Stillness Speaks

Recently one of my friends had told me about his unhappiness encountered which had kept inside his heart long ago. It is better to keep his identity anonymous. I can roughly understand how he feels.

He always asked me, what are the differences between island and land? This question kept amusing me, and only he told me that island is stand by its own and land is made up of many states, just like Penang as island, while other states in Penisular Malaysia as land. The only connection is via Penang bridge. Using this analogy, he attempts to describe himself as island, or other means being "isolated", I told him it is sometimes cannot be avoided.

He is always being positively minded that every thing in the world is wonderful, world is full of kindness, he was so naive in believing in others. He always believes in hope is all around. I can't really let him down by disagree with his statement, I always tell him "All is well" and "whatever kindness you gave will be repaid in future". I recalled that one of my close friends in Form 6, he ever told me that "for every event that happened to us there must be hidden agenda behind, it can be good or bad , depends on how you think". Thus I share this words of wisdom to my poor friend whose was often feel upset about his life. I may not be a good counselor, but I can be a good listener. I always listen to his problems and giving some encouragement to lighten him up.

I may be able to become his listener of problems, but I myself encountered some problems as I go through my life, and it is hard to find a listener to my problems. However comparatively his problems were more severe than I do.

He always asked himself, "Do I exist? Am I a shadow? Am I a blind or deaf? Do others have hearts to beat on?" I realized that he was so disappointed that people do not regard his existence, tend to "isolate" him, as he was infected with contagious disease, even if he has it, it was his "kindness" that others fear about it. Or perhaps people thought that he was blind or deaf that he cannot see or hear what other says or do to him. I can't really help much about this while just keep on calming him down, to comfort him. I tell him everything will be fine soon, as rainbow comes after raining. I advised him to meditate and reflect on himself, cheering himself on his passion, kindness, and other abilities that others may not have. I believe that everyone is born with own uniqueness, so does he.

Lastly, I feel that world may be unfair to certain people, but being strong to make it through is essential. Just like how I often tell myself, "No matter how harsh the odds against me, I will remain strong, because I believe in hope will arise one day"

My birthday wish (111111)

11 November 2011 --> 111111, the day with all same digit and started with 1, such a sweet date to be remembered, and as well reminded myself that I grew older that day.

I came out from my mother's womb 22 years ago, coincide that the combination of my birth month and date summed up. Being away from my home made me realized that how important a family is, and seeing delivery of babies made me realize how bad I was for not being good enough to my mother during the days when I was with her. I have about 2 more years to graduate, and I will decide my housemanship based on consideration of distance from my family. 

When the day came (11/11/11), I suddenly recalled of myself 3 years back during my STPM time. 

9/9/2008, I had celebrated one of my friends' birthday together with other friends, I told him that subsequent year his birth date will look good with 090909, should pick up chance to made something different, or better to be said as unforgettable memories, for instance engagement. Of course he treated my words as a joke, because  it depends on whether he managed to find his own soulmate before that day came.

And since I foreseen that my birth date will be look great 3 years later, I began to dream of something different during that day. 

That day has come.........

Reflecting days before the date had come, 1 brain still end up as 1 brain, it never turn out to be 2 brains, similarly I will still end up with same consequence on that day. Apparently my enlightment has not come yet, still  wondering around. Maybe my time has not come yet, however I believe that one day it will. 

It will be rather be a waste with special memories on special date, but I can just wait for the light path to shine towards me, the 2nd brain......

And if I was given a birthday wish, then it will be the one, which I had made since 3 years ago.

Only Human

On the other shore of sadness,

It is said that there is a smile,

On the other shore of sadness,

It is said that there is a smile,

Finally we arrived.

But what are we waiting for?

The purpose is not to run away,

It's to chase after dreams

We should have gone out to travel

On that summer day so long ago

In a place worn down by sadness

something called a miracle, is waiting

Yet we are still searching

for the sunflower that grows at the end of spring

The warrior who awaits the morning light

before he can clasp it with red nails,

his tears glitter and fall

Even if we’ve grown used to loneliness

only relying on the light of the moon

We have to fly away with featherless wing

just go forward, just a little further

Even tomorrow, if you see it

Though there isn't a sigh either.

