Showing posts with label life lesson. Show all posts

Awakening


H A P P I N E S S

A simple, common word. It’s nothing fancy, nothing grand, nothing posh. You hear it from people of all kind. Everyone can say the word. Everyone can use the word. College degree is not required to get acquaintance with this word. Sounds trivial. Sounds flat. But this word is high on demand. Everyone is craving for it. Everyone seeks it, driven nuts in order to find it. But, it’s just a word. What about it?

You too, I know, is heading to happiness, at least you think you are. But, are you? Do you even know where you’re heading? Happiness is intangible. Happiness is abstract. Happiness is a conception. Ah, perhaps you know! Happiness is... uh, right. What is it again? You know it, but you can’t really put it into words. It’s there, but not quite. How clear your destination is! Happiness. Thus, how will you reach it? Sorry, buddy, google maps ain’t got you nowhere this time.

What is happiness, really? Uh, wait, is it real? Ah, don’t know what to think!

Hey, don’t despair, my friend, let’s contemplate!

You may feel lost now. No worries, you’re not alone. Multitudes out there are still looking for happiness. They may look fine, but who knows inside there’s just a void raging to be filled. Many have wandered through continents, crossed oceans, climbed mountains, yet happiness is still nowhere to be found. Let me tell you a little secret, no matter how far you go, if you don’t know where to look, you will fail. Some may have been ascetics to find happiness, but again, let me tell you. If you don’t know the key, no matter how long you meditate, you won’t succeed!

Now, if you want to know what the key is, take your phone. Open Snapchat. Use the front camera. Apply any filter you like. See anyone there? Or you can just stand in front of a mirror. Or a spoon, whatever, to see your own reflection.

Yep, it’s in you! You hold the key all along, my friend. This key is special, it needs wielding. Just as how Excalibur is only forged to be wielded by Arthur, this key can only be used by you!

Now, let’s find your key.

Still cannot find it?

Well, then maybe you’ve been looking in the wrong direction!

You might always be thinking that happiness is when you get what you want. That sounds to be the true concept of it. But, really? If you can never have what you want, then you can never be happy? Oh, how sad. Luckily, it’s not that. That is what I meant to be the wrong direction.

Happiness is not about getting what you want. Not at all. Truth is, my friend, it’s about loving what you have and realizing how blessed you are to have it. I’ll let this soaked in to your brain. Let’s do a little reasoning. When you have all that you want, but you’re not grateful for it, there’ll always be something lacking. This won’t take you to happiness, but to greed instead. However, if you’re grateful and feel blessed to have it, happiness is yours! If you know how to be grateful, even when you have nothing, you will still hold that happiness.

Slapped? Nice to know you’re awaken.

Farewell, Miette!


Kitten Miette two years ago


It was typical Thursday night. A serene night, with probably pitch black studded sky. I had just turned my light off when I heard thudding noise. Immediately, I set my eyes wide open, and ears ready as radar. It was heard again, clear and near, like the sound of falling books and rustling papers. As if someone was hastily looking for something in the shelf. I frowned. At this hour? Who could it be? My father was sleeping, and so was my sister. As for my brother, he was out somewhere. No one else was in the house. I started to fret.

I buried myself under my fluffy warm blanket anxiously. I was hoping my father would be woken up by the noise, and he’d check it out. I waited, and waited, only to nothing. For the next hundred secondhand’s ticking, the sound wouldn’t stop, keeping me from repose. Couldn’t bear it any longer, I leapt up from my bed, ready to check it myself. I walked on my tiptoes to the sound. As I did, my heart was racing. 

The sound guided me to the light-off living room. I stepped on some sticky fluid, thrilled by what it might be. I rushed to get the switch, and found out the fluid I stepped on was colourless but thick. Other than that, I didn’t see anything strange. There was no one, and no mess had been done. My curiosity got more profound. I approached the sound, then my sweet ivory furry Miette I found. She was lying, furiously shaking on the ground.

I gasped, flabbergasted, and panicked to find her knocking on heaven’s door. Colourless fluid and excrement were scattered around her. While she was trembling, foamy liquid came out from her mouth. She must’ve been poisoned! I broke the news to my father, only to hear him reluctantly responded, “Let her be. It dies, we’ll burry.”

I called my brother, he’d go home and bring milk as the antidote. While waiting for him, I could only watch the poor kitty rolling here and there, hitting chair, table, and bookshelf. I felt so helpless. My heart was aching to behold her dying. More painfully, she groaned and moaned, while her eyes were glaring in pain. For half an hour, she had been panting and I could sense her pain. I cried and cried, though I knew it wouldn’t change a thing.

When my brother came, he fed her with the milk and soon after, she ceased quivering. We hoped it was the antidote. She breathed fast, eyes still glaring, but stiff as statue. We waited for a slight of hope that Miette would be alive. Alas, it seemed like we were late giving her the milk. She finally kicked the bucket. I spilled out my tears until I felt soothed, then I could let her go.

My sister found out Miette dead as doornail in the morning, so she cried hard. Everyone was in woe, since we had raised the lively smart moggy for almost two years. She had been such a noble cat since we adopted her. As much as we didn’t want to lose her, we buried her under a longan tree.

My witnessing Miette die was a life-changing experience. It reminds me that death can come anytime to me. As if Allah was sending a message, or precisely warning, to me through Miette’s dying. Watching how painful she was dying, I got the conception of how I would be at the end of my life. While begging for forgiveness to Allah, I told myself, “I have to stop any foolish acts and prepare for my afterlife FROM NOW ON.” Who knows when Allah would call me home? My job is only to be ready whenever the death angel takes me. 

Hope you can learn something from Miette’s death, just as I did.
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