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I was away to Kuala Lumpur for a vacation during the past five days.
Traveling is always my first choice for vacations. This time,it gave me quite a different experience. I was in an environment where few people speak Chinese and fewer people know English. I was in an environment where most people surrounding me were with another ethnicity. It’s always a great pleasure for me to learn what kind of lives people in other places and cultures lead.
I also encountred those totally different islamic architectures and visited the islamic places of interests. I began to have a vague idea about how sacredly they regard their religion.
Meanwhile, there were some unpleasant experiences as well. Untidy streets, uncivil acts, inefficient systems, and so on. All made me cherish how civil and efficient Singapore is. Small country with wise leaders is easy to be well-managed.
Traveling is not only a change of pace, but an experience of eye-opener.
Every Monday is Gratitude Day.
Many of us tend to have year-end review on new-year resolutions and yearly performance.
This year, I’ve decided to show my gratitude to all my friends through emails.
It is the best time to show our appreciation, as well as affection, towards our friends. Tell them how important they have been to us and how appreciated we are to their help, be the help big or small, out of their consciousness or unconsciousness.
This is a grateful and giving season. I call upon all of us, in our preferred ways, to show our appreciation and affection to our friends!
What is commitment? You promise something and stand by it by all means.
On the past Saturay, I did something crazy.
It was the last session, as well as the graduation ceremony, of the Prison Toastmasters Speechcraft last Saturday. I had promised the prison inmates to be there and sing a song for them as it would be the very last session.
I got up at 6am as usual and left home early, expecting to meet them for the precious last time. After one hour and ten minutes, I arrived at the subway station near the prison, and waited to transfer to a bus.
While I was waiting for the bus, I suddenly realized that I forgot to bring the temporary letter which will allow me to enter the prison! What a huge negligence! Without this letter, there’s no way for me to go into the prison. What’s worse, I live extremely far from the prison! It usually takes me one and half hours from my place to the prison! Thus, it would be like a disaster for me to fetch my temporary letter.
I immediately called our organizing member in the hope that he might have some ways. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get inside without the letter as it is very strict in the prison. He suggested that I could go around the shopping mall near the subway station and wait them for the get-together lunch if I was too tired to fetch the letter.
I couldn’t do that! There was only one thought in my mind at that moment, “I must go home and fetch it!” “It is the last session and I don’t want to let them down. What a loser I would be if I just walked around to kill the time!”
But, just think about the long journey! It made me sick! It would take me 3 hours to go back and come to the prison! Then the meeting would have almost finished by that time! Yes! Only taxi! It would be faster. I knew it would be a large cost and I would have nowhere to claim it.
I got on a taxi right away and headed back to my home! After one hour and ten minutes I was at the gate of the prison! It was happy to see them at the last session and bring them encouragement and happiness.
Some people may think I was insane and it was no big deal if I didn’t show up. Tell you what, I would have felt regretted if I couldn’t make it at the last session.
Every Monday is gratitude day.
I was a volunteer in Prison Toastmasters Speechcraft Program.
Last Saturday, in Table Topics session, I came up with a question to those prison inmates as “Is gratitude important in our lives?”
I was shocked that they had never heard of the word “gratitude”. But I don’t think it was all because they are prisoners. They are with little education and poor in English as well.
In fact, not only the prisoners, but many of my friends have never had the thought of gratitude. In their mind, gratitude equals to “thank you”. When someone helps you, you say “thank you” and that’s all. The truth is gratitude is not that insignificant.
- Gratitude is appreciation of life.
We are more likely to show our gratitude when we receive a favor from others. But what we can be grateful for is far more than that.
All that we experience every day is worth our gratitude. The pleasant weather, the blue and clear sky, a delicious meal, and a sound sleep…… The more you find that could be grateful for, the more contented you are with life. You will find life is so fascinating and full of beauty. You begin to live a life with appreciation.
- Gratitude is a positive attitude.
When we are disfavored, bothered or hurt by others, we tend to complain, get angry or revenged.
However, one coin always has two sides. Have you ever thought about the other side of the negative emotions you received from others? They give us the opportunities to learn, to grow, and to become tolerant and calmful. Shouldn’t we thank them for this?
Similarly, when we meet hardship, misfortune and stress, we should also thank them for giving us the opportunities to become brave to face them, to become determined to conquer them, and to become creative to work on the solutions. Those negative things are no more bad things, instead they become an asset for us!
Cherishing gratitude to everything, positive and negative, is sure to make us optimistic and happier.
Yesterday, I finally finished the 10km running in Standard Chartered running race.
It was a proud that I kept running in the whole journey and didn’t feel exhausted! I was really great! I’m sure to sign up for the Half Marathon race (a little bit more than 21km) next year!
We need to run, and we need to keep giving ourselves bigger challenges!
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