Our Courage

The courage of life like conquer Mountain Kinabalu is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.

To be courageous requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place and circumstance. It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all. Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage. In whatever arena of life one may meet challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience – the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men – such man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient –they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they can’t supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

量大福报大

亲爱的母亲：

每当放假回家，您都会向我倾诉爸爸的不是，但爸爸却不会因此而动怒，他听而不闻，视之无睹。始终无动于衷，因爸爸的量大，福报大。
我们常常最难看见的就是自己----平 日都是张着眼睛向外看，把别人称斤论两，把世事说长道短，殊不知自己在其中啊！如能跳脱开来，把自己也当成观看的对象，事理才真能看得清，分得开。
心如要保持常常快乐，就必须不要把人与人之间的事当成是非，有些人常常活在烦恼，因为别人一句无心的话，他却有意的接受。
祝：心开福就来

A Journey To Mountain Kinabalu

Have you ever wandered what it feels like to have the first sunlight through your eye? It is an amazing experience. Standing quietly on Low’s Peak with my friends and colleagues in the cold pre-dawn hours, we saw the clouds rolled slowly towards to us, and as our surroundings gradually became misty the dawn broke on the horizon and filled the sky with brilliant colour.

How are dare to scale the Low’s Peak of Mountain Kinabalu will know that was challenging. Trekking up the Mesilau trail was tough as we encountered 80 degree steps with no railings and tall rocks with no ropes to help us climb up, plus we had to jump on slippery rocks with shaky knees.

During the 8 hour walk to Laban Rata, our goal on the first phase of the climb, we braved freezing rain and winds. I felt so vulnerable but I kept plodding on, telling myself that every five steps I took were better than nothing at all.

About 2 km from Laban Rata, my body felt numb but the cold wind was merciless and I could feel sharp pains all over. By that time, it was sheer instinct that drove me and my compatriots forward in the dark. We had made arrangements to stay at Laban Rata Hut and I had to walk to get there after we having our dinner at Laban Rata Rest House about 4 pm. More discouragingly, there was a blackout and the temperature hovered around less than 9 Celsius. Despite being dressed full climbing gear, I struggled to stay warm for a few hours before the climb at 2 am.

After the briefing by the Head Guide – Gardis, 10 of us set set off on our journey to the peak at 2:30 am. When we reached the rocky cliffs after Sayat-Sayat check point, we were strictly reminded not to let go of the rope. The sheer cliff was nearly at a 70 degree angle and very slippery without wearing the mountain shoe name Adidas Malaysia. So physically, I was pushed to the limit.

But in the end it was all worth it when 6 or our group reached Low’s Peak and I mad it to South’s Peak; I felt whole range of emotions that brought pride, freedom, relief and joy. I have a camera to capture the moment before the Mountain Guide chase us down, and I stood quietly absorbing every second of God’s wonderful creation.

自造福田，自得福缘

亲爱的母亲：

爸爸的抽屉里收藏着各式各样的杂物，其中最为人感动的是数张献捐寺庙的收据以及一张捐助某某女士的医药单据。虽然爸爸受教育不多，但却懂得发挥其功能。他虽无腰藏万贯，但乐于助人。他无广夏千间，但能尽其所能，广交善缘，益心公益。人只要有心就有福，有愿就有力，自造福田，自得福缘。
爸爸懂得把握时机与因缘做好事，如果因缘消逝才想做就来不及了。有些人总是想要做好事，但都想等到自己有钱，或有机会时再去做，须知人生无常啊！只要有因缘，哪怕是一点一滴的力量，也要赶快去做。力量，因缘会合起来，就是无量公德。祝：功德无量。

On Going A Jounery To Mountain Kinabalu

School holiday is star tomorrow; I will going to conquer Mountain Kinabalu tomorrow until 18 of March 2009. Within this few days, I can’t continue to write my blog regularly. I will be continuing after return back from Sabah.

The pleasantest thing in the world is going a journey like this; but I prefer to go by myself. I can enjoy society in a class room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for me. I am then never less alone than when alone.

“The fields his study, nature was his book”.

I can’t see the wit of walking and talking at the same time. When I am the country I wish to vegetate like the country. I am not for criticizing hedge-rows and black cattle. I go out of town in order to forget the town and all that is in it. There are those who for this purpose go to mountaineering-places and carry the metropolis with them. I like more elbowroom and fewer encumbrances.

