Have we forgotten about the trivial things of life?

Thanks Kevin for recommending and lending me this fantabulous book to read. Eternally grateful!

Have you read the book called ' The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery? If you haven't, I say, you definitely MUST read it.

Too many of us have forgotten how to stop and enjoy the little things of life. Perhaps reading this book will help you remember! =)

For now let me enjoy my little cup of tea....

When is parenting good parenting?

Here's a question:

If you are a parent, and your son/daughter comes up to you and tells you that he/she REALLY REALLY wants to run a business, and asks you to loan him/her a few thousand dollars as start up capital, would you give it to him?

What if you felt that the business was doomed to fail, because you felt you knew better?

---------------------------

Tell me what you think.

---------------------------

I personally feel that i would definitely support my son/daughter, despite how badly i felt he/she would fail. Especially if he/she wanted it very very much. What better opportunity to let our son/daughter learn about life than when he/she wants to take on life him/herself!

Now if i were the son/daughter, and my parents said NO to me, I'd start wondering if they really had me as a son because they wanted to impose their will, their regrets in life on me rather than let me live my own life....

---------------------------

Rejection is not for the weak

First of all, sorry about the last post. I actually wrote stuff in that post, but somehow it didn't get published along with the title. The title actually means what it says, i was out in the 'bush', or in other words, in rural Victoria...u know, places where u actually smell pig shit aroma as you walk out of your room...gotta love the bush.

Anyway, lately i've been facing a lot of rejection. It's really building up my character. But slowly and surely, I'm beginning to accept the fact that rejection is part and parcel of growing up and becoming mature. In fact the most successful people are moulded out by adverse circumstances and situations where they constantly face rejection.

Even the president of united states gets rejected by 49% of americans...but ultimately it's the 51% that counts right? :D

Rejection is not for the weak, and DrJazzi is certainly NOT going to be weak.

DrJazzi in the Bush

Dare to dream

Do you dare to dream?

I am so amazed how many of us were brought up thinking of how we can only walk one path.

So much so that when the other path appears right before your eyes, you dismiss it, and think of it as an illusion, or a trap, or a gateway to doom.

Do dreams come true? Maybe, maybe not.

But the question is:

Do you dare to dream?

Personal Growth

In 2 nights, I have already achieved personal growth at a level that I could only dream of in the past.

Perhaps it's about knowing the right people. I'd like to think it this way, successful people are the 3% minority, and have a small voice, but once you tap into their voice, the opportunities for personal growth are endless.

Hope tomorrow will be another good day! =).

Thanks SangYee for somehow persuading me to attend the talk on Sunday.

Irony

How ironic is it, that many of us malaysians (I won't bother saying the race, because I believe there should be only one term that emcompasses all races in Malaysia: Malaysian) are given the leftovers of the NEP (please do take time to read) food on the Malaysian dining table, and rejected as unwanted guests to the dining table, but when these malaysians survive through the odds to become famous and well known, the masters of the dining table come back to them with heaps of love and adulation, and claim them as their own.

If only to bask in the glory achieved by these malaysians.

And how ironic is it, that after many of us malaysians have been eating scraps of leftovers for our whole lives, finally find a better dinner host that offers us better food and shelter, should we malaysians still pledge allegience to our former, cruel, fascist hosts.

And allow them to rob even part of the glory we achieve for ourselves despite the adversity.

I couldn't help but think of these ironies when I read an article on TheStar which portrays a malaysian female, who studied is National University of Singapore and then Columbia University (note: NOT a malaysian university, for obvious reasons known to malaysians), who ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize (click to find out what the famous Pulitzer prize is about)

Read all about Fong Foong Mei and her achievement here.

Balance

I think a lot of life is about balance.

Right now there are thoughts on balance overcrowding my little brain.

