Tuesday 22 May 2007

LET BYGONES BE BYGONES

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What has happened has happened for the best...
What is happening is happening for the best...
What will happen will happen for the best…
Do not brood over the past...
Do not worry about the future...
Be in THE PRESENT...


I just want to share with you guys what makes me write that short poem and paste it up as my sub-header. It was based on one incident that I experienced many years back when I was still a teenager. The story goes this way.

One day as Mr. T was going up the steps of a bus, one of his shoes slipped off and fell onto the ground. Before he could retrieve the shoe, the door closed and the bus moved off. Mr. T calmly sat down and threw the other shoe out of the window. I saw what happened and being a curious teenager at that time, I asked him, "Uncle, I saw what you did just now. Why did you throw out your other shoe?" Mr. T just smiled at me and replied, "In case somebody finds them, they will be able to use them."

From then onwards, I befriended Mr. T who was a retired headmaster. He has taught me a lot of things on Life’s Philosophy that as a young man, I took them for granted. Unfortunately before I could learn more from him, he passed away in his sleep a couple of years back. What he has taught me all along made me a better person than I was. I now look at things, understand people and situations much more differently than most people. In that unique incident, Mr. T understood the fundamental philosophy for life. He taught me not to hold on to something simply for the sake of possessing it and do not wish to share it with others. Now I am sharing his philosophy with you guys.

We lose things most of the time and this loss may seem to us grievous and unjustly. Loss only happens so that positive changes can occur in our lives. We always assume that losing something is a bad taboo. We never really understand that if things do not shift, we will never become better or experienced people in our lives. In order for us to mature emotionally, mentally and spiritually, the interchange between loss and gain is undeniable.

Maybe it was God’s will for Mr. T to lose his shoe at that precise moment I was in the same bus. Maybe this happened so that Mt T can get a better pair of shoes. Maybe the loss would lead him to his successor in life philosophy. Maybe God has decided that someone else needed the shoes more than Mr. T. For whatever reasons, we cannot avoid losing things. Mr. T understood that his shoe had gone out of his reach and the remaining shoe would not be much help to him. To him, it would be a cherished gift to someone who is in need of protection from the ground.

Hoarding possessions does nothing to make us better. We have to decide if some things or someone who have run their course in our lives would be better off with others. We have to muster the courage to give them up. To those who are lost in love and feeling down, I hope that what I have written today will bring you some form of solace to ease your pains. I know how excruciating it feels to lose someone or something precious in your life, but life has to move on. What has happened has happened. What is happening is happening for the best. What will happen will happen for the best. So do forget about what happened in the past, do not worry about what’s going to happen in the future. Live as how you would live in the present.

Anybody has a life philosophy experience to share here?

16 comments:

JamyTan said...

You are a wise young man.
Yesterday is a history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a present.

CRIZ LAI said...

kayatan: You are early :) Where's my present? :P

Anonymous said...

Hi Criz, i totally agree with you. I have learnt so much from my own experience. I may have gone thru some painful experiences, lost my smile, lost a dear one, but god send me the sweetest man n I found something i can earn online full time. When I really look at all these, i found that there are deeper meanings behind what happened, and they are always good.

Wuching said...

i lost my front tooth, how leh?

Anonymous said...

I read somewhere long time ago about the shoe story. I am not sure whether it is the origin but the person was Mahatma Gandhi.

RcKs said...

I lost my virginity. Wahahaha.

Nothing lasts forever, only diamonds do. So, instead on whining bout what you've lost, why don't you spend your time looking at diamonds?

Ridiculous Rickie.

CRIZ LAI said...

jennyhow: good to know that you discovered that long time ago. :)

wuching: there is such a thing called tooth implant. Here's the link :P http://www.smilessentials.com.au/dental_implants.php

kuanhoong: I have no knowledge about that. I wrote this in 2003 in my other personal website. This real life incident happened in 1996.

rcks: very funny. Since you are a doctor, I guessed you must have some diamonds "implanted" to God knows where :P

Admin said...

Me? i live today for today.

CRIZ LAI said...

ah pek: yea...u r the living buddha :P

conan_cat said...

ahpek living hamsup buddha... XD

nice story there criz, very inspiring! :) lost one shoe, throw the other one, someone might need it. i'll use that quote somewhere sometime :D

something totally unrelated though... last year when i was in foundations the students were all talking about breaking the rules of design, this that, rules are meant to be broken.

then my lecturer Miss Guat Ling said, "How do you break the rules when you don't even know what the rules are?"

know the rules before you can break them. learn the theories behind before you can change them. you'll get nowhere if you only learn the exterior techiques of it.

somewhat that got me interested in art history and theory. :)

CRIZ LAI said...

conan cat: i am also interested in art :)

Tunku Halim said...

Criz, this is a good story, very wise indeed. We can all learn something from this. My saying has always been: "If you own something, it owns you too."

babyfiona said...

Life is a mystery it self. No matter how you plan it, it wont 100% be the way you planned it to be. Anyway, me also same like Ahpek, i lives today for today, tommorow is not here yet, will think about tommorow when it reach me..

bionicshistrionics said...

That's a thoughtful reflection =P

It's practical but never easy to accept losses as a future gain of something else.

Once, a man lost his wallet to a robber and aside from complaining much, he knelt and thank God for several reasons:-

(i) he thanked God that he was not the one who robbed
(ii) he thanked God that only a small amount was loss and not a huge one
(iii) he thanked God for preserving his life
(iv) and finally, last but not least, he thanked God for the first time experience of getting robbed =P

CRIZ LAI said...

Tunku Halim: Nice seeing you here. when is your new book coming out? You are right...we become slaves to our own possessions.

Babyfiona: Surprised to see you here too...woof woof :P Anyway, living for today is ok but you still need to plan for tomorrow...or else where to get those nice food as shown in your blog...hehehe :P

Symeon: Doctor doctor...I lost my balls. Wait!! Why are you inspecting me? I said, "I lost my GOLF balls!"...hahaha. The last part about first time being robbed sent me laughing all over the floor. Yea..thank God no one was hurt :)

Anonymous said...

Hmm I've always been accused of not taking care of my things properly and also of not planning ahead for the future... I'm a naturally disorganised person. Living each day only in the present can't be entirely a good thing can it? Of course we can't know what will happen tomorrow but we should at least be ready for the unexpected.

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