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, feel, do, just as one pleases. We go a journey chiefly to be free of all impediments and of all inconveniences; to leave ourselves behind, much more to get rid of others. It is because I want a little breathing-space to muse on indifferent matters. That I absent myself from the town for a while, without feeling at a loss the moment I am left by myself.

求于人,即多苦

亲爱的母亲：

爸爸非圣人，圣人都会有过错，何况爸爸是凡夫俗子。他生性急躁，除非自己能力所办不到的事，要不然他决不会冒冒然求助他人。有求于他人即多苦，如一味的要求人，只会自己招来无穷的苦恼。所以爸爸那急躁的个性及不求人的态度造成了这次的交通事故。 一个缺口的杯子，如果换一个角度看它，它仍然是圆的。所以我们须从另一个角度来对待爸爸，爸爸永远还是我们亲爱的父亲。祝：太阳光大，父母恩大

Learn To Live In The Present Moment –- At Moscow

This is the magnified version of IKEA. Higher resolution as well, so that you can see the вход beneath, which means enter... the meaning of here is the Entrance. -- Yi Jun

Yi Jun write in his blog “Days In Moskva” on 8 March 2009 about “Auchan Session”. He feels that is always the hard time in Moscow when he is going to shopping. He spends around 2400 Rubles to buy stuff -- about RM240. I can imagine what a difficult time if he buy so much of thing, and he have to carry all the way back with public transport to his dome without any aid of others. The shopping there is not as nice as what we have in Malaysia, where we can drive the car into the basement parking lot which then later takes the escalator right into the shopping mall with trolley. Over Russia life more like suffering all the time. Thinking back in Malaysia, he realizes how lucky he was. But those were the nice old days.

To a large degree, the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year and what may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are – always!

Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things – all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments, so much so that we end up anxious, frustrated, depressed and hopeless. On the flip side, we also postpone our gratification, our stated priorities and our happiness, often convincing ourselves that “someday” will be better than today. Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that “someday” never actually arrives. John Lennon once said, “Life is what’s happening while we’re busy growing up and people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape and our dreams are slipping away. In short, we miss out on life.

Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isn’t. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have and the only time that we have any control over. When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future – we won’t have enough money, our children will get into trouble, we will get old and die whatever.

To combat fear, the best strategy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present. Mark Twain said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” I don’t think I can say it any better. Practice keeping your attention on the here and now. Your efforts will pay great dividends.

真正的好人从尽孝开始

亲爱的母亲：

父亲在痛苦中不告而别，他的离别让我深深感触到父亲的伟大。从回忆中我把他生平的点点滴滴用文字记录下来，然后恳求伊浚把它打成电脑放进部落格内；让子孙追思父亲生平的事迹。
父亲可算是尽了做爸爸的责任。虽然他自幼失其父；但夜半会为孩子扑被。虽然他受教育不深；但曾督导孩子读书写字。虽然他童年无温饱；但他工作半夜回家不忘打包夜宵。虽然他会打骂妻儿；但从未遗弃这个家庭。他养活了我们一家人；所以我们做子女的须懂得尽孝道，能孝才有善，真正的好人从尽孝开始。祝：安心有福。

Our New Neighbor

There was a funny family with two young kids’ just moves in opposite our house. This new neighbor lived in the house number 8. The husband and wife were same character as the old house owner who wouldn’t let everyone park a single car in front their house. They even chase away anyone with scold even we did not block their gate door. Sometime they also simply throw rubbish in front their own house. What a nasty neighbor. The wife even throws a pair of her slipper to our dog. Look at the picture as a prove. I feel it’s funny. For me, all of this just a small matter, I not bother so much!

It is not enough for us to say, “I love God”; but I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love god and you don’t love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. We must be willing to give whatever it does not to harm other people and in fact to do well to them. This requires that we be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in us and we bring injustice, not peace to those around us.

It hurts Jesus to love us. We have been created in his image for greater things, to love and to be loved. We must “put on Christ”, as Scripture tells us. And so we have been created to love as he loves us. Jesus makes himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one and he says, “You did it to me.” On the last day he will say to those on his right, “whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me,” and he will also say to those on his left, “whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do it for me.”

When he was dying on the Cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst for everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and to do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts.

