Tag: gratitude journal

A Beautiful Life – 16th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Modern life is no poetic dream
Fancy words for reality unseen
Grey buildings, dull cars in commute
Dead faces in an old fading suit

Stray dogs barking at stray cats
Dead in the gutter, eaten by rats
Rice fields planted on broken backs
A pleasant vista for tourist snaps

Instagram cafes and beauty filters
Made by dollar-a-day immigrant builders
Sunsets on mountains, time to sleep
Poetic minds now sunken deep

The toiling hordes have no time to play
With words about their tortured day
No romance in their existence
The beautiful life kept at a distance

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have Amy here to take care of the house and cook for me. She is contemplating going to the USA with Takky for 3-4 months, so leaving me to take care of all these things. That will make me busy!

Working By Yourself In Teams – 15th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes things don’t go right
The first time of trying
But to carry on without fixing it
Makes me feel like crying

Wasting time doing double work
Instead of finding a solution
Our so-called green administration
Contributes even more pollution

29th Apr 2024 – Submitted to Word of the Day Challenge – work

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that I didn’t have to teach at school yesterday as the Thai teachers all went off to get the second shot of the vaccine cocktail and decided to cancel all classes. Relaxing day.

Face – 14th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Let’s be straight and say what we mean
Because saving your face doesn’t keep it clean
Words that please can be heard as lies
To misunderstanding they give rise

Are you really so delicate you can’t hear
The truth when spoken loud and clear
We’re going backwards, why not advance
Here’s the real world, given a chance

19th Mar 2024 – Submitted to Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Misunderstanding

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be kept busy by my students. It is a difficult task to motivate them when teaching online so I spend a lot of extra time chasing them up.

Kim Chi is here in my room, and as she has stolen my chair, I have time to sit here on the floor and write this. I don’t want to push her off as she is very happy and relaxed with her paws over her eyes to block out the light.

I am home today, after arriving at school, out for a quick delicious coffee, back to start my lesson, only for Dylan to come and see me and when I saw he was wearing his backpack I asked him where he was going and he said ‘have you heard that there’s no classes today?’ Responding in the negative, he said that the Thai teachers were all going off for their second dose of vaccines and cancelled all classes – without telling us! So typical and annoying.

When I called our coordinator, he just said, ‘Oh, I thought you knew!’ How the fuck were we supposed to know!?

In the past, I would’ve gotten really wound up by this bad communication – especially as I’m always well-organised and have lessons planned around a regular schedule. Today, though, it’s just, oh well, at least I can go home and relax.

First, I went with Dylan to his girlfriend’s cafe, Tongsiam and had a coffee and chat there. His girlfriend, Wa, is a nice, level-headed girl, just out of Uni and looking for a more rewarding job.

Two coffees later (another delicious one at Utopia), and I got home for lunch – much to Amy’s surprise. And now, I’m relaxing in my room – after a quick go at the grass with the cutter, until it ran out of petrol. I feel compelled to get it back into proper working order again and make a little more effort in the garden, which is totally out of control at the moment due to constant rain this year.

I’m finding it a little difficult to love it here at the moment, but I must remember that I will be here for another 5-10 years at least, as I will stay here for our cats. I guess it’s all the frustration of not being able to go anywhere at the moment, too, and the Covid situation getting worse in Thailand. It’s hard to see an end to it or even the much-touted ‘new normal. ‘

Still, it’s my mind that needs to get in order – the world is going to carry on.

Yesterday – 13th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

It’s a vague memory
Not sure what I can say
I just don’t recall
Much about yesterday

I know I enjoyed it
It went very well
What were the details
I can no longer tell

I’m sure there was coffee
And stroking the cats
Did the dog come to visit?
I don’t know – perhaps?

Online classes of kids
I think they enjoyed their study
I think it was fun
Though my memory is muddy

What about this morning?
What the hell did I do?
The onset of senility?
What if I write this poem again tomorrow……
Too?

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my iPad that I could use last night to watch Sydney beat the top team in the AFL. Then to read comics and books. I don’t use it for much else but it’s fantastic for what I want.