HOW. DO. I. BALANCE.

between:

1. Wanting to be rich, and being generous

2. Helping others, and helping myself

3. Work, and play

4. Enjoying life, and discipline

5. Being kind, and not being trampled over

6. Being assertive, and not scaring people away,

I think my scales are a bit screwed up at the moment. Time to find the right weights to keep myself.

In.

Balance.

Going to a place of death

I have been going to a placed called Caritas Christi Hospice Centre this past week, a place of palliative care where people who are diagnosed as 'dying' are transferred to, so that their dying needs are met, and that they die in comfort and dignity.

Sometimes it is quite a sad sight. I see patients in the beds, most of which are either very frail, or comatose. I see the look of death on their faces, the pale face, soulless stare, drowsy eyes (a lot of which is probably due to the amount of Morphine given to reduce their pain/suffering) etc.

Sometimes it is quite a heart-warming sight. There is a creative arts room in this hospice, where patients and their family members can express themselves. Patients that are well enough are regularly encouraged to draw their own 'circle-of-life'. I saw 1 of these pictures when we were given a tutorial on pastoral care. This picture was drawn by a guy who spent 25 out of his 42 years in jail. His circle of life had 4 quadrants. The top left quadrant had butterflies, probably signifying his readiness to transition from life here to the next (caterpillar morphs into a butterfly, butterflies have always been symbols of death n afterlife); the top right quadrant had his trademark bird, which was interpreted as his want of freedom; the bottom left quadrant had his handprint, which was interpreted as 'talk-to-the-hand', perhaps he wanted to convey how he was always misunderstood for his actions, and felt that people did not understand him; and the bottom right quadrant was a dolphin, wasn't very sure what it signified, but perhaps it also meant freedom, or maybe it meant that like dolphins he could communicate telepathically?

There were also other heart-warming activities. Patients and their families could purchase little plates, and make their fingreprint-butterflies, which meant using fingerprints to form the shape of butterflies. In fact, there was even a fingerprint butterfly wall in this hospice.

Memorials are held at every one year anniversary, where families and friends of deceased people at Caritas Christi Hospice Centre are invited to attend memorial services, in honour of their loved ones. The lady from pastoral care explained that it was sort of a closure for many staff members of CC as well, because most of the time by the time a patient died here, staff members would have formed a close bond with their patient.



For some people, Caritas Christi is a place where everybody drives past praying/wishing they NEVER have to end up there. For others, admission into CC spells doomsday. Yet I believe, and judging from most of the response of the in-patients and family members and friends of the dying, one could not die a more dignified death. A painless, calm death, where the dying have had a chance to express their dying selves to the full, where family members and friends have ample opportunity to be given counselling and support throughout the dying process and even after the death of their loved one.

Rest in peace, dear dying ones.

Pill-popping old people

Did you know, that the average number of pills taken by Australian elderly people (elderly being above 80) is 10 pills?!

TEN bloody pills!

Imagine being old, and forgetting half the things you do that day, and having to sort out which pill to take when, and what these pills are for....

Part of the problem is, us damn doctors are too lazy to try to figure out which pills they don't really need, especially the ones they have been taking since they were 30.

You could almost hear doctors say: "Ah what harm can it do if they continue to take it, they have been on it for Nx1000 years what, what for I take them off now. Besides, I earn more if they take more pills..."

Man, if I had my way, I would force all doctors to take all 10 of those pills for 2 years, and see how they feel about it. Not just the having-to-remember-what-pill-to-take-and-when part, but also the omg-these-pills-are-making-me-nuts part.

Or maybe I should get all doctors to take salt+pepper+vinegar+ginger+garlic+onion+bitterguord+oystersauce+chilli+tomato+roticanaikuah+tomyum+egg+yongtaufoo. Maybe top it off with some rojak. That's probably how old people feel when they take all those pills. making-me-nuts.

Anyway, on a seperate note, please do take care of your health. You may be invincible now, but next thing you know, you may be asking me the same question:

"Doc, I can't remember whether it was the blue pill i was supposed to take, or the pink one?"