时事无常

亲爱的母亲：

父亲已往生百日了，他教会了我们时事无常，要坦然地面对死亡，因为它是生命中的一部分；当懂得面对死亡了，活着就会更有力量。这种力量让我守丧期间，无畏无惧的睡在棺柩旁陪爸爸渡过最后的夜晚。

人间寿命因为短暂所以才更显得珍贵。难得来一趟人间，应问是否有为人生发挥其功能。如果每分每秒都好好做事，每天都活得像最后一天，任何时候就走得不遗憾！
祝：做好事，讲好话，存好心。

Be An Optimist

If you change your mind – from pessimsm to optimism – you can change your life.
– Claipe Safran

Do you see the glass as half-full rather than half empty? Do you keep your eye upon the doughnut, not upon the hole? Suddenly these clichés are scientific questions, as researchers scrutinize the power of positive thinking. Research is proving that optimism can help you to be happier, healthier and more successful. Pessimism leads, by contrast, to hopelessness, sickness and failure, and is linked to depression, loneliness and painful shyness. If we could teach people to think more positively, it would be like inoculating them against these mental ills.

Your habits count but the belief that you can succeed affects whether or not you will. In part, that’s because optimists and pessimists deal with the same challenges and disappointments in very different ways. When things go wrong the pessimist tends to blame himself. “I am not good at this.” “I always fail.” He would say. But the optimist looks for loopholes. Negative or positive, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people feel hopeless they don’t bother to acquire the skills they need to succeed.

A sense of control is the litmus test for success. The optimist feels in control of his own life. If things are going badly, he acts quickly, looking for solutions, forming a new plan of action and reaching out for advice. The pessimist feels like fate’s plaything and moves slowly. He doesn’t seek advice, since he assumes nothing can be done. Many studies suggest that the pessimist’s felling of helplessness undermines the body’s natural defenses, the immune system. Research has found that the pessimist doesn’t take good care of himself. Feeling passive and unable to dodge life’s blows, he expects ill health and other misfortunes, no matter what he does. He munches on junk food, avoids exercise, ignores the doctor and has another drink.

Most people are a mix of optimism and pessimism, but are inclined in one direction or the other. It is a pattern of thinking learned at our mothers’ knees. It grows out of thousands of cautions or encouragements, negative statements or positive ones. Too many “don’t” and warnings of danger can make a child feel incompetent, fearful – and pessimistic. Perhaps this is the reason why Yi Jun was inclined in pessimism more that optimism like what he mentions about my education way for him in his blog “Days In Moskva” on 7 February 2009:

For if dad taught something, it is always to be obeyed. – Yi Jun

As conclusion, pessimism is a hard habit to break – but it can be done.

量大福就大

亲爱的母亲：

爸爸的人缘好心地也好，只是脾气不太好。认识他的人都这么说呀！因为他自幼父亡母散，无师长开导之故，殊不知要镜中人笑，必须自己先笑，这是种什么“因”得什么“果”。所以我们要懂得原谅爸爸的脾气。懂得原谅别人就是善待自己。生气是把别人的过错，拿来惩罚自己。多一次原谅别人。就多造一次福；把量放大福就大。

有智慧的人，会从对方的错误中找出自己的责任来。如果一直停滞在昨天，过去，就会产生杂念，有执著顾念之心。人一旦时时刻刻回忆往事，便会痛苦，怨恨，嗔怒，不甘心…。知道反省过去才是正确的人生，若只是随着日子消逝纸醉金迷，这叫做颠倒众生。祝：量大福就大。

Love To Your Life

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you richest. The fault finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor – house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms – house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

踏踏实实做人

亲爱的母亲：

父亲在世时，待人处事心胸开阔，他能舍但不求回报；对子女也一样，他养活了一家七口，让我们受高等教育但他也从未要求子女们给他援助。他自己能做的事决不为难别人。所以别人对他不会有不平等的怨恨，逝世后留下的福泽，能够流传得长久，他能赢得后人无穷的怀念。

爸爸犹如点燃了的蜡烛照亮了我们。爸爸踏踏实实尽了人生的责任，他没虚度这一生。虽然他远离我们而去，但音容永远留在我们心里。祝：心想事成。

Life

Have you ever, at any one time, had the feeling that life is bad, real bad, and you wish you were in another situation? You find life make things difficult for you, work sucks, life sucks, and everything seems to go wrong …

Read the following story … it may change your views about life:

After a conversation with one of my friends, he told me despite taking two jobs, he brings back barely above 1K per month, he is happy as he is. I wonder how he can be as happy as he is considering he has to skimp his life with the low pay to support a pair of old parents, in-laws, a wife, two daughters and the many bill of a household.