Same Old Song – 12th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 8 Comments

You were a Frankenstein
When I saw you on the screen
I was scared and curious
At the weirdness I had seen

What drew me to it
I don’t really understand
But the thing I knew is
That I wanted to start a band

Your face inspired my generation
Though now you’ll never know
You burned and crashed out
While others took the chance to grow

Ten years or so, later
And others inspired the same
They too destroyed themselves
Cos they couldn’t handle the fame

Exploited to make a buck
It happened again and again
Working hard to get where you were
But it will never be the same

Now little girls chase this dream
To get famous for a minute
As if life was a competition
And everyone has to win it

20th Sep 2024 – Submitted to Reena’s Xploration Challenge #348

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the chicken that laid the egg that Amy is about to cook in the kitchen. I hope the chicken is having a good life and not stuck in a factory farm somewhere.

Nancy’s Eyes – 11th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

A youthful head full of fantasies
Love songs sung out of bedroom windows
Piercing dark eyes staring into mine
I study every contour of the dimples ’round your nose

Desperately seeking the warmth and comfort
To learn the secrets of your touch
Six more aching hearts on the other side
The urges of desire are too much

14th Mar 2025 – This poem suggests deep, though unclear, memories of the feelings from that time.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the passionfruit plants I bought that are growing like crazy and about to bring us lots of fruit. It’s so good to watch something grow from seed and get flowers or fruit from it.

The weekends disappear so fast – weekdays too, really. Still, at least this weekend I had time to continue posting to my blog and also going through old bits of writing and letters and considering how to add them at some point.

It’s weird to be spending time documenting the past and not really doing that much in the now. I guess it is a good time to be doing it though, as the virus continues to spread around the country.

Amy has continued her dancing regime and lost a little weight again. I had my first drink in a while last weekend and feel I somewhat suffered for it through the rest of the week by not doing much exercise and gaining a little weight. The hangover wasn’t so bad, but the wasted time stings.

I’m really enjoying playing guitar, though it is hard for me to perfect it, it’s keeping me focused.

At Utopia this morning, besides drinking two fabulous coffees, Art was telling me his building is without water again. Every time he complains to ‘the people’ (I don’t know who actually controls this), they just tell him that he should understand that it happens because he is a long way from the source. This is an obvious cop-out, as he pays the same as someone right next to the source. People are really lazy to make things work efficiently and for everybody here. Unequal and corrupt, as Art was able to tell me through Google translation.

I can ignore this kind of thing most of the time, though I have been (perhaps mistakenly) following the Thai news a bit more closely these days due to the spread of the virus, and I see these kinds of symptoms everywhere. I feel frustrated for the kids I teach. I have a way out, but they may not.

My Meditation – 10th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

When I put it down in words
It has such a calming effect on me
No need for mindful meditations
I just need to write some poetry
Processing bad feelings
And the negative thoughts that go in
I can calm my overactive mind
Just by writing another poem

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to the security guard who stopped me at the university gate and asked about wearing a crash helmet. I apologised – I forgot you need to wear a helmet to get in. He just said ‘it doesn’t matter’ and waved me through!

Fall From Grace – 9th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

That time everyone worked together
Fighting for what was best
Made us leaders, held us up
A shining example to the rest
So it goes, the group divides
And no longer meets the test
From leaders to losers now
Others are no longer impressed
The fingers point at each other
As if each had so been blessed
Outside the insular echo chambers
The faults are easily guessed

Comment on the pandemic situation in Thailand, once kept well at bay and since gotten out of control.

You are just wandering around the goal with your monkey mind. Always looking for something without knowing what you are doing. If you want to see, you should open your eyes.

from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that there is a guitar shop in town where I could buy the little tool to help pull out the plugs on my acoustic guitar. I enjoyed looking at the guitars there too.

Who was I? – 8th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

If being dead means not alive
What was I before I was born?
I’ll be Shaun into the forever future
But was I Shaun before I was Shaun?

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the two small pieces of chocolate I have each morning to spice up my yoghurt and muesli. It’s my favourite – dark chocolate Toblerone and reminds me of our trip in 2012 to Lausanne in Switzerland. This in turn reminds me of Fahmir in Kuala Lumpur – when he couldn’t say ‘Switzerland’ so that I could understand him.

Alpha Male – 7th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

If I do the same thing every day
It will be things that I wish to do
I’m not your little monkey boy
And I won’t be following you
Take your little army of friends
The ones easy to control
If that’s what you need
To make yourself feel whole
Accusing me of mind games
Because this is what you know
Your words are just sneaky tricks
And doesn’t make it so
I won’t fight your alpha male
I’d rather be on my own
You don’t understand and never will
Because you can never be alone

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to see the mist on the mountains this morning. On some rainy grey days, the mist stays there all day – even when I’m driving home. The sky feels so low that it is claustrophobic.