Gardening

.. is my new passion for now. I dream of having a beautiful garden of vegetables & fruits, surrounded by flowers, and on window sills.  I hope the dream turns into a reality as I slowly pick up some habits and tips on gardening.

A drama I watched also inspired me to garden. :p  Yeap, dramas and movies should be used as a tool to promote and inspire good and beneficial things.  I want to do a drama or movie too, where the leading girl is a gardener.  But I shouldn't think that far, when even the current one is still very far from production.

Back to gardening, before I digress further.  A friend's husband said, there is no such thing as 'green fingers' - it's just whether you look after and water the plants or not.  As such the definition for 'green fingers' should actually be 'someone who has sustained interest in gardening'  At least sustained until plants grow.  It's not something where you can see the results in a week or two or even a month or two.

So I hope I'll have this sustained interest for a long time to come. Now I call my plants 'sayang' and 'darling'.  I hope my love remains. Aamiin.

Extraordinary moments

When we watch some movies or dramas, and we see the story of those people who have just fallen in love and how extraoridnary every situation is, we forget that we've all had some extraordinary moments with our spouses also, when we first met them, when we are first courted, when we profess our interest to each other, when we were proposed etc. 

If you focus on each of those moments, your thoughts and feelings and the situations surrounding those moments, you'll find that they are extraordinary as in some of the scenes.  Of course only without slow motion and background music.   You can improvise and add them in your memories.

Even now there has been some extraordinary moments, which we let slip without a thought or any sense of appreciation, but we go 'ooh and aah' when it's portrayed in the movies.

It's time to reflect back with gratitude to God about our own lives and our own extraordinary moments.

See with my eyes dear.

You know I only want the best for you.

I wish I can upload the 'files' of my experiences and lessons to your mind, so that you can think more maturely, and not have to go through the silly mistakes I made.  I wish you see that older people become conservative because of what they have learnt.  And youngsters do most of the things they do now, because they don't know any better. Yet.

I wish I can put this realisation into your head.  And let you see through my mind's eye.

I wish you can have the good parts of my heart, of course, while I still retain mine.  God has power over all things.

I only want you to do what's best for you, according to my own limited knowledge.

But I guess, God has other plans for you, of which the benefits may not be apparent to us yet. And God knows best.

So in any case, insyaa Allah, I will continue to pray that we all have a good ending to this life on earth, so that we can reap the benefits in the Hereafter.  Aamiin.

How I want to travel

I'd love to go to other countries.  But somehow now, I don't think I'll ever like I've really been there, unless I live there.  To live there means, to work or study there.   Which means that you'll need to travel from your dwelling place to your place of work/study with other locals, perhaps to also get groceries for your own consumption.  The longer the period the better, but even 1 week of doing that, is enough to have a glimpse of the lives of the locals.  

Travelling to a place to eat out all the time and only visit tourist attractions - no longer means having been to a country, for me.

I would love to learn and explore the interesting and beautiful countries of :

1. ..say Egypt perhaps, to learn Arabic - maybe 3-6 months.

2. Korea during autumn/winter, learn Korean 1-2 months. (yes, ok i recently watched Korean dramas)

3. Spain - learn Spanish 1-2 months.

I think that's all for now - the dream.  Will it ever come true?
If Allah have written it for me I guess.  Insyaa Allah. Aamiin.

My only criteria is the place where I stay has a clean running toilet and a clean bed.




p.s. I'm suddenly reminded of the time when I was in Osaka.  I was quite depressed when I first arrived, because I had to leave my young kids to work there for a week.   The hotel room was so small.  I decided to go down to the supermarket and get me some beautiful flowers to place in my hotel room.  It actually cheered me up a bit.  *Tip.

Why preach to others even when there seems no hope.

Surah Al-Araf (7) , Verse 164:

وَإِذْ قَالَتْ أُمَّةٌ مِّنْهُمْ لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللَّهُ مُهْلِكُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا قَالُوا مَعْذِرَةً إِلَىٰ رَبِّكُمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ

When some of them said: "Why do ye preach to a people whom Allah will destroy or visit with a terrible punishment?"- said the preachers:" To discharge our duty to your Lord, and perchance they may fear Him."

(English - Yusuf Ali)