He explained that it was through a incident that he saw in one country that happened a few years ago when he was really feeling low touring three after a major setback.

He said that right in front of his eyes, he saw a mother chop off her child’s right hand with a chopper. The helplessness in the mother’s eyes, the scream of pain from the innocent 4 year old child haunted him until today.

You may ask why did the mother do so; had the child been naughty, had the child’s hand been infected? No, it was done for two simple words – TO BEG! The desperate mother deliberately caused the child to be handicapped so that the the child could go out to the streets to beg.

Taken aback by the scene, he dropped a piece of bread he was eating halfway. And almost instantly, a flock of 5 or 6 children swamped towards this small piece of bread which was covered with sand, robbing bits from one another – the natural reaction of hunger.

Stricken by the happenings, he instructed his guide to drive him to the nearest bakery. He arrived at two bakeries and bought every single loaf of bread he found in the bakeries. The owner was dumfounded but willingly sold everything. He spent less that $100 to obtain about 400 loaves of bread and spent another $100 to get daily necessities.

Off he went in the truck full of bread into the streets. As he distributed the bread and necessities to he children (mostly handicapped) and a few adults, he received cheers and bows from these unfortunate. For the first time in his life he wondered how people can give up their dignity for a loaf of bread which cost less than $0.25.

He began to tell himself how fortunate he is. How fortunate he is to be able to have a complete body, have a job, have a family, have the chance to complain what food is nice and what isn’t nice, have the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people in front of him are deprived of …

Now I begin to think and feel it, too! Was my life really that bad? Perhaps --- No, I should not feel bad at all … What about you? Maybe the next time you think you are, think about the child who lost one hand to beg on the streets. “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want; it is the realization of how much you already have.”

When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one which has been opened for us. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lost it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we have been missing until it arrives.

父亲最后的一双新鞋子

亲爱的母亲：

爸爸在无任何交待的情况下静悄悄地离我们而去；我们因此失去了一位亲爱的人。他留下了一双亲手制造的新鞋子给我。新鞋子未开始穿，爸爸就逝世了。这双新鞋子给我留下了感人肺腑的回忆。它让我想起侯建德唱过的一首歌：“当旧鞋子还没穿破之前，别急急忙忙买新鞋穿，老先生老太太都这么说呀……。

太阳光大，父母恩大，君子量大，小人气大。子女应让父母安心才有福。父母的大恩大德，此生莫齿难忘。祝：幸福快乐

When Love Becons You

When love beckons you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you, yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tender’s branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

But if, in your fear, you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing – floor, into the season less world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

Love melt and belike a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love.

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy.

To return home at eventide with gratitude.

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon lips.

甘愿做，欢喜受

亲爱的母亲：

父亲这辈子是位敬业乐业的鞋匠，天天在人脚下下功夫------替人制鞋与补鞋。他不惧脏，不畏臭地为别人服务。他能被人需要，能够有一份功能为别人付出，所以父亲是位最幸福的人生。他拿得起；放得下，甘愿做，欢喜受。

人间寿命因为短暂所以才更显得珍贵。父亲难得来一趟人间，能为人生发挥其功能。他并没虚度这一趟人生。现在切匆匆往生极乐世界，但愿父亲能安享天国。
祝：幸福快乐。

Pursuit Of Happiness

We chase after it, when it is waiting all about us.

“Are you happy?” I asked my son, Yi Jun, one day because he always look unhappy. “Yes or no, it depends on what you mean,” he said.

“Then tell me,” I continued, “When was the last time you think you were happy?”

“Perhaps 6th December.” he said.

It served me right for putting a serious question to someone who has joked his way through life. But Yi Jun’s answer reminded me that when we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a pinnacle of sheer delight – and those pinnacles seem to get rarer the older we get.

For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in big pipes, playing cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved.

In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement, love, popularity and whether that zit will clear up before prom night.

In adulthood the things that bring profound joy – birth, love, marriage also – bring responsibility and the risk of loss.

In dictionary defines happy as “lucky” or “fortunate”, but I think a better definition of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”. The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, and even good health.

