The Adventures of Little Qi Shifu & Friends

Singapore, Part 3: Octii Takes the Leap

Fear, Courage & Three Very Improbable Loop-de-Loops at Marina Bay Sands

@2026_Aileen-C-Jong-LAc_QiMastery | TM | All Rights Reserved   

Somewhere at the Top of Sunny Singapore…

It was another spectacular day in Singapore, and the Little Qi Shifu crew had somehow found themselves at the top of Marina Bay Sands. Naturally, Regina, Bombi and Commander Larry had already claimed the infinity pool.

“Mine!” Regina yelled, leaping for the beach ball.

“No fair!” Bombi squealed as Larry intercepted it.

“Excellent strategic positioning!” Commander Larry announced, looking ridiculously pleased with himself. The three of them splashed and laughed as the ball sailed back and forth across the sparkling blue water.

Octii was not laughing. He had crept toward the edge of the infinity pool and made the terrible mistake of looking down. His eight tentacles immediately plastered themselves against the tiles.

“Awfully high…” he whispered. Beside him, Fearful Freddy looked down too. Freddy was normally a rather small blue Water creature. But fear has a peculiar way of making itself look much larger than it really is, and Freddy had been growing steadily ever since they arrived at the top of Marina Bay Sands.

“What if we fall?” said Freddy fearfully. He grew a little bigger.

“What if we get hurt?” Bigger still.

“And what if we can’t do it?” By now Freddy was looming over poor Octii, his enormous blue eyes fixed on the very, very, very long way down. Octii gulped. This was not helping.

When Fear Gets Bigger

In Chinese Five Element theory, fear belongs to the Water Element and the Kidneys. Fear itself is not bad. It protects us. It tells us to pay attention when something may be dangerous. But sometimes fear keeps growing even after we have received the message. The more attention we feed it, the bigger it becomes.

And poor Octii was especially susceptible. Being our Earth/Spleen character, he tends to take whatever everybody else is feeling and start processing it through all nine of his brains. So now Freddy was afraid. Octii was worried because Freddy was afraid. Then Octii started worrying about being worried. One could practically hear all nine brains beginning to churn.

Lady Qi Shifu, meanwhile, was doing the elementary backstroke. She floated lazily past them on her back, little purple ears in the water, pink glasses catching the sunshine. She looked perfectly content.

Octii stared at her. “LQS! Aren’t you worried?” Lady Qi Shifu continued floating.

“About what?” Octii pointed eight frantic arms toward the edge. “THAT!”

LQS glanced over. “Oh.” Then she went back to floating.

“You’re an octopus.” Octii blinked.

“You live in water.” Freddy blinked too.

“You have eight arms.” Octii looked down at them as if he had only just noticed.

“You literally float.” LQS drifted another few feet, enjoying the warm Singapore sun.

“So what are you afraid of?”

Octii opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

“…falling stylishly?”

Sometimes We Forget What We Already Know

Lady Qi Shifu smiled.  She wasn't telling Octii that nothing could ever go wrong. Nor was she telling him that fear was silly.  She was reminding him of something fear had temporarily made him forget: 

He Already Knew How to Swim

Sometimes when we become frightened or overwhelmed, our attention goes completely toward everything that could go wrong. We forget our training. We forget our resources. We forget the things our body already knows how to do. And sometimes we even forget who we are.

Octii looked at the water. Then at his eight arms. Then back at the water. Beside him, Freddy didn't look quite so enormous anymore.

“What if we actually can do it?” Octii wondered. Freddy shrank another inch.

“What if we trust what we already know?” Smaller still shrank Freddy. Octii's normal colors began returning.

The Big Octii Leap
“GO OCTII!” Bombi yelled from behind them.

“You can do it!” Regina shouted. Commander Larry saluted.

“TRUST THE TRAINING!” Octii took a breath. One breath. Then another. He gathered all eight arms underneath himself. Lady Qi Shifu floated serenely nearby. Octii looked once more toward the horizon.

And jumped.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH…!!” For approximately one second, Octii was absolutely certain he had made a terrible mistake. Then something interesting happened. His body took over.

WHOOSH! Octii curled himself around.

LOOP-DE-LOOP NUMBER ONE!

“WHOOOOOOAAAA!” He spun again.

LOOP-DE-LOOP NUMBER TWO!

“HEY! I’M DOING IT!” And because Octii is Octii (with 8 arms) and apparently one impossible aerial maneuver is never sufficient.

LOOP-DE-LOOP NUMBER THREE!

“WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Freddy stared. Bombi screamed. Regina roared. Larry completely abandoned military composure. Lady Qi Shifu finally lifted her head from the water.

“Well. That’s new.”

Octii hit the water. A magnificent wall of spray exploded upward. The splash flew everywhere—across the bay, through the sunshine and, in the highly imaginative geography of the Little Qi Shifu Universe, directly toward Singapore's famous Merlion.

SPLAAAASH!!!

“I DID IT!” The crew erupted. “YOU DID IT!”

Octii paddled happily through the water, absolutely delighted with himself. And somewhere during those three ridiculous loop-de-loops, something else had happened. Fearful Freddy had become little again. He was still there. Fear doesn't need to disappear completely. It just didn't need to be in charge.

Octii Gets His Win

Octii floated happily in front of the Merlion, basking in his victory. “You know,” he said, “I think I looked pretty good up there.” Freddy nodded. “You did.”

“Stylish?”

“Very stylish.”

Commander Larry shouted from above, “DO IT AGAIN!” Octii looked up. Then he looked at the enormous distance between himself and the top of Marina Bay Sands. His eyes widened. “NOPE!”

Lady Qi Shifu laughed. One courageous triple leap was quite enough for today.

Courage is not the absence of fear.  Sometimes courage is remembering who you are, trusting what you already know, and moving anyway.

And with that, Octii rolled onto his back, spread all eight arms across the water and floated beneath the Singapore sun.

Just like an octopus.

人在气中，气在人中
 ~  I am within the Qi, and the Qi is within me.  ~