Bila Rumi Menari…

…entitled the song by M.Nasir. But I was alerted to this work by Rumi by the husband recently…and what  he may have meant by it…

Excuses

Someone says, “I can’t help feeding my family.
I have to work so hard to earn a living.”
He can do without God,
but not without food;
he can do without Religion,
but not without idols.
Where is one who’ll say,“If I eat eat bread without awareness of God,
I will choke.”

[MathnawiII, 3071-79]
Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, The pocket Rumi reader, edited by Kabir Helminski, (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2001), 120

Fish Labour

In this hot sweltering sun as the skin on my feet dried up, it’s time to give my tired feet a break by indulging in the…

Fish spa image taken from here.

even fishes have jobs to do these days ! 😛

In the spirit of ascension

In this month of Rejab, we are reminded of the Isra’ Mikraj incident. Probably it is tonight as stated by the narrations.

It is quite difficult explaining the ascension story to skeptics where the question how in the world Prophet Muhammad ( pbuh ) did the journey up into the sky on a buraq ( a heavenly creature ) from Mekah to Madina and then to Baitulmaqdis ( Jerusalem ) and back to Mekah all in one night. To many, it sounds hollywood-ish.

But to think in another perspective, an ant can be telling his mate, another ant that he went from KL to Negri Sembilan and came back on the same day. His friend would probably tell him please don’t bullshit. How can it be possible for an ant, to travel all the way from KL to Negri Sembilan and back on the same day ? It would take it a million years to do so.

But actually, it is indeed possible. All the ant had to do is to hang on to dear life on a man’s shirt. And it is possible for the man to travel from KL to Negri Sembilan and back within a day, right? And the ant who sticks on the man’s shirt travels too.

So is the idea of the ant’s travel really absurd now ?

So what about Isra’ Mikraj ? Or what about the Wali Songo days? Where they performed karamahs and/or the miracles of the other Prophets in the past as just mere legendary stories not anymore authentic than Narnia ?

Are the days of karamah over ?

Twilight Zone

… that I had a pack of homemade sausages in my freezer. I didn’t cook any sausages last week, the husband can vouch for it. I didn’t give it away, cause they are good sausages I had intended for a certain recipe. But I searched high and low today, ransacked the fridge, took out everything and anything. It’s gone ! My bag of sausages mysteriously *poofed* . Although I do have a furry suspect, but the fridge is a tad too high for him.

Or is it ?….

In Retrospect

When things happen not on our side or to our immediate liking, more often than not we grieve right? I know I did. A bad one years ago. When something I thought would work out for me, didn’t. And I had to make the decision to leave it or to go on with it. I chose to leave, of course not without bucketful of tears.

Fast forward, years down the road, present times, yesterday in fact, I got updated on what I left behind that fateful day on that fateful year. On what happened to the object I walked out on. On what that object is now.

I took my ablution, did my prayers and did the sujud syukur. Thank YOU. I thought YOU didn’t love me back then because YOU didn’t answer my prayers to make it work. But yesterday, I realised with all my heart that YOU answered the very ‘doa’ we make after each prayer 5 times a day…

‘Rabbanaa aatina fiddunya hasanah, wa fil akhirati hasanah waqina azabannar..’ — OH Lord, give us the goodness of this world and the hereafter.

Thank YOU for loving me enough to guide me to make that decision years ago. And sorry for the bucketful of tears and being angry with YOU back then. In the words of modern day teenagers, I was just being emo… I didn’t realise, or chose not to realise that YOU have better things in store for me.

A bushel and a peck

Some years back, I think the year was 2002, I met a wonderful lndonesian lady in Australia. She was older than me. Petite, friendly and very, very wonderful, I still keep in contact with her to this day, and I met her again two years ago in 2006 when we were in Queensland.

Sometimes, when life exhausts me, I always remember her. Because when she first came to Australia, she told me that her English was very basic. But she fought on to survive and adapt and live on to the point that she blooms beautifully there. There was one thing she told me in 2002 that I cannot forget. That is ‘ If you you cannot adapt/survive in a country, it is not the country. It is you. ‘

As I hear people around me complain and whine about things, which we as humans whom HE has made to have all the capacities in this world to survive, those words always linger into my mind.

Seriously, what do whining and complaining do lah ? Noise pollution, you know…

_____________________________________________________________

On a totally different note the title came about because as I sat to write this down, the song from the musical Guys and Dolls rang in my head. It went like…

I love you, a bushel and peck.. a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.. a hug around the neck and the barrel and the fleet…

Sung by Miss Adelaide and her pub girls. Heee 😛

Of Tom Cruise and Comic Relief

Last night during training we learnt the four point sword movement, using a wooden ‘sword’ of course. Unlike the pic below which uses real sword.

Image taken from here.

Nevertheless, I berangan /berfeeling Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai … ahaks! 😛 I am quite on high now as I have gleefully learnt how to bring people twice my size down and that somehow gives me a tad of confidence. And not that I am using my strength to do so. Just use physics. Find the weakest link and use your little finger to pull. Wham !

At this moment I am watching the early morning news on RTM. Sometimes watching politician’s speeches can be quite a comic relief.

Dirgahayu

A friend wrote this circa 2006…

( Ibrahim, if you are reading this, yes it is yours. I am quoting it because I like it and I relate to it. Bravo )

Progress is a forward movement towards a goal. As we expend our energies on the future, we move away from where we were. We delight in development yet vaguely sense a loss. Even as things change and develop, we feel the need to conserve elements of our culture so that it is not lost for future generations – or indeed for ourselves.

Are you comfortable of being who you are?

I know I am. Hence after reading the above, this blog changes from Tales from The Toilet Seat Philosopher to Warkah Wanita Melayu.

P.S Dirgahayu means ‘Long Live’

Raindrops on zinc roof

Last night somehow all of us, the husband, Milo and myself ended up sleeping upstairs in the attic-mezzanine floor, which we turned into our library and office.

At around 4plus in the morning, it suddenly rained cats and dogs. The rain pelted down hard upon our zinc roof. Somehow I found that sound so familiar. It transported me back into my childhood in Kaki Bukit Jalan Perwira, the kampung house opposite the surau. And also on Jalan Eunos– the kampung house in front of the tangki air.

I suddenly became wide awake, listening to the pitter patter of raindrops on the zinc roof, along with it came a gust of wonderful memories of my childhood growing up in the kampung back in my hometown.

I smiled myself to sleep after that.

Sore feet

Right at this moment, I am blogging while a blind person is doing foot reflexology on my feet. Bloody painful. He said that the more pain I feel, the more problems I have with my health actually. Oh man, if that is the case, I must have alot of health issues I am not aware of then…

Oucccccccch !!!!