Yesterday, I added up my little moments of pleasure. First there was sheer bliss after I enjoy my delicious breakfast and had the house to myself. My wife and younger son was going back Sri Cheeding home village. Then I spent an uninterrupted evening writing my blog, which I love. When they com home, I enjoy another pleasure – intimacy. Sometimes just the knowledge that he wants me can bring me joy.

You never know where happiness will turn up next. Perhaps you like lonely shopping day, but sometime shopping with a group of people can chats and really cheers you up.

I get a thrill from driving. One day I stopped to let a car turn onto a side road. The driver grinned and gave me hand up sign. We were two allies in a world of mad motorists. It made me smile.

We all experience moments like these. Too few of us register them as happiness.

Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a blend of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I doubt that my father was 74 years old, who raised 5 children and took in shoes making. He did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this was what fulfilled him. If he was happy with what he had, perhaps it was because he didn’t expect life to be very different.

We, on the other hand, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we “gotta have.” We’re so self – conscious about our “right” to it that it’s making us miserable. So we chase it and equate it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren’t necessarily happier.

While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn’t about what happens to us – it’s about how we perceive what happens to us. It’s the knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a setback as a challenge. It’s not wishing for what we don’t have, but enjoying what we do possess.

前脚走，后脚放

亲爱的母亲：

人生想得透彻一点，没有一件东西可以永远与我们为件，再亲爱的人，再多的财物，也终有离别聚散的时候，所以又有什么东西舍不得的呢？起初我一直牵挂着父亲的往生。一直停滞在昨天，过去；这就会产生杂念，有执著顾念之心。人一旦时时刻刻回忆往事，便会痛苦，怨恨，不甘心……。
生命非常短暂，所以现在要加紧脚步，快速前进，不可拖泥带水，切勿前脚已经落地了，后脚还不肯放开。“前脚走，后脚放”意即：昨天的事就让它过去，把心神专注于今天该做的事上。因为哭泣不能消灭昨日的哀伤，只会消灭明日的锐气。祝：明天会更好。

Childhood Days

When you came into the world, she held you in her arms.
You thanked her by weeping your eyes out.
When you were 1 year old, she fed you and bathed you.
You thanked her by crying all night long.
When you were 2 years old, she taught you to walk.
You thanked her by running away when she called.
When you were 3 years old, she made all your ms with love.
You thanked her by tossing you’re your plate on the floor.
When you were 4 years old, she gave you some crayons.
You thanked her by coloring the dining room table.
When you were 5 years old, she dressed you for the holidays.
You thanked her by plopping into the nearest pile of mud.
When you were 6 years old, she walked you to school.
You thanked her by screaming, “I’m not going!”
When you were 7 years old, she bought you a baseball.
You thanked her by throwing it through the next-door-neighbor’s window.
When you were 8 years old, she handed you an ice cream.
You thanked her by dripping it all over your lap.
When you were 9 years old, she paid for piano lessons.
You thanked her by never even bothering to practice.
When you were 10 years old, she drove you all day, from soccer to gymnastics to one birthday party after another.
You thanked her by jumping out of the car and never looking back.
When you were 11 years old, she took you and your friends to the movies.
You thanked her by asking to sit in a different row.
When you were 12 years old, she warned you not to watch certain TV shown.
You thanked her by waiting until she left the house.

Those Teenage Years
When you were 13, she suggested a haircut that was becoming.
You thanked her by telling her she had no taste.
When you were 14, she paid for a month away at summer camp.
You thanked her by forgetting to write a single letter.
When you were 15, she came home from work, looking for a hug.
You thanked her by having your bedroom door locked.
When you were 16, she taught you how to drive her car.
You thanked her by taking it every chance you could.
When you were 17, she was expecting an important call.
You thanked her by being on the phone all night.
When you were 18, she cried at your high school graduation.
You thanked her by staying out partying until dawn.

