According to my 2011 planning chart, this year gonna be very busy days for me. I got at least two big projects need to be done commencing next week onwards, not to mention some 'clients' that are waiting in line for some wise counsels (I'm talking about their expectation of me) from me as well as new books hoped to be touched and read by me and bla bla bla...huhu. Well of course I enjoy doing all those assignments or rather hobbies I should say but it also means less and less and less time left for blogging, facebooking whatsoever. Therefore, to all my faithful readers please bear with my inability to update my post as frequent as you wished it to be. I can promise you nothing but this - I'll try my best to accommodate your wish:-)
Eat Pray Love? It's actually a book authored by Elizabeth Gilbert. I got it from my best friend as a birthday gift last week. I've just finished reading the first few pages, still long way to go to get to the last page of the book. So far I find it very entertaining (so funny indeed that it can make me LOL like crazy while reading it...hahaha), amazing, insightful and adventurous narration of one's pursuit of pleasure, devotion and balance between the two in three different beautiful places namely Italy, India and Indonesia. I'm with her in Italy now. A place where you can encounter sweet expressions like bel far niente, means "the beauty of doing nothing" (highly recommended to workaholics only, I suppose), l' arte d' arrangiarsi - the art of making something out of nothing (highly recommended to sluggard or maybe jobless group...just my opinion though), etc. I love this quotation also..."Better to live a life of single-pointed focus"...if you got two items/desires clashing against one another, you are destined for unhappiness it says (I'm paraphrasing it)...I bet I know the reality of this philosophy very well. Trying to live a life of double-pointed focus to me is the same as living without focus at all. In the end, you'll end up accomplishing nothing or worse still living with full of regrets for the rest of your life. Anyone disagree? But what about the benefits of living harmoniously amid extremes? could we somehow synchronize seemingly nonparallel opposites into a worldview that excludes nothing? What do you think?
Well...that's it for today...will be back as soon as I get to India :-)
Used to tumble down the giant of old
An assurance and a promise
That through Him the giants in my life
Will soon be tumbled down too
Today and only today
marks a new beautiful beginning
For another year full of blessed hope in Him
Ready to use and be used according to His will
Today and not only for today
I fix my gaze directly before me
Like the first gleam of dawn
Shining ever brighter till the full light of day!
P/S I just jot down whatever words come to my mind and in less than 15 minutes, this is the result I got...not bad huh?...hehe. Blessed birthday to me and to everyone that shares the same birthday with me. By the way, Happy New Year 2011! Thank you for being faithful readers and friends of Really Living throughout the past year. Keep blog walking with me because I really need u all :-) God bless us.
For most working individuals, holiday is always looked forward to. In fact, everybody loves holiday. We want holiday - not just holiday, but holiday + s as many as possible. It gives us rest and relief from our hectic schedules, provides time to get together with family members, can go jalan2/cuti2 Malaysia...the list goes on. Unfortunately, not all get the same quantity of holiday. Some even hardly get any. Teachers and students especially should be the most grateful ones because without the need to face the sometimes-very-fussy-boss/procedures of applying for a leave, what they desire is already granted. Like a gift receives from Santa Claus, November and December bring them a special gift of long holidays every year whom greatly envied by those belong to other professions. What a privilege to have!
But to me, meaningful holiday has nothing to do with the number of holidays you have. In other words, it's not about how long or how short your holidays are but it's about how you spend the season. Sometimes, friends come to me and ask me "kau tidak boring (sepatutnya bored ba kan..:-) di rumah saja sepanjang masa ka Mie? ". Recently, my nieces who are now on school holidays came to me and complained "boring betul la cuti ni aunty...teda apa2 mau buat di rumah." Does anyone of you out there feel the same too? The first feeling of excitement for having long long vacation slowly fades away as there's nothing interesting things left to do now. You can only wait in hope that Christmas may come as soon as possible and the joy of it's celebration would soon override the 'boringness' you're feeling at the moment. Or worse still, you just live the day as it is without any expectation, anticipation, vision or plan for something better for the next few moments, days, months, years to come.
Honestly, every time when people ask me do I ever get bored being stuck at home all day long, I always get trapped in between whether to answer yes or no. The problem is because my answer isn't a 'yes' as most people would expect to hear. The truth is this; I've always wanted to say a 'No, I don't. Never' answer to the question but considering the arrogant tone of such an extraordinary reply so most times, I ended up giving the safest response I can think of - "sometimes". Well, I wish I could be bold enough to tell the truth for the sake of truth. Nothing else counts but the truth...hehe...
