 Hi, it's Tulip from Coffee Time. Are we ready to share today's coffee? Boy, look at the sunshine outside, it's so great. What a beautiful day after some rainy days in Amorist, my hometown. And I would like to honor what some of our forefathers in every program perhaps. So today I'm going to share some words by Ben Okre and I am sharing it from this book called A Way of Being Free and the author is Ben Okre, one of my most favorite. So I found his words on metamorphosis and I think it's so unique for these times when we are caught with the situation of the COVID-19 and how we are changing according to the needs of our times. So the on metamorphosis Ben Okre writes, Ben Okre is a writer I found a long time ago and he is from Nigeria and was educated in Nigeria and England. He won the Booker Prize for fiction in 1991. He has also won the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for fiction and many more. So let's get back to the words. He writes of metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the essential condition of a state of affairs. It is the true hidden reality that becomes apparent. The essence of things or people is truer than their visible forms. In a metamorphosis, the essential truth overruns the external illusion of truth. As you are, so you become. I will end sharing Ben Okre today for up to here, but as you become, so you are. Our words perhaps we could value through each and every phase of life. And there is another way saying on that, when in Rome be like a Roman. Yes, we change, changes are an inevitable part of life. And over time I have found as I journeyed back from Asian, European and South Asian countries with my parents or my own family, my children, that whenever I missed home too much, I became nostalgic. I felt sad. So I learned over time to enjoy what was given to me right at that moment. Enjoy the people, the land and the food wherever I was. And home I think in that sense is also in a great way where life happens. Yes, the happenings of the past are important. They make you what you are today. But in the crossroad of times, what we learn is that each and every experience is a lesson. They are not mistakes. And if they are, think of them as lessons. If you have come out fine, still going strong, you made it. And that all goes to Ben or Chris words that metamorphosis is a way of life. I think back to the times when we were children. Perhaps we didn't have too much to say to what we did, what we ate because we are lucky. At least most of us were lucky perhaps in having a family to take care of us. And I really do have deepest thoughts for people who are not so lucky, don't always have a family. But in situations, adaptability or changing our own selves is often the easier way than to resist the time and the conditions of where we are, how we are. And going back to COVID-19, I think these are the times into 2020 that it has become apparent more than ever that to live from today to tomorrow to be able to dream from tomorrow to the day after to the weeks and the months. There is one thing that will help us all and it is keep our minds open to changes. Yes, when the internet took over, many of us complained that the tangible aspects have gone, that we are too much into virtual world. Even kisses were not shared, the mother's hugs were not shared in person because we could do them all in the internet. We became sort of lazier, didn't want to rush out in the evening hours to meet our mother or aging relatives. At times put up that surprise birthday party because we want to socialize more on the internet. Watch more movies, play video games. Perhaps the COVID-19 has come to teach us that all those things, the virtual world we went into came for a reason. They came to prepare us for what we are going through right now. The homebound days, the world in days, the bubble days we are living for the coronavirus. And what's making the whole world together now is the internet. Even the whole global world is revolving around the internet. And we are still being able to know about our loved ones, our friends, our relatives, our colleagues. Able to give some bit of knowledge to students if we are teaching, somehow to keep the threads going. So I hope just like the sun is playing around with me, hiding behind the clouds, coming out once in a while, that we all are strong enough to embrace every day, to keep prayers for once for the lives that are lost in this unlucky situation. But still be going strong so that tomorrow we may be there for anyone who needs for a hand to hold him or her to stand up. When we are strong, we can help others. So let's be the strongest we can. Thank you, Trimers Media for today. Faith Gregory was just awesome so that we can put this video together and still be sharing our coffee time. So, hope you'll join me for the next coffee hour, coffee time or tea time. Stay safe, till we meet again. This is Tulip, sending you the warmest thoughts and prayers. Bye.