Growing Old and Gray
When you were 19, she paid your college tuition, drove you to campus, carried your bags.
You thanked her by saying good-bye outside the dorm so you wouldn’t be embarrassed in front of your friends.
When you were 20, she asked whether you were seeing anyone.
You thanked her by saying, “It’s none of your business.”
When you were 21, she suggested certain careers for your future.
You thanked her by saying, “I don’t want to be like you.”
When you were 22, she hugged you at your college graduation.
You thanked her by asking whether she could pay for a trip to Europe.
When you were 23, she gave you furniture for your first apartment.
You thanked her by telling your friends it was ugly.
When you were 24, she met your fiancé and asked about your plans for the future.
You thanked her by glaring and growling, “Mother, please!”
When you were 25, she helped to pay for your wedding, and she cried and told you how deeply she loved you.
You thanked her by moving halfway across the country.
When you were 30, she called with some advice on the baby.
You thanked her by telling her, “Things are different now.”
When you were 40, she called to remind you of a relative’s birthday.
You thanked her by saying you were “really busy right now.”
When you were 50, she fell ill and needed you to take care of her.
You thanked her by reading about the burden parents become to their children.
And then one day she quietly died.
And everything you never did come crashing down like thunder.
“Rock me baby, rock me all night long.”
“The hand who rocks the cradle … may rock the world.”

Let us a moment of the time just to pay tribute and show appreciation to the person called mom though some may not say it openly to their mother. There’s no substitute for her. Cherish every single moment. Though a times she may not be the best of friends, may not agree to our thoughts, she is still your mother! She will be there for you … to listen to your woes, your bragging, your frustrations, etc. Ask yourself … have you put aside enough time for her, to listen to her “blues” of working in the kitchen, her tiredness? Be tactful, loving and still show her due respect though you may have a different view from hers. Once gone, only fond memories of the past and also regrets will be left.

Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Love her more than you love yourself. Life is meaningless without her …

血浓于水

亲爱的母亲：

今年的七月不一样，因为父亲没交待下静悄悄的离开了我们。只委托黄师傅留下一首“年年今日再相见”便走了。歌未唱，人先逝。父亲想借此首歌来缅怀过去的往事。
父亲年轻时在外奔波，与我们相处时日不多，造成父子缺乏沟通，关系自然疏远，互不了解。长大后我们就离乡背井，在外自找生活，各忙各的。直至父亲远离我们了才感触良多。血浓于水，父亲始终还是父亲。若生前来不及叫“爸爸”，这辈子会遗憾终生。所以做父子或夫妻时要把握时机，也要把握因缘，因缘消逝才想做就来不及了。祝：万事如意。

Grateful To Life

Once President Roosevelt’s house was broken into and lots of things were stolen. Hearing this, one of Roosevelt’s friends wrote to him and advised him not to take it to his heart so much. President Roosevelt wrote back immediately, saying, “Dear friend, thank you for your letter to comfort me. I’m all right now. I think I should thank God. This is because of the following three reasons: firstly, the thief only stole things from me but did not hurt me at all; secondly, the thief has stolen some of my things instead of all my things; thirdly, most luckily for me, it was the man rather than me who became a thief ...”

It was quite unlucky for anyone to be stolen from. However, President Roosevelt had such three reasons to be so grateful. This story tells us how we can learn to be grateful in our life.

Being grateful is an important philosophy of life and a great wisdom. It is impossible for anyone to be lucky and successful all the time so long as he lives in the world. We should learn how to face failure or misfortune bravely and generously and to try to deal with it. If so, should we complain about our life and become frustrated and disappointed ever since then or should we be grateful for our life, rise again ourselves after a fall? William Thackeray, a famous British writer, said, “Life is a mirror. When you smile in front of it, it will also smile and so will it when you cry to it.” If you are grateful to life, it will bring you shining sunlight. If you always complain about everything, you may own nothing in the end. When we are successful, we can surely have many reasons for being grateful, but we have only one excuse to show ungratefulness if we fail.

I think we should even be grateful to life whenever we are unsuccessful or unlucky. Only by doing this can we find our weakness and shortcomings when we fail. We can also get relief and warmth when we are unlucky. This can help us find our courage to overcome the difficulties we may face, and receive great impetus to move on. We should treat our frustration and misfortune in our life in the other way just as President Roosevelt did. We should be grateful all the time and keep having a healthy attitude to our life forever keep having perfect characters and enterprising spirit. Being grateful is not only a kind of comfort, not an escape from life and nor thinking of winning in spirit like Ah Q. Being grateful is a way to sing for our life which comes just from our love and hope.

When we put a small piece of alum into muddy water, we can see the alum can soon make the water clear. If each of us has an attitude of being grateful, we’ll be able to get rid of impulse, upset, dissatisfaction and misfortune. Being grateful can bring us a better and more beautiful life.