Like a ship going against the current flow.

Right now, go forward, move ahead.

Even if it cuts through the rain and clouds,

The wet roads shine,

Only the dark will teach,

A stronger and stronger light,

Be strong, go forward, move ahead.

Word of wisdom

Until you try

            You don’t know

                        What you can’t do     

                                                            Henry James

Sharing culture

Education is vital for future progression of human civilization as well as for development of modernization. Learning process involves input (via various reading materials) and output (concepts and ideas). Input and output of our knowledge are essential in learning. If we only receive information without sharing it with others, or at least applying it constantly, we’re not receiving a good education. Being stingy to others instead actually restrict your input and output volume. You don't believe? Just continue to read and you will understand the reason behind it.

Our brain is like a vast warehouse with billions of smaller stores inside. Each and every item we received are stored into the warehouse based on their categories. If we constantly put something in and take something out from the same store, eventually we’ll know where to find the location of the store. As simple as we get used of it, just like key idea of  Taoism philosophy, let everything comes into natural. 

Same goes to our brain, if we keep using the same information constantly, then when we need to retrieve that information, our brain knows where to find it.

However, if we receive something and stored in into its store and never touch it again. Then when the time comes for us to retrieve it, we won’t be able to find this “dark corner” storage item. This is equivalent to forgetting about it, and it'll be a shame to us.

Using my own experience in university life, I found out that everyone has his/her own study approach, of course it will be unfair to be judgemental towards others' study techniques. The only thing that I noticed is that people who opt to explain to others about certain topics (which I considered as initiation of sharing),  those people can retain their learning output much better, in context of duration. I believe they share the similar learning approach, i.e. learning by understanding.

Generally, learning approach can be classified into two broad categories: memorizing and understanding. Both have their pros and cons. However memorizing approach seem to be more "rampant" among Malaysian education system, beginning from pre-school until university level. On the other hand, Western countries apply mostly on understanding. In practice, both of them cannot be separated, they complement each other, just like YingYang philosophy, where both components (Ying and Yang) are closely together. So everything in the world is like a circle, a half of it is good and half of it is bad. So the start of one side is the end of the other one. Same goes with learning approach.

Similarly, I would to declare myself learner by understanding approach as major, my previous thought is that solely relying on understanding approach will be sufficient, but after sometimes (where I had few examinations encountered), I realised that both memorization and understand are essential to be a person with better knowledge (output), especially when I came in touch with YingYang philosophy in brief. However through sharing, the learner can be even better, because it shows that the person has the courage, confidence towards the words spoken from his/her mouth.

Therefore, don’t be shy or stingy to share your knowledge with others. Engage in info sharing or discussion. By sharing with one person, you’re contributing a small hand in human capital development, which will benefit the country and indirectly benefits you yourself. Besides, you don’t need to be afraid that he/she will be better than you, because if you’re the one who shares the info with him/her, that means you have one extra input-output cycle compare to him/her, so who is having the advantage here? 

Justify by yourself, is there any loss you suffered from sharing info with others? I would say NO, you earned the listener(s)' respect, had your confidence boosted, understood yourself that you were able to confer your idea(s) to the others. Learning output via understanding consume less memory space (my personal view), thus I often able to learn more info with less capacity.

My learning philosophy now will be "Sharing is caring, knowledge beyond boundaries, no restriction" , from now until my last breath.

I would like to thank my friend who wrote a note regarding importance of sharing in his Facebook profile which gave me such inspiration to write this article. Deep gratitude and credit were given via acknowledgement at the bottom of this article.

(Adapted and modified from Wee., H.S. (2011) , Importance of input and output of our knowledge , KLIUC , Diploma in Civil Engineering (Class 2007-2009) ,  Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons) (expecting graduation in 2012))