Pause and think

I got out of my house early in the morning, listening to the sound of birds singing happily, looking at those beautiful blooming roses, butterflies and bees and the big huge trees. As I look towards my left, I could see the dark blue sky, slowly becoming brighter. The horizon soon turned into reddish orange. Birds began their flight, searching for their catch of the day. My surrounding turned into shiny yellow. The leaves on the trees turned gold, as if money grow on trees. No words could be used to describe the beauty of sunrise as compared to you see it with your own eyes…

Such beautiful scenery only lasts for a minute or so as every tick changes the scene, slowly and steadily and before you realise, the morning glow has already fade away.

In this age, everyone’s busy with their life. How many of us are able to take some time off their hectic schedule to enjoy such a wonderful scenery? Well, let’s put it this way. The problem with humans is that they do not appreciate the things or people around them. It is only when they have lost it that they would realise how precious the thing is. The message that I’m trying to convey is simple; take a break from your busy life and observe your surrounding, things that you have, people that loves you and how people cares for you.

Time passes really fast, at least it is for me. New Year was just like yesterday and now, it’s already the end of May. Perhaps, it’s time to slow down and pause for a moment to take a look at our surrounding to remind us to put things in perspective and to reflect on what we’ve been doing in and with our life.

Purpose of life? A question to ponder upon

Have you ever wondered what is the purpose of your life? Try to take five minutes of your time and think about the question.

There are more than seven billion people living on our planet Earth yet if you think about it, do you think all of them know and understand their purpose of coming here on Earth?

From the biblical perspective, man was created in His own image as it is written in the chapter one of the book of Genesis. And later in the book of Isaiah, it is written that humans are created for His glory. The word glory means praise and honor. While in Hebrew, the word glory stands for “to give the correct opinion or estimate of”. So, how would you design your life or purpose of your life in order to give a correct opinion of estimate of Him, your Creator? Think about it.

Other than what I’ve stated in the above paragraph, I think that it is important to have a purpose in life. Why you might ask. Consider this. If you want to go to Pluto and you are heading to the direction of the Sun, would you reach your destination? Or let’s say you want to go to the ocean yet you are climbing up the mountain, would you reach your destination? It’s the same for having a purpose of life. If you know where you want to go [what you want to achieve in your life], you would have plan your journey correctly [the direction you are heading]. Therefore, if riches is your end destination [purpose of life], you would have to plan your journey. Without a purpose, you will be drifting in life, wasting all your time and energy and get nothing in the end. You would have wasted your whole life. On the other hand, he/she who know what they want in their life set their goals and plan their ways to achieve their goals. Such people are bound to become successful because they know what they want in their life and take action. Remember this, there is no such thing as ‘free lunch’ as said by the Chinese that is there is no such thing as something for nothing.

Let’s get back to the most basic part of the topic. Various people have different purpose in their life. I’ve been told about being rich, being successful, being healthy and etc. But I would think that the most important purpose in life, is being happy. If you think about it, if you’re rich and not happy, what is the point of living? Would you rather live a life of hundred years being a happy yet poor person or you choose to have a life with a lot of money yet you’re not happy everyday? Moreover, there’s a Chinese saying, “What’s the point of having so much money when you can’t bring it into coffin?” Even Jesus said in Luke 9:25 “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

You might have different opinion about this but I do hope that after reading this, you would ponder upon what I’ve said and be able to find your purpose in life. And I hereby end this post with a wonderfully written poem by an anonymous writer. Stick it somewhere you can read it everyday.

There was a man with unusual gifts

Bearing an honored name,

Life came to him with outstretched hands

Offering wealth and fame;

Carelessly, he turned his head away,

The prize made little appeal,

Contenting himself with a minor part,

He was only a cog in a wheel.

When opportunity knocked at his door,

He was found asleep and deaf;

Long and patiently it waited there,

But he did not come to himself.

His golden chances were wasted like chaff,

He took no account of the real;

Each day a monotonous grind to him,

He was only a cog in a wheel.

In the image of God this man was made,

With power to do and to serve;

Strong of mind and body was he,

But he lacked essential nerve.

So he drifted along from day to day,

Without ambition or zeal,

Playing a dull and nondescript part,

He was only a cog in a wheel.

What place do you fill in life’s great machine,

Are you using your gifts aright?

Today have you wrought some truly fine thing,

Can you claim to have fought a good fight?

Will it surely be said that you “played the game”,

That your life was productive and real?

Or will the world say, as it goes on its way,

He was only a cog in a wheel.

The one thing our generation lacks of!

The first lesson in life for me (I don’t know about you) was to learn how to listen and cogitate.

The word listen, as we all know, is not simply to hear. Listening allows you to feel yourself in one’s life and by putting yourself into the person’s shoe and aware of his/her feelings. Have you ever wonder why God created human with two ears and one mouth? Perhaps, in His thoughts, man should listen more than he speaks. I am not saying that you should not voice out your own opinion, but as far as the world is concerned, those with profound thoughts, are those who are successful in life and profound thoughts only comes from those who listen profoundly. Not convinced?

For instances, Jesus Christ and The Prophet of Muhammad, Mother Teresa, or Mahatma Gandhi. These were the icons of the world who found the true meaning of life when they really listen, or perhaps, they didn’t find the true meaning, they provide us the meaning of life. I am not trying to be religious here, in fact, I am an atheist. I don’t believe in God still, and well, some of you might pity me, but I felt much more comfortable if I’d take my time to seek for the best choice.

Now, back to listening. Listening was taught by almost all religions in the world; Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, you name it. I am not saying these religion had the whole concept of how to listen, but they teach us by showing their icons what they had done for human civilization by listening. It’s written in all the books of great virtues. And to me, regardless of what your origin is, whether you are a Chinese, African, Jew or Malay, listening is the key to success.

And by the way,

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.” By Albert Einstein.

See? The true meaning is not literally keeping your mouth shut all year round, but simply to listen and cogitate more. If the smartest man in the history of mankind was wrong, you might as well skip this article. Sadly, we exist in a society where we only hear, but hardly listen. Are we not? Ernest Hemingway said: “I like to listen, I have learned a great deal from listening carefully, most people never listen.” It is because hearing bears no responsibility. While listening will have yourself included into that particular situation creating virtual stress to your mind. (if that situation is a negative one)

If you seek for peace, for wisdom and maybe even for wealth, then listening might be your ultimate path of towards what you want. There are not many people in this world who can do it, and that is why successful people are so rare. If everybody would have truly listened, then everybody would have been successful.

Short Introduction

The creation of this blog is due to various ideas that we had in our mind with which we would like to share with everyone through a media which would be accessible easily. The reason we is being used is because there are two of us.

Basically, any topic would be discussed in this blog to share our views on certain issues. So, stay tuned for our next post! =)