳上了我的手心。雖然牠比我的手指尾更小，但我感受到一個小小的心跳在我手心中，真是非常神奇。

後來，我又遇到那隻青蛙兩次。看到他蹦蹦跳跳，然後又一下消失了。 不知道何時才能再見呢？

Diamond

Once after running a bunch of errands, I walked down to the seaside. Suddenly I was blinded by the thousands of diamonds that shimmered on the surface of the sea. I wished I could grab all the diamonds, put them in my pocket, and keep that beautiful moment in my mind forever.

Ads say that “A diamond is forever”, so you should spend a lot of money buying one. But the diamonds that sparkle on the sea disappear in the blink of an eye. You couldn't buy one even if you wanted to, and that’s what makes them all the more precious.

有一次工作完了，特別選了海邊的路去走走，看到海面閃閃發光像鑽石，耀眼得差一點弄盲我！我很想一手抓住它們，放在褲袋裡面。一邊走，鑽石一邊在褲袋裡面丁鈴噹啷…短暫但美好的時刻就這樣被我收藏了。

鑽石廣告說 A diamond is forever ，所以是值得花錢去買。

但海面的鑽石是轉𣊬即逝，有錢也買不到！

Sun

Sometimes I get frustrated working at our storage room in San Po Kong. I’m surrounded by thousands of disorganized boxes and my mind is also a disorganized mess of things to do.

But I’m grateful for the window that looks out to the most spectacular light show. It happens almost every day, but only for a brief moment, as the sun and moon exchange places in the sky. Lion rock and all the surrounding old buildings become cotton candy pink, and the sky becomes a bubbly citrus drink.

When I look up to the sky, I’m always comforted, knowing that I’m surrounded by something much bigger than myself.

有時我在新蒲崗的倉房工作時會感到很沮喪。我被成千上萬個雜亂無章的盒子包圍著，而我的腦袋也裝滿著要做的事情。

但我很感恩能有一個窗戶，可以看到最壯觀的燈光演出。這演出幾乎每天都會發生，但每天只維持很短的時間，就是當太陽和月亮在天空交換位置的時候。這時，獅子山和周圍所有的老建築都變成了棉花糖的粉紅色，而天空變成了有氣泡的柑橘飲品。 當我抬頭看天空時，我總是感到安慰，因為我知道我周圍有比我自己更大的東西。

Drive

I remember riding home one cold night, in the back seat of a friend’s car. It was pitch dark outside and in, but I felt strangely warm and cozy. I looked around me, and I was surrounded by good friends. I felt like the night was giving me a big hug. Now whenever I am on the bus or in a car at night, the same warm feeling always comes rushing back to me.

有一次在深夜裡坐車子回家，雖然車內外都漆黑一片，但感覺好溫暖，因為我被朋友包圍著，好像是黑夜給了我一個擁抱。到現在每當我夜裡坐車也會有同一種感覺湧出來。

Cloud

It’s been said that fantasy stories like The Lord of the Rings are popular because of a few elements - being able to travel through time, escaping death, communicating with non-human beings, evil being defeated, and being together and in love. These are things that are hard to happen in real life, but what humans long for. 

This feels true to me. Our thoughts may wander to the past and the future, but people can only live in the current moment. Life is short, but we have the concept of eternity in our hearts. Sometimes I feel that life is always throwing something unexpected at me, whether it be pain or pleasure. In just a moment, I can understand life a bit more. When I look at the big, wide sky, I can feel my own smallness, and at the same time, the wonder of being alive.

曾經聽說奇幻小說如魔戒為何那麼吸引，裡面有幾個元素：可以跳出時間的框架、逃離死亡、與非人類交流、邪惡被打敗、相愛而不分離。這些都是在現實生活裏難以發生，但卻又是人類心底所渴望的……

聽了之後覺得蠻真實的，也許思緒會游走在過去和未來，但人只能夠活在這一刻。生命很短暫，卻有一個永遠的觀念放了在我心裏。有時我覺得人生總在拋一些東西給我，苦的樂的，可能就是一瞬間，又明白了生命多一點、領悟多一些，看看廣闊的天空，能感受到我們的渺小，渺小卻又神奇的存在……

Night

Sometimes when a large group of people get together, we all talk at the same time and it gets a bit loud and busy. But once during a large gathering, everybody stopped, and was quiet and attentive as I talked about a problem at home. It was a magical moment, hard to describe in words. 

I tried to recreate this moment in my drawing with sleeping animals and stars gently floating in the sky. It was like the sky was listening to all the things in my heart that I didn't know how to express.

A few days ago, for the first time in my life, I made a speech at a secondary school assembly.  I spoke clumsily as a few hundred pairs of eyes looked at me, and I felt that I was really bad at speaking. 

