Today, upon a bus, I saw a very beautiful woman
And wished I were as beautiful.
When suddenly she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg and used a crutch.
But as she passed, she passed a smile.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two legs; the world is mine.
I stopped to buy some candy.
The lad who sold it had such charm.
I talked with him, he seemed so glad.
If I were late, it'd do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me,
"I thank you,
you've been so kind.
It's nice to talk with folks like you.
You see," he said, "I'm blind."
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two eyes; the world is mine.
Later while walking down the street,
I saw a child I knew.
He stood and watched the others play,
but he did not know what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said,
"Why don't you join them dear?"
He looked ahead without a word.
I forgot, he couldn't hear.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two ears; the world is mine.
With feet to take me where I'd go..
With eyes to see the sunset's glow.
With ears to hear what I'd know.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine.
This poem was sent to me by my good Christian friend who never minded my pagan lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity there was no original author for me to give accreditation to...
I consider this poem a "love story" on many different levels.
Love between my friend and God.
"Love" between my friend and I. (No touching and no kissing!)
Love for our fellow man.
Love for what we have ;)
Hi SMOL,
ReplyDeleteIndeed, we should count our blessings.
Recently, I have been given plenty of angst by an elder who thinks that her life is the pits. She has her hefty medical expenses fully paid for by my dad, she has pocket money every month from all of us, she has a maid to care for her again paid for by my dad, her children and grandchildren visit her regularly and even bring her out sometimes, she has her own fully paid 3 room flat... She is my grandma and I should not speak ill of her but her antics are giving all of us plenty of stress and sleepless nights.
I have said to her many times how fortunate she is. In a variation to your friend's poem, I told her that some old ladies her age are still collecting discarded cardboard pieces and drink cans to make a living...
Wisdom does not necessarily come with age.
AK,
DeleteThe human mind is indeed a mystery...
We can either choose to admire the stars up above or we can focus on the mud below...
Our outward behavioural manifestations are merely symptoms of a deep underlying psychological need.
Sometimes we don't say what we need, preferring others to do the guessing...
I am too in my metamorphosis to say what I really mean or need.
Flower monk is work-in-progress ;)
Wisdom may go down the drain but dementia likely to come with age.
DeleteCreatewealth8888,
DeleteI guess exercising the brain through Mahjong and/or playing the markets help slow down the onset of dementia ;)
Although playing the markets may wreck havoc on the heart...
LOL!
AK,
Deleteperhaps you should put yourself in her shoes and you may find out what it will takes to make her happy again :)
personally i felt making comparison between her & old people still trying to meet ends is very cruel thing to say to her :(
trying comparing her to another who may be in similar situation but still living a good life may be more helpful instead :)
I like this quote from little prince
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
Hi durio,
DeleteShe basically wants the world to revolve around her. She wants continuous attention.
She would lie to get what she wants and I didn't believe it until it happened to me. She has lied to get money from all of us and she gambles it away.
She has had three maids, all of whom she chased away saying she does not need help. We finally decided not to get her another maid and she now complains to people that we took away her maid and her home is very dirty now.
Any advice?
AK71, looks like a very difficult grandma to deal with.
Deletei'm probably not qualified to provide any sort of advise.
but let's me share about my grandma (she already left this world). when she lost her eyesight to diabetes, as far as i remember, her moods swings and grumbling creates lots of stress among our family.
fortunately, she is a kuan yin devotee, and eventually manage to attain calm thru constant mediation & faith in god.
so perhaps one solution is the introduce strong faith in god (not necessary kuan yin, can be Christianity, Buddhism etc). not only she may attain calm thru god preaching/chanting etc, she also will have a circle of social network to interact with.
i think basically humans are social animals, so getting cutoff from social contacts can be very devastating.
I sincerely hope you & your family will find a peaceful & happy solution.
Hi durio,
DeleteI have reminded her of her constant claims as a devout Buddhist and how she should be more considerate and even compassionate. She has an altar at home with statuettes of bodhisatvas on them.
However, she would not think twice about cursing people and accusing them of doing things detrimental to her although she cannot prove anything.
She is vain and enjoys compliments even if they are totally insincere and obviously false. She allows such "friends" into her life.
After recent incidents, I understand why my mother and sister dislike her so much. I also understand why my usually mild mannered father lost his temper and my aunt who is the closest to her has become apathetic. It is sad but my grandma is choosing some "pig and dog friends" over her family.
She is my only surviving grandparent and the most difficult one. She probably does not realise it but when she is finally gone from this world, no one would miss her, at this rate. Well, maybe I am wrong. Her "friends" would miss her or, rather, her money.
Thank you durio and AK for your sharings.
DeleteI learnt something about myself and my relationship with my ah ma...
Hi SMOL,
DeleteOnly good things, I hope. :)
I will be meeting my dad to run some errands for my grandma. Who would do all the running around for her if not her family? Her friends? Sigh...
Like LP told me once, we do not expect people to be grateful but they should not be ungrateful. Never would I expect to remember this in my grandma's context.
Thanks for tolerating my venting here.
AK,
DeleteNo worries. We all need to "vent" sometimes ;)
Please feel free to be yourself here. After getting used to dearest coconut, no comment can be strange or out of place :)
I have fond memories of my maternal grandma.
It's pity she left when I was doing BMT at 18...
If only I can show her how I've turned out now...