未尽反哺心

亲爱的母亲：

一场的交通意外便夺走了我们亲爱的父亲。至今我心里还未能平复，唯恨自己在父亲有生之年未尽点孝心。回想起念宽柔一小时，父亲不惜为了孩子们，刻意向星马鞋厂老板借车回拉庆家载我们一同去学校。虽然次数不多，但显现出他对子女的厚爱。当时我们年少无知，体会不出，也不懂得感恩，只会自豪与高兴。当父亲年事已高时，动作反感也怠慢了。我们应该尽点孝，反哺心；住在同一个屋檐下，出席同一个宴席，载送父亲以保进出平安。可是这么简单的事我们并没做到。“慈乌失其母，哑哑吐衰音，昼夜不飞去，经年守故林。夜夜夜半啼，闻者为沾襟；声中如告诉，未尽反哺心.” 我们虽是人，切不如一只鸦。衰哉！祝安康。

Youth

Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means the temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite of adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self – distrust, fear and despair – these bow the heart and turn the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the star like things, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing child – like appetite for what – next, and the joy of the game of living.

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self – confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station, so long as it receives message of beauty, hope, courage, grandeur and power from the earth, from man and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the wires are all down, and all the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old indeed.

歌颂我的父亲

亲爱的母亲：

父亲来自贫苦家庭，自小失去了父母的关爱又受教育不多，所以这辈子生活过得崎岖清苦。但他具有坚强的毅力及节俭朴素的生活。在饮食方面他从未在意。虽然如此，他对外人特别的慷慨大方，从不计较。他热心公益，活跃于社团立下不少公德。只要有任何乐捐，他都会义不容辞。能舍能得，甘愿做，欢喜受。他以有限的学问与能力尽力去做多少事，无视小善而不为。他是一位应该受子女尊敬与歌颂的一位父亲。祝：幸福快乐。

The Cobbler Happiness

A cobbler passed his time in singing from morning till nigh; it was wonderful to see, wonderful to hear him; he was more contented in making shoes than was any of the seven sages. His neighbor, on the contrary, who was rolling in wealth, sung but little and sleepless. He was a banker; when by chance he fell into a doze at day break, the cobbler awoke him with his song. The banker complained sadly that Providence had not made sleep a saleable commodity, like edibles or drinkables. Having at length sent for the songster, he said to him, “How much a year do you earn, Master Gregory?”

“How much a year, sir?” said the merry cobbler laughing, “I never reckon in that way, living as I do from one day to another; somehow I manage to reach the end of the year; each day brings its meal.”

“Well then! How much a day do you earn, my friend?”

“Sometimes more, sometimes less; but the worst of it is, and, without that our earnings would be very tolerable, a number of days occur in the year on which we are forbidden to work; and the curate, moreover, is constantly adding some new saint to the list.”

The banker, laughing at his simplicity, said, “In the future I shall place you above want. Take this hundred crowns, preserve them carefully and make use of them in time of need.”

The cobbler fancied he beheld all the wealth which the earth had produced in the past century for the use of mankind. Returning home, he buried his money and his happiness at the same time. No more singing; he lost his vice, the moment he acquired that which is the source of so much grief. Sleep quitted his dwelling and cares, suspicions and false alarms took its place. All day, his eye wandered in the direction of the treasure; and at night, if some stray cat made a noise, the cat was robbing him. At length the poor man ran to the house of his rich neighbor; “Give me back,” said he, “sleep and my voice, and take your hundred crowns.”

父亲的歌声

亲爱的母亲：

父亲生前好学不倦，即使活到晚年，他还热爱唱卡拉OK，从中学习；不懂得地方还会做记录。虽然五音不全但他还是放胆去唱，快乐的唱。他的好学精神可佳，值得我们学习。如今父亲的歌声只能绕在我们的脑海里永不忘怀。父亲可算是一个快乐的人，他的快乐不是因为他财富或学识拥有得多，而是因为他与别人计较得少。拥有是负担，不计较就自在，能放下烦恼才能快乐。人如不知足，就永远都活在烦恼中。祝：活到老，无烦恼。

Lost Someone I Love

Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

The lesson of the story, I suggested, was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what if feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted or never had.

There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, she can lose someone and sill feel like a complete person.

Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how many words you’ve gotten right; you’re disqualified if you make one mistake. Life is more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose. When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us – not “Be perfect”, not “Don’t even make a mistake”, but “Be whole”.