I probably only said 10% of what I had prepared. But the two teachers present that day tried their best to express again what I was trying to say. They told the students it was a valuable opportunity to listen, and asked the students what they had learned from my speech.

Later, one of the students said that although I was very introverted, he did pay attention to my story. I think the teacher’s last words stayed in this student’s heart.

有時候一大班人聚在一起，很容易談東談西、變得熙熙攘攘的。但有一次，大家同一時間靜下來，聆聽我家裡的一個難題，那一刻，感到很神奇，難以用說話形容。這一幅畫，就是從那一刻而來，為了營造寧靜的感覺，小動物們都睡著了，但星星輕輕飄起，我心裏不懂表達的，被天空聆聽了。

前幾天，人生第一次往中學週會分享，說話甩甩漏漏，幾百雙眼望住我，只能說自己真的不擅長做這件事……

準備說的話，最後可能只說了十分一，但同場兩位老師都好好，好努力在我講既果堆野裡面，尋著意義，再向同學們再表達多一次。差不多完結時，學生開始紛紛攘攘，老師對學生說，這樣聽別人分享的機會不多，從我們的對話裏，你聽到了什麼故事……

後來老師跟我說，有學生說雖然嘉賓內向，但都覺得有聽到人地的故事。我覺得是老師最後一番話，留了在這位學生心裡呢～

Connect

I still remember clearly the time when my friend started to talk, tears flowed down my face. Although I have not experienced the same thing as she did, at that moment I felt like we were connected. Just by imagining her pain, I felt it as well. I was actually a little surprised, because I am usually quite detached, but it turns out that I can empathize with others as well.

Many times, when we face the same problems, we can speak on the same level. When our hearts are connected, we can empathize with each other. I feel that someone has to be   understood and accepted before they can take the next step to change and shine.

我還很記得，朋友說着說着，我眼淚就流下來了，雖然我沒有經歷相同的事，但那一刻就像連在一起，只是想像，那悲傷的感覺就留下來了。其實我自己也有點驚訝，大概是平常的自己感覺很冷淡，但原來也會、也可以去理解別人。

很多時，大家面對相同的難題，可以同聲同氣。但有時候，是因為我的心與你的心相連，所以感同身受。有少少覺得一個人的心，也許要被了解、被接受，才能踏出下一步，去改變、去發亮。

River

Maybe I watch too many animations, but this is an image of my perfect childhood -  a big sun on a hot summer’s day… children splashing in a cool river with smooth stones at the bottom of it, and small fish swimming through it.

Now we have all grown up and lost the innocence and silliness of our childhood, but we also understand ourselves more. We’ve known loss, so we cherish the people and things around us. We have a little more wisdom to face failure, and the courage to keep trying.

也許是看得太多動畫，這是我心目中理想的童年畫面。大大的太陽、清澈的流水和小石小魚……那是個美好的夏天。

我們都長大了，沒有小時候的天真和傻氣，但我們比從前更了解自己，失去過，所以更懂得珍惜身邊的人和事，也許有多一點點智慧面對失敗，再勇敢嘗試。

Kid

When Joanne said the kids in this drawing look like they’re swimming, I said, that’s what it’s like to walk in the forest!

This picture is based on a photo I took in Finland. At that time, I was traveling alone. I met a very friendly Finnish lady in a restaurant. She took me for a walk. She said she came here often and that this was her favorite path in the forest. She even taught me to pick wild berries to eat.

The forest is an interesting place. On cloudy days, it can become scary, but on sunny days, it's beautiful from any angle. And as the sun set in the forest that day, I felt safe walking with someone else. 

Joanne 跟我說，他們好像在游水呢，我說在森林裏行走，就是這種感覺呀！

這圖是從這幅相片聯想而來，那時候，我一個人在芬蘭旅行，在森林裏的餐廳認識了一位非常友善的芬蘭女士，她帶我走了一段路，她說她經常來這個森林，這是她最喜歡的路徑，還介紹我可以採野莓吃。

森林是個有趣的地方，天陰時很可怕，天晴時每個角度都很美，有人一齊行，日落也安心。

Sunset

Last year I went to a distant country to visit a good friend. Her home was on a mountain with cows and sheep right outside the windows. Life was quiet, with the occasional meow of a cat. The smell of coffee and chocolate chip cookies wafted throughout the house. While we watched the sky gradually change color at sunset, we had endless topics to chat about. We had a wonderful time together, and time passed without us realizing it.

The sun sets every day, but this one sunset stayed deep in my heart.

去年，往遙遠的國度探望我的好朋友，她住在一個山上，
早上起來會看見窗外的牛和羊
那個世界靜靜的，偶爾有貓咪的叫聲
屋內有咖啡和巧克力餅的味道
日落時看天空漸漸變色
聊著說不完的話，不知不覺渡過了美好的時光

其實每一天也有日落，但這個日落就剛好落在我的心裏。