Okay, you may wonder how come I never get bored with my introverted life. Firstly, because I''ve already deleted the word of bored or anything similar from my life's dictionary since long time back. Therefore, it's influence on me has been ceasing ever since. Indeed, it has lost all it's sting and there's no way for it to harm me any longer. In short, bored (or whatever you call it) ) is a word and a feeling that seems like an alien to me now because it's been a long time since I last had it.
Secondly, because I have very interesting hobbies. I love learning very much. I love reading like crazy. I love writing a lot. I love giving motivational talk. I love giving counseling to friends too. I love so on and so forth...my point here is you must have a hobby/hobbies of your interests in order to live a wonderful life. Fill your boring days doing hobbies that you love doing. Enjoy doing them. Trust me I never get bored with my quiet life because every moment spent with my hobbies bring me great contentment and satisfaction. Life is too short for me to live with boredom. In fact, I wish I had more than 24 hours a day so I could do more. Don't you?
Lastly, because I am a lady of vision and action. I have a few visions yet to achieve. I'm not going to reveal them here. No. Not yet. For now, it's enough to tell that to me no matter what happens along the journey of my life I never lose sight of my visions. These visions give me a strong sense of purpose and courage to live on. I also look at the ups and downs of life as adventurous and interesting things to explore for learning. I anticipate each and every day as a mystery yet to experience, yet to unfold. Although I never know about tomorrows nor what will happen next the mystery of the unknown itself encourages me to strive all the more towards the goal of getting it unfolded. By having these ingredients mixed in my daily meals of life my appetite for an enthusiastic life increases. Hence, I'm bored-free!
Friends, if you have been feeling bored for the last few days it's time to get rid of it. Start doing something interesting and worthwhile. Have a hobby. Have a vision. Have a purpose to live for. Learn something new. Invest your time and energy on it. Most of all, enjoy doing it. Let this holiday season become one of the most memorable times in your life not because of it's quantity but because of it's quality. Enjoy your holidays to the fullest with the highest quality of use you can best!
The past four days, I was flooded by words of sympathy + encouragement from thoughtful friends in relation to one big event happening in someone else's life. I understand why they did that to me. Intentionally to console me. Empathically to tell me that I am not alone. That they understand my pain. Even share my grief. And I really appreciate it. But only a few able to contemplate the truth when I said, "I'm not sad. I've forgiven and forgotten all the hurt been done to me. I'm happy for that someone's happiness." Some raised their brows showing doubts whether or not I really meant it. Their non-verbal message was telling me "I doubt your sincerity. You are being unrealistic. You're hiding your true feelings." Maybe yes, maybe no. But one thing for sure, I'm perfectly peaceful and joyful within because Someone Greater than I is my confidence, whom I put all my trust. It's a peace beyond understanding. It's a joy beyond comprehension. It's a faith beyond the obvious - the truth and reality that I am holding to.
Therefore, I find no reason to be sad.
To whom it may concern, please apologize me for being so silent and been invisible for some time. It's nothing to do with things that had happened between us. It's just because I need to silence all the voices around me so that I can hear that soft and small voice from above more clearly. I'd rather have that 'small voice' speaking to me than anything. May the Lord bless you bountifully as you begin your new journey of life. Congrats to both of you.
To all my friends, thank you for your concerns. God bless everyone.
I have 4 different topics on my mind right now. One of them is "Thursday" which is at the top of my list but don't know why I ended up writing for this topic instead. Maybe because I myself need to unleash some hidden "if onlys" that I've ignorantly stored up within me for so long. Or maybe because my mood was sort of influenced by this friend of mine who is so pathetically living her life with so many regrets that she keeps on saying "if only..." about this and that, all the time. Constantly listening to her irrational wishes, I was like "come on babe, it's not the end of the world yet. Stop messing up your life! Forget the past, live your life in the present. Life is too short to live with if onlys...better die with dignity than go on living in misery!"
Nevertheless, down deep inside my heart I realize that I do, at times, echo similar nonsense wishes as well. Although I don't consider myself as a chronic if onlys victim, it's worth all my effort to remove even the slightest trace of unhealthy regrets out of my life. Because I believe our ability to move on in life depends greatly on our success in letting go of regrets.
Friends, do you find yourself constantly regretting things that you should have done but you hadn't or things that you shouldn't have done but you had? If you do, then don't just ignore it. Treat it as a crucial warning to change your destructive mindset. Release your grip on the unchangeable past mistakes. Just think of them as a part of your development process to be a better you. They were there for a purpose. And whatever they were, dare to believe that all things always work together for good.
Rise up above your regrets. Let go of the if onlys. Say goodbye to them now. Because you are destined for greatness!
