Life Lesson #1 – Be Generous

Generous in a right way…

I grew up in an environment where we were too poor to afford a proper meal. We had so much porridge with light soy sauce that to this day, we remember how fortunate we are. Throughout my six years in primary school, my parents would only give me five cents, and I would save it over five days to afford a small bowl of soup noodles. I could never understand why my dad would treat his good friends to beer and give away all our harvest from the farmland to them.

It was only after many years of reflection and observation that I finally understood his reason. My grandpa passed away when my dad was 12 years old, and he only had his good friends in the kampong to rely on. This is probably why my dad believes that friendship is more important than anything in his life.

In my own life, I have spent time reflecting and observing how I treat myself, my family, and my friends.

The value I hold today is about keeping a balance in my life on the relationship:

  1. Between myself and I: I try to pamper myself and treat myself better at every opportunity. I make it a point to always cheer myself up, keep my spirits high, read more motivational materials, work out my body every other day to maintain it, go for a spa and facial at least once a month, and travel to experience the world and enjoy my preferred social activities.

  2. Between my family and myself: Our family is the key to our mental health, and it is important to have unconditional love for everyone. When there is unconditional love, there is no need to measure fairness.

  3. Between my friends and myself: Friendships are built on elements such as care, love, respect, and trust. The key to maintaining these relationships is to constantly find ways to nurture them. While I am writing this, I am seated at a close friend’s father’s wake. I hope that by being here to support them during this difficult time, particularly at a peak moment like dinner, I can show my friend unconditional love.

  4. Between the environment and myself: I will always ensure that I am doing everything possible to contribute to this world by reading, writing to benefit our society, turning waste into useful resources to care for Mother Earth, participating regularly in charity work, and using all my resources to help create a better world. One of the strange things is that the more I try to use my resources, the richer I become.

To this day, I have benefitted from reflecting on how my dad could be so generous, even when the family didn’t have enough to feed ourselves. This mindset has helped me immensely.