I was picking up 5-year old Little J from his kindy just now. The usual chatterbox was playing guessing game with me as we drove home.

Little J : Mum, why is 1 scared of 2?

Me : Errr.. you mean why is 1 less than 2?

Little J : No.. I mean why is 1 scared of 2??

Me : Err…. don’t know lah.. why don’t you tell me?

Little J : Oh man… such an easy question and you can’t answer ya.. That’s because 2 is bigger than 1, so 1 is scared of 2..

 Me : ???????

Is that how children learn numbers in schools nowadays?

This email came to me last night. It was thought-provoking and reminded me of a familiar phrase: 

“To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ’till death do us part.”

The story goes like this:

This is a true story that happened in Japan. In order to renovate the house, someone in Japan breaks open the wall.Japanese houses normally have a hollow space between the wooden walls. When tearing