14th March 2009-Free the spirit

My dad has been requesting my mum to make different kinds of soup these days. He is into soups now. Hopefully it will help him gain more weight by Friday. :)

Today he had Onion & Tomato soup for lunch and Mushroom soup for dinner. My mum home made them. Tomorrow he requested for Pumpkin soup or French Onion soup. YUM!

My dad's colleague came over for a visit today. I call him "the colleague that goes out for lunch with you". Well, I do bump into my dad having lunch with him since our offices is only 5 minutes apart.

 

My dad reading the brochure that his colleague gave.

He shared with us his brother's experience as a cancer patient. The chemotherapy that his brother went through and also the alternative treatment that he is undergoing at the moment. My dad had a good chat with him and somehow the topic of "freeing the spirit" came up.

It came about when he mentioned that it's the Goddess of Mercy's birthday tomorrow. He will be going to a temple at Kuala Selangor to celebrate it. Then he mentioned about releasing captive creatures as a form of "freeing the spirit". 

Then my dad thought about the tortoises that we have at home. He said that he's been wanting to let them go as they deserve a wider space. (They have been kept in a tub at home. My dad interacts with the tortoises every time he changes their water.) So when his colleague mentioned it, it just came to him that he would love to free them.

My dad's colleague then offered to bring them to the river near the temple that he will be going to tomorrow. He said that it's a normal ritual for the temple to "free spirits" during the Goddess of Mercy's birthday. 

My mum went back to her place to clean up the tortoises and brought them over for my dad's colleague to free them tomorrow. There was a touch of sadness as these tortoises has been with us since I was 7-8 years old. But they do deserve a wider space and we pray for them to be able to survive and live happily. :)

Our tortoises.

One of them is named Snappy! We had 3 tortoises.The 3rd tortoise was snapped by Snappy and we separated them. A little while after the separation, the "single" tortoise passed away. Snappy got the name Snappy because of this incident. Snappy also likes to snap our fingers when we try to carry it back to the tub. The other one is very tame, that's why it doesn't have a name. :)

My dad with the tortoises.

My dad writing his name in chinese at the bottom shell of the tortoises.

He also wrote tomorrow's date.

My dad blessed them before they were taken away.