Life by the beach

She sells seashells by the seashore
She sells seashells by the seashore
She sells seashells by the seashore

Still remember this?

or ever tried to tie twine to three tree twigs?

I am sure that at some point in your life, you have tried reading out loud and were somewhat enthused by these tongue twisters.

Was that a long time ago? Or does that fell like yesterday when you were in high school surrounded by smiles and laughter, trouble-free minds and carefree hearts? When we were unselfishly sharing our teenage years among friends and at that time, we were only responsible for ourselves. We let the adults took care of those gigantesque tasks. After all these years, now it is our turn to worry. Our turn to shoulder the responsibilities that once were theirs. Some of us were obligated to grow up faster than others, some became wiser if not taller!

To some, age is just a number while everything else runs on autopilot. Have you ever drive a car with your mind on other things but the road? Sure your eyes were fixated on the road but you were somewhere else that after a few minutes you discovered that you were driving along a familiar road (i.e. work place, shops etc.) but nowhere to your planned destination? It was like the brain was waiting for our instruction and when we did not give any, it just automatically refer to our long-term memory. It switched on to autopilot!

Could it be that, among a group of siblings, the 'non-involved' will just wait for the 'leader' to offer the best solution to a family crisis and in a lot of occasions, there will always be the one person who unselfishly offered to carry the flag and lead the pack.

You only did this once but once is enough to let everything go on autopilot. You have volunteered yourself to dig the trench. You went deeper not knowing where this will lead you to. Do you continue to dig? maybe its time to be thinking a little bit more of ME and MYSELF above all? or the other way round (where the shoe fits!).

...

I was in Sabah a few months back, when I saw the rectangular bamboo placemats. Personally, I think it was unique. A creative ensemble by an unknown individual, whose original goal was probably making money out of a minimal pile of raw materials. A table ornament that could have easily been bought for several Ringgit from a sheltered workshop. In the end, the price scaled to several tens of dollars at the tourist market. I would have agreed to the market price even if I bought it directly from the crafter, my entire appreciation to the fine workmanship. Not that I have a table that needed a decorative item yet, I just liked it. To cut the story even shorter, the bamboo placemats stayed in my car for quite a while, until yesterday.

After several SMS and just a few minutes of planning, us friends finally met for a short afternoon tea... a gathering only held at least once a year (as our birthday could only fall on 1 out of 365.242199 days). I remembered that December calls for a special birthday gift but time had not been kind or was it me, unjustly spending time? All work and no time to think about a birthday gift. The placemats saved my day... it finally found a home (If it was a human, I probably saved it from dying of old age, dehydration and loneliness in the car).

There will always be that time when you bought something that you wanted or loved but not need and yet you bought it anyway. Sometimes you keep it for months under the bed, in the cabinet, storeroom, car boot... or somewhere safe. Keeping it standing by, just in case.

Can this theory be applied to friendship as well?

Happy birthday, my dearest friend...
May everyday be special,
make every second matters
and enjoy every moment of it.

Dear readers (assuming that I have more than one!),

I have actually started this posts much earlier but I was not in a comfortable writing mood. My mind was already composing yet it did not succeed in controlling my fingers to transfer the organised stacks of alphabet. In case you don't know, I have already gone back to work beginning the second week of December. I realised that November has the least posts. Then again, I was busy in November. I was on leave. My time was filled with nothing and everything at home in November. My close-to-a-month's holiday had been very rewarding, relaxing and de-stressing. Well, yeah... I could not have phrased it better.

So what is the significance of this post?, you may ask. Nothing, off course, that may be of much value to you. You could just leave this blogspot and google on something far more rewarding but if you have nothing exciting on your plate at the moment, you might as well stay.

Besides the reshuffling of officers and rooms around the office (as anticipated), nothing much has changed. Drivers are always zooming crazily along the highway, so I would occasionally encounter traffic accidents late morning. The statistics reaching a normal high if it rains.

The number of friends that I have remains a constant. I guess, at my age you don't normally get to meet new people... or was that because I have met all the people I should meet and there is no one else left to meet? My circle of friends remains and they still remain on the circumference BUT matters around and in between came in various contrasting colours that left me groping in the darkness. You will never fully understand any individual, even if you claimed that you've known them for years. Everyone have changed.

...and I guess, personally I have changed. My action and views on certain things have changed.

Everything in our life is in constant change, in the process of becoming something else. Nothing stays. Nothing will remain the same. Nothing remains constant except change itself.

On this note, I wish my readers (again, assuming that I have at least one), a Selamat Tahun Baru Hijrah 1431... let us together move forward, refine, add variation and widen our horizon to whatever our goals are in life. Let us pray... Robbanna Aaatina Fid Dunia Hassanah, Wa Fil Akhirati Hassanah, Waa Qi'naa 'AzaaBan Naar...