   
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed the set of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you 'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troubled times of my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why you would leave me when I needed you most."
The Lord replied,"My child. My precious child. I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
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~Footprints of my Life~
 I have been going to the respective enrichment programmes that MOE has planned for beginning teachers for the past few days. Out of the many talks/seminars, workshops etc., Mr. Jeffrey Goh's talk is the one that has left the deepest impression in my mind. His talk lasted for about 3 hrs and no, I didn't even shut my eyes for a minute during his talk. Instead, I spent the 3 hrs laughing my head off and feeling deeply inspired about my calling as a teacher at the end of the talk. Here's a picture of him:  Ok, he is not exactly the most handsome guy around and this is a fact that he admitted himself...hahaha. In fact, he's 60 yrs old and married with about 30 years in the teaching profession. He is the one who informed the audience that day that Vanuatu Island is the world's happiest place out of a survey of 178 countries. Vietnam came in 12th and Philippines in the 17th place and guess what? Singapore came in 131st. In a country where the basic necessities (food, clothing, shelter and education) are comfortably provided and protected from natural disasters like tsunamis, floods and volcanic eruptions, Singaporeans are still not very happy with life. Happy girls in Vanuatu Island In stark contrast, Vanuatu Island only have coconuts and fish and the people there are the happiest. I thought about it and realised that this survey only highlighted a very sad nature of human beings in general and that is: the more they have....the more they want. It seems that humans can never be satisfied. I thank God for this message by Mr. Jeffrey Goh. Earlier on, I had become increasingly unhappy with several issues and I realised that this unhappiness had stemmed from discontentment in my heart after the talk. Some people may argue that Singapore cannot be compared to Vanuatu Island because the people in these two countries are exposed to different things right from the start and thus have different expectations towards life. Yes, I do agree with that but I think what we can learn from this survey is that we don't need to have many things or experience many things in order to be happy. Happiness, as I found out, really starts from contentment. Well, Mr. Jeffrey Goh shared many other inspiring and sometimes hilarious stories during his talk but it is impossible for me to write out everything here! I don't know if Mr. Jeffrey Goh is going to give any more talks. If he is and I happen to know about it, I am certainly going for it! It's rare to find a speaker who can make you laugh and can inspire you at the same time! =) Btw, you can see for yourself the survey here. MaRGaReT left her footprint @ 5:13 PM
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