I guess by taking good care of her only daughter well, I am honouring the memory of my ah ma.
I've learnt very early never to comment on other people's family.
I only listen.
Human beings are always very funny. We always compare to those who have more than us in everything. But never with those with less than us in everything.
ReplyDeletenot true, if we look up, we always deem to be bad, greedy. but if we look down, we are deem to be compassion and caring.
Deleteits just your mind that is playing trick. nothing wrong with wherever you look.
Sorry Coconut,
Deletei mean of course we can be compassionate to the less well off than us but most of us like to play the "one-up-man-ship game with another.
I hate this game very much.
i will just ignore and pretend i who have nothing to compare or compete.
You will win all the time
Ha! Ha!
What say you my jovial, funny friend, SMOL?
Temperament,
DeleteBenchmarking is healthy; one-up-manship is not.
Compassion is good; indulging others not so good.
Only reading what coconut wrote a few times did I figure out he probably meant:
Nothing is good or bad. Only thinking makes it so.
"Nothing is good or bad. Only thinking makes it so."
DeleteUnquote:
Of course if you think bad is good and good is bad or bad is bad, good is good or nothing is good or bad in this world but what you think, then why call a spade, a spade.
Err...... is there such thing as "grey area thinking too"?
Or "sitting on the fence kind of thinking" too for self survival sake?
i am confusing myself now.
i think i better try to live in the world of a spade is a spade though at times a spade look like some other garden's tool.
And then i admit i have to adapt, for survival sake.
If not i will go insane.
Anyway the Chinese believe we are all living in an "Insane World"
Yup! There is no right or wrong, good or bad but what you think.
And this is very true for many of us.
Indeed!
We live in a very dangerous and insane World.
Ha! Ha!
hahaha..very chim!
Deleteis not that there is no good or bad (i'm not a budda!), rather defining whats good and whats not, my forcast is on the intensity of that defination call relativity.
like what general relativity defined, all things are moving, at the speed relative to one another. nothing is still.
so if we define human are clever, then all human are clever, but how much? you can compare.
if we define human are stupid, then all are stupid, again we can compare. we can't compare a clever human and a stupid human, they are not relative.
er make sense? haha
so if we define human as good, then
Deletefrom 1 (least good) to 10 (extreme good), you know your place.
if human are bad so the define, then just change the scale from
1 (extreme bad) to 10 (least bad), you have the same measurement!
you can argue until the sky drop but the scale remains the same which ever direction you look.
so next time don't say, "oh i'm compassion but you are heartless", or
Delete"i'm a profitable trader but you are a loser".
it make no sense.
Ya lol!
DeleteGood?
How good?
Bad?
How Bad?
Grey?
How grey?
Spade?
How?
Aiyah, why life is so naturally complicated?
Can life be made much simpler?
i bet you can make it simpler or even more complicated than anything.
Life is what you make of it.
to answer temperament confusion haha, you handle looking up or down much like when you are trading, once you had define your parameter or scale.
Deletewhen the trend is down, meaning that many are looking down on you (of your own choosing), you too have to change your direction to the down side (change your perception), but if when you are looking up and there is no opponents, keep looking up, you never know where you will end up you know!
ofcos to do that effectively, you first have to unify the scale as mentioned above. you can at the end, literlly see yourself moving up and down the scale.
haha, the simplest i can immagine life is to see myself as a structure. in fact, all things are struture, including life form with brains, it is still struture.
Deletenext study the struture then you can basically see where it is going. for example, don't expect a glass to bounds like a ball.
life becomes complicated probably becos we expect something that is not achievable.
Ha! Ha!
DeleteLife is at it's simplest when everything is reduce to one unit of atom.
(Actually when we all become nothing but dust)
But some Mad Scientists make life even more complicated by studying what is an atom makes of.
So why worry, be happy.
Either way you will die.
Cheers!
Temperament,
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to be reminded on what we have than what we lack ;)
I whine no more! (OK, maybe a teeny weeny bit on the hot weather...)
you know what i'm holding in my hand? my billiard cue!
Deleteand you know what is it for? thats right, to poke!
don't worry, i'm using it to poke the billiard balls. been doing it for 2 weeks already haha.
i'm just about to hang up my cue after my friend left, i received a call from another childhood friend who is coming back to s'pore from you guess right, china!
Deletethey said good things don't come once, this buddy of mine had been living in shanghai for over 20 years, married a shanghai girl and have 3 shanghai kids.
what excite me is this time he is back for good, bring his entire family with him, making our little island even more cramp.
i've very few friends, but they are all my "a ca gee", whats more, we all have common interest. he is also a billiard experts.
oh his nick name, "toa tao" (big head)
Deletewhy, he boost a lot!
but i called him "tai co", a very personal address haha.
Deletecoconut,
DeleteIt's great to be reunited with our childhood friends!
I feel the friendships we make during our childhood are the most "pure" and "innocent" types.
smol, you really nail it!
Deletei feel the people i met in adulthood are er er...
but friends that were born in childhood are so much different, including my wife. it seems that there is a lack of self esteen or ego or pride in between that will torn us apart, and without pride, there is honesty.
however, i'm not sure is it my mind that is playing tricks with me. i coun't care more, i just flow with my feelings.
Hi SMOL
ReplyDeleteIt's about counting our blessings daily :-)
Be well and prosper.
Yes Panzer!
DeleteAnd that's one of the secrets to being happy :)