When was the last time you looked up towards the sky and watched the moon. I remember when I was growing up my family would sit outside our home after dinner and share wonderful moments with the moon listening on to our conversations. On the day of an eclipse of the moon, we would all be excited. We would get a basin of water and the pole that is used to pound rice into flour, placing one end of the pole into the water and holding onto it waiting to let go of it the moment the eclipse took place. Miraculously the pole would stand erect throughout the period of the eclipse!
When I returned from my maiden pilgrimage, I was asked by many about how I saw the country that I had visited. They then shared their bitter experiences, giving a negative view and opinion. I replied that it was a wonderful and fulfilling journey. I began to share all the good things that I chose to see. I told them it is a matter of choice what you want to see. I also added that if you want to see all the litter strewn on the streets, let me show you a similar scene in the back lanes of our cities.
When I was in service I used to dread going to the food stall opposite my office for breakfast and lunch for fear of sitting in the midst of negative vibes. But I had no other options as they served vegetarian meals too. A tiny group of staffs and workers from and around the area would gather each morning and afternoon; open up the daily newspaper and start their routine of giving opinions and views, often cursing and verbally abusing including character assassination of personalities and departments that made the news. Soon the negative reviews and foul language from this group began to take its toll on me. Slowly I stopped frequenting the stall preferring to buy packed food on my way to the office.
Five years later after a short stint in Subang, I returned to Kuala Lumpur again for work. The same group was there, now looking aged, at the same table minus a few who had either passed away or retired or posted out. To my horror they were still at it after all these years, with the verbal abuses and curses not the least mindful that they were in a public place and were being watched! I had to give them a piece of my mind then. One day I asked them when are they going to change? When are they going to come out of this rut and move on with their lives? I reminded them that some of those personalities spoken about were neither around or had moved up and progressed in life, but sadly they were still stuck in the past.
When I dropped in on my foreman to have my car repaired, an elderly man was engaged in talking about local politics, and condemning personalities and the policies. When the foreman moved over to my car, the man too moved over bringing his story with him, now directing it to me. I had to put a stop to it. I told him that I was pretty sure he had spoken the same thing yesterday to someone else; that he was speaking the same thing today to us; and that he would speak the same thing tomorrow to another. Rather than talk about others, I asked him, for a change, to speak about himself and his family instead. Sadly he did not have anything to say!
A man whose wife was hospitalised at a general hospital, went around from bed to bed condemning the medical team for their shortcomings during the duration of his wife's stay at the wards. He failed to realize that the medical team was doing their level best to keep his wife alive with the limited resources and manpower at hand. Today he came to me and had to remark about the quality of food served. I had to give him a piece of my mind. It makes me wonder how ungrateful can one be?
When a man highly regarded in the academic and spiritual circles condemned the Siddha, Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Allopathy medical practitioners for not been able to help him when he was bedridden, I had to point out to him that the reason he was alive and speaking to me then was due to the grace of Jesus and the help he received from all these people whom God sent to administer him. I told him, if with all these help he still had not recovered then he had to blame himself and his baggage of karma and no one else. Fortunately he realised something from this conversation for he apologised and thanked me before he left.
As my late brother-in-law was laid to rest and the last rites were being conducted by his brothers, amidst this solemn event, I was both taken aback, surprised and angry to listen to them discuss about the missing plane that had made headlines then. I turned around to give them a stare and they stopped their conversation. Let us pay some respect to the dead. The least they could have done was to join in prayer that the dead be taken to a higher abode and placed in a higher state and his soul rest in peace.
Man is either engulfed in pleasures of the body or so engrossed with his problems that he fails to see the beauty around him. Instead he prefers to see the negative things around him, failing to appreciate the positive and good that is equally taking place or happening too. He keeps churning the same trash (his opinions and bitter experiences) over and over again. It's just that the surrounding and the listener changes each time.
Let us come out of this illusion. Let us see the world anew. Let us learn to appreciate life. Let's begin to see and observe all the life around us, right from: the tiny worm in the earth to the magnificent animals around us; the sprouting plant to the majestic trees; the tiny soft palms and feet of the newborn to the aged and wrinkling elderly. Let us watch the stars, the dew, the rain, and the sunshine. Let us take in the smell of the first drops of rain touching the scorched earth; and the smell of the myriad flowers in the gardens and the fields. Let us take our time in chewing our food and taking in its essence. Let us chose to hear the good in all and shun the negative. Let us also learn to speak about the good. Let us create positive vibes collectively. Let us realize that everything is a beauty to behold. Let us bring the change now!