Gratitude Inventory: 31 July 2010

31 July 2010, Saturday

Today, I am grateful that:

1. Almighty Allah has kept me alive so that I could still devote time and service to my family
2. Almighty Allah sent Amir Hussain to me to be my soulmate
3. Almighty Allah provided me with not just one, but four bundles of joy
4. We are contented and fun loving as a family
5. Allah chose me to be Mak and Ayah's daughter
6. Almighty Allah's bounties, big and small 
7. I've imparted some useful life lessons and English lessons to all my students in the hope that they will use what they have acquired as part of their learning curve.

(And when your Lord made it known: If you are grateful, I would certainly give to you more, and if you are ungrateful, My chastisement is truly severe.) (Ibrahim 14:7)

If Tomorrow God Wants Me To Go

30 July 2010, Friday

If tomorrow God wants me to go, and I’m not there to see,
If the sun should rise and find your eyes all filled with tears for me;
I wish so much you wouldn’t cry the way you did today,
while thinking of the many things we didn’t get to say.

I know how much you care for me, and how much I care for you,
and each time that you think of me I know you’ll miss me too;

But when tomorrow God wants me to go, please try to understand,

that my time is up and it's time for me to go,
and that I’d have to leave behind all those I dearly love.

But as I turned to walk away, a tear fell from my eye,

for all life, I’m not prepared to die so soon.
I had so much to live for and so much yet to do.
it seemed almost impossible that I was leaving you.

I thought of all the love we shared and all the fun we had.
If I could relive yesterday, I thought, just for a while,
I’d say goodbye and hug you and maybe see you smile.

 

But then I fully realised that this could never be,

for emptiness and memories would take the place of me.

And when I thought of worldly things that I’d miss come tomorrow.
I thought of you, and when I did, my heart was filled with sorrow.

Today my life on earth is past but yours starts anew.
I promise no tomorrow, but today will always last.
and since each day’s the same, there’s no longing for the past.

But you have been so loving, so trusting, so true.

Though there were times you did some things you knew you shouldn’t do.
And you have been forgiven and now at last you’re free.

So won’t you come and take my hand and share my life with me?

So if tomorrow starts without me, don’t think we’re far apart,

for every time you think of me, please know I’m in your heart.



WanKinsella@Lubukhatiku

I walked in the clouds

30 July 2010, Friday

Today, I walked in the clouds. I could feel my feet touching the soft white clouds. I could breathe in the sweet-smelling clouds. I was enveloped in the density of the clouds.

Clouds here, clouds there, clouds everywhere. For some strange reasons, I'm not only fascinated by the sun, both the beauty of sun set and sun rise, but also by clouds formation.

I love to watch the clouds forming in the sky. And when I travel long distance, I'm usually armed with both my Canon compact digital camera and my semi SLR Canon to capture these breathtaking images. And during my recent trip to Perak (north of Malaysia), it was no different. I managed to capture some fascinating images of the clear blue sky as well as several beautiful clouds formation.

Somehow (perhaps due to the different landscape, as well as the absence of many tall buildings, plus lack of pollution), the sky up north seems bluer and clearer compared to the sky in KL. And the sky seems nearer...it appears as though it's beckoning you to be near it.

Don't you ever wish that you can climb up a ladder to reach the clouds and the stunning blue sky?

Footprints to My Past: A Giant Jigsaw Puzzle

27 July 2010, Tuesday

As part of my quest to write a book to trace my family's roots and to glean into my past, I've visited several  places and interviewed a couple of key people, looking for missing pieces and trying my level best to piece the giant jigsaw puzzle.

To-date, I've left my footprints at the following places:
1. Singapore (met my only surviving aunt, Mak Minah from 7 to 9 July 2010)
2. Tanah Liat, Bukit Mertajam, Penang (met Kak Yam, Abang Ad, Pak Long Bakar and later Abang Ismail) on 17 July 2010
3. Alor Setar, Kedah (met Kak Rombi, my maternal cousin and Mami Sarah, my maternal aunt) from 18 to 19 July 2010

And tomorrow my journey continues. Enroute to Sungkai, Perak (for a 27th honeymoon sojourn), my husband and I will be heading to Sungai Siput (about 17km from Kuala Kangsar) to meet Yati Rabuan (a former neighbour in Singapore). Hopefully, I can glean further stories from our stay in Singapore in the 60's and 70's.

I'm all excited and can't wait for the day I can start penning down all the historical bits and pieces about my family. I am quite sure, I will unearth a skeleton or two in the process....

A story is born

25 July 2010, Sunday

With one finger I type the keyboard looking for an alphabet
From one alphabet I form a word
And from a word I string a sentence
And from a sentence I spin a tale
And, a beautiful story is born

Asylum for the verbally insane

25 July 2010, Sunday

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice

If the plural of man is always called men
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose

We speak of a brother and also of brethren
But though we say mother, we never say methren

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; 
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple

English muffins weren't invented in England

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes
We find that quicksand can work slowly

Boxing rings are square
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all But one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship

We have noses that run and feet that smell

We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down
In which you fill in a form by filling it out
And in which an alarm goes off by going on

And, in closing, if Father is Pop,

How come Mother's not Mop?

The world as graphically depicted through my eyes today

24 July 2010, Saturday

Today I boycotted the world

24 July 2010, Saturday

Today I boycotted the world
I slept but I did not fall asleep
I ate but I it did not satisfy my hunger
I drank but it did not quench my thirst

I read but the words were blur
I wrote but it was unintelligible
I spoke but no one listened to me
I sang but there was no melody

I lie down but the mattress seemed hard
I cried but there were no tears
I ran and I stumbled
I fell into a deep hole

I bade goodbye
But the universe is still spinning
And reality hit me
I'm still here
The world still needs me
It continues to embrace me

Sleep eluded me yet again....

24 July 2010, Saturday

Sleep eluded me last night. Try as I might, my eyes refused to shut. So, I lay awake the entire night. I was tempted to get out of bed, but was too lazy. I was hoping against hope that my tired eyes would finally shut. Alas, I stayed awake till I heard the azan for subuh prayers.

Normally, when there are a lot of things on my mind, sleep would elude me. And yesterday, this condition was made worse by the fact that I had taken a nap in the afternoon. Usually, try as I might, I cannot fall asleep during the day unless I'm mighty tired. I would usually be tossing here and there until it was time for me to get my butt off the bed.

And yesterday, I made the gravest mistake of drinking hazelnut coffee to keep me awake during my English class. So, it came as no surprise when my eyes refused to shut and sleep eluded me. Any caffeinated drink would keep me awake the entire night, and I've failed, yet again to avoid cofffee or tea, especially those taken in the later part of the day.

Why?

23 July 2010, Friday