A story to remind myself !

I came upon this short story from this linkhttp://www.indianchild.com/wooden_bowl.htm that is full of motivational stories, quotes, words and many more. The reason it captures me is that it is a different version with the same message from what I hear. Read on and see :-


A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and a four-year old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together nightly at the dinner table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating rather difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass often milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. "We must do something about grandfather," said the son. I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor. So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner at the dinner table. Since grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. Sometimes when the family glanced in grandfather's direction, he had a tear in his eye as he ate alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in silence.
One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?" Just as sweetly, the boy responded, "Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and mama to eat your food from when I grow up." The four-year-old smiled and went back to work. The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table.
For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled. Children are remarkably perceptive. Their eyes ever observe, their ears ever listen, and their minds ever process the messages they absorb. If they see us patiently provide a happy home atmosphere for family members, they will imitate that attitude for the rest of their lives. The wise parent realizes that every day that building blocks are being laid for the child's future.
Let us all be wise builders and role models. Take care of yourself, ... and those you love, ... today, and everyday!

The version I heard was the father taking the grandfather away in a cart to the old folk's home and later found the son making another cart and telling the father that it will be used to take the father away in the future.

No matter how the story is told, it carries the same meaning. One word to say it all :- L O V E .......

Resignation

I have been working in the same office for twenty years. During these years, I have seen many new and old friends come and go. There are some that I wish they could stay on longer because they had brought a lot of happiness into the office. These are the people that colleagues will call them friends. They are the ones that others will miss.The positive energy and laughter they send out will always make an impact on other people's life wherever they go.
Today, one such person has decided to leave. She has brought a lot of laughter to us and smiles are always asround when she is there. So, I wish her the best in her career and hope that her happiness will continue to pass to those at her new workplace.

Balloons, balloons......

Today I saw a lot of balloons. Colourful and used to make many different shapes and sizes. Looking at the balloons that were tied to togther to look like trees, chickens, trees, flowers and others, balloons are definitely one of the things used for decoration in many kinds of event.

I tend to link balloon and stress. When you blow up a balloon, it is like stress increasing in our bodies. The more it is blown into, the bigger the balloon and when the balloon cannot take it anymore, BANG!!! . Imagine the stress as the air and the balloon as our mind, you will know that we should not over-stress ourselves.

Personally, I like to de-stress by going out with friends. Whether is Karaok-ing or just hanging around, I like to enjoy the company of my friends. Since meeting up with my old schoolmates through Facebook last year, we would try to meet up once around every month. Just a simple lunch or dinner date would means over two hours of chit-chatting and laughter. How I like it !

Another one is Karaok-ing. Just last night, I went singing with my friends and although I didn't get to sing my favourite songs (coz there were just too many avid singers there), it was just pure happy fun time with taking photographs, talking or rather shouting and  singing along.

Be it whatever way we choose to de-stress, it is important to know and find ways to release the stress or tension in our mind and body. Never let it accumulate or one day we might find it to be a bomb ready to explode anytime. So, be happy and stress is something you won't quite see.

I.O.U

Who likes to owe people money? Who likes their money to be owed? Haizz... Why do I sigh?

Some people cannot control their spendings. To them, using a credit card to buy things are not considered as spending money. ???? because it didn't decrease CASH in their pocket. Yet, they are still owing others and are always asking for extension from their borowers to repay later. In fact, if they could just reduce spending on things that are not of important necessities, they could just repay in a much shorter time.

They are also some who think that others won't mind the money being returned later.Not that they are unwilling or unable to repay, it is the "tidak apa " attitude in their attitude. You can remind them a few times in a day and yet, they can still dilly-dally in giving back the money, as if it is you who owe them and not the other way round.

Like the Chinese saying, one kind of rice can bring up hundreds kind of different people.........

Brainwashing.....

 Today I got brainwashed by 3 of my colleagues. Not scientifically though, but if you are listening to the same things for 4 times in a row, I guess it could be named "brainwashing".

Why and how? For example, if you first listen to a new song on the radio, yoyou might not really like it. Soon, everytime your switch on the radio, the same song will at least be played once or twice. The more you hear, the more you like it. Unless it is a song type  that you really don't like listening too like heavy metal, you will  find yourself loving it or even able to hum along.

In my case today, I have been selected to play the role of a customer  ( Why? Coz I am not in the line of sales, so I should play it well) and listen to 4 of my colleagues sell a product's benefits and features to me. After listening, I was able to feedback to them the pros and cons their ways of presentation. At the same time, after 4 times listening to the same things though presented differently, I feel that even I can sell the product ! I feel that this is a good way to coach one another and also to brainstorm ways to sell better and ALSO to practice the selling skills. Like that say, if you hone your sword well enough everyday, it will serve you well one day ~!

Another fulfilling day for me !

Making a decision

Seven months ago, I helped my daughter made a decision. The question then was : to take her BM paper in SK ( harder but lower passing mark ) or SJK (easier but higher passing mark). In the first place, her school teaches BM in SK format and she has been studying it for 6 years. Earlier this year, the teacher asked them to decide which to take during the exams. Although she was ask to choose, the teacher had actually told them to take the SJK paper.

So when I heard the news, I went round asking a few people. One was her tuition teacher ( also a teacher in the same school) and her question to me was, are u really "keen" for your daughter to get an "A" for her paper? Issit really important to you?. At that point, I told her "Nope, I just want her to give her best for what she has studied in the past 6 years." She answered me " If so, u can encourage her to take the SK paper. If you are determined for her to get an A, then SJK would be the most secured way as it's standard is lower by SK by one year. Means the test would be what was taught to her for the last five years excluding the current year."Upon hearing that, I told my girl " Take the SK paper. Give it your best shot. This will gauge what are your learning standards. "

NOW, today, she told me " Mom, the teachers have compared the answers and I only got 22 correct answers out of 40, which means my marks would be around 55. I would probably get a C. If I took the SJK paper, I would have gotten an A" Then she cried.  At that moment, I asked myself, " Did I make the wrong decision for her? Would it have been different if she took SJK?"

I had to admit I was just as disappointed as she was, BUT I also told myself this was she studied and this is the level she is at. She is taking this test to gauge what she learned and not just for the purpose of getting an A. If she gets an A, it means she learned well. If not, then it shows she is weak in that subject. So, as a mom, I should encourage her to learn more and make extra effort to work harder on that subject.

There are times in our lives that we have to make certain decisions. Big or small, these decisions are the crossroads where our lives changes, depending on the decisions we have made.The decisions made not only affects but also the others around us.  There are also times when we have to decide for others. Making a decision can be easy or hard but regretting on what that was decided is definitely hard for us. Make decisions well and if it's wrong, don't dwell on the past. Look forward and make up for it and not to decide wrongly for the second time.Some decisions doesn't give us a second chance, so DECIDE WISELY !!!!





 

I will write again......

When I first started this blog, I was actually under the influence of others. Not that it's a bad one, it's just that I thought it was cool that bloggers are able to earn money by writing blogs. Naively, I thought I can be one of them. As a result, I wrote with the idea of making money from blogging. THAT itself was the wrong way to start my blog. AND then, I ended up having a writer's block because I couldn't find the time to really write what I feel and instead I wrote things trying to be commercialised, hoping to attract readers. I guease it's the same thing that happen to the music industry, where some singers are singing songs that many will like and some are singing songs that really mean to them.Now, I'm going to start anew. My resolution is to blog about everything I see or feel and not care about making money.

I have never kept a diary during my schooldays even though I like to read a lot of books. I used to dream of being a writer and I even took a course for home writing. But, alas, I lack the resolution to finish the whole thing and ended paying for the whole thing and not even finishing it. That's naivevity during the younger days. I suppose almost everyone has daydreams of the same kind. Of course, there are those who really make it to their dreams and I really admire them. It takes willpower, determination, focused mind plus a little bit of luck ( and money, of course) and a few of this and that to make it. These are the people who make it great in life.

So from now on., I will use this blog as my diary, for the past memories, present feelings and future hopes. Well, signing off for now... Adios dear dia-blog !