If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another’s happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.

感恩父亲

亲爱的母亲：

父亲的逝世至今我还是那么难过，但面对眼前的生活，难过还是天天必须过。从今以后，我再也没福气穿到父亲亲自以那双粗糙的手为我制造的新鞋子了。我这辈子对他的恩惠感激不尽。虽未能报之以恩，唯祭之以尽诚。所以在生者若能有一份能力为他人付出是一种福气。祝：幸福永驻。

Home With Love

What makes a home? Love, sympathy and confidence. It is a place where kindly affections exist among all the members of the family. The parents take good care of their children, and the children are interested in the activities of their parents. Thus all of them are bound together by affection, and they find their home to the cheeriest place in the world.

A home without love is no more a home than a body without a soul is a man. Every civilized person is a social being. No one should live alone. A man may lead a successful and prosperous life, but prosperity alone can by no means insure happiness. Many great personages in the world history had deep affections for their homes.

Your home may be poor and humble, but your duty lies there. You should try to make it cheerful and comfortable. The greater the difficulties, the richer will be your reward.

A home is more than a family dwelling. It is a school in which people are trained for citizenship. A man will not render good service to his country if he can do nothing good for his home; for in proportion as he loves his home, will he love his country. The home is the birthplace of true patriotism. It is the secret of social welfare and national greatness. It is the basis and origin of civilization.

能放下才能快乐

亲爱的母亲：

其实我们的生活是美满的，虽然生活的过程很复杂，但这些生活就发生在我们自己里面，我们想让它变成美满，它就会美满，如果您烦恼，生活就会烦恼。拥有是一种负担，能学会放下才能快乐。祝永远快乐。

The Memories Give Meaning To Our Lives

“I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days.” ---- Henry David Thorean

When Thoreau wrote that line, was thinking of the Walden Pond he knew as a boy.

Wood choppers and the Iron Horse had not yet greatly damaged the beauty of its setting. A boy could go to the pond and lie on his back against the seat of a boat, lazily drifting from shore to shore while the loons dived and the swallows dipped around him. Thoreau loved to recall such sunny hours and summer days “when idleness was the most attractive and productive business.”

I too was once a boy in love with a pond, rich in sunny hours and summer days. Sun and summer are still what they always were, but the boy and the pond changed. The boy, who is now a man, no longer finds much time for idle drifting. The pond has been annexed by a great city. The swamps where herons once hunted are now drained and filled with houses. The bay where water lilies quietly floated is now a harbor for motor boats. In short, everything that the boy loved no longer exists – except in the man’s memory of it.

Some people insist that only today and tomorrow matter. But how much poorer we would be if we really lived by that rule! So much of what we do today is frivolous and futile and soon forgotten. So much of what we hope to do tomorrow never happens.

The past is the bank in which we store our most valuable possession – the memories that give meaning and depth to our lives.

Those who truly treasure the past will not bemoan the passing of the good old days, because days enshrined in memory are never lost. Death itself is powerless to still a remembered voice or erase a remembered smile. And for one boy who is now a man, there is a pond which neither time nor tide can change, where he can still spend a quiet hour in the sun.

儿子的音乐盒

亲爱的母亲：

元宵节已过了，年也结束了。新年间常被派去带醒狮队出去采青。元宵节当天也不列外，被派出去吉隆坡。吉隆坡的元宵节相当热闹，炮竹声响个不停，青也采不完，当收队结束工作时，已经是晚上十点钟了。

由于忙着学校的采青工作，时常忙到半夜；凌晨五，六点就起身赶着去学校报到，故无法在电话上联络。伊浚现在比较活泼，静的时候就躺着东张西望；要喝奶的时候凶的利害；跟他玩的时候就会笑眯眯；拿锦连送给他的音乐盒哄他玩时，手和脚一直在踢动，好像很紧张，想去捉，但捉不到，很生气；也许现在还小，还不能很好的控制手脚的活动，在过一，两个月就懂得了。宝满的三姐及三姐夫都很喜欢他，所以不太挂虑了，只不过那儿蚊子太多，偶尔被蚊子叮了一，两次。

当伊浚满三个月时，将托宝满的三姐带他去私人医院打针，我们抽不出时间带他去中央医院，而且交通又不方便。好了，就以简短告知一些有关伊浚的琐事，祝身体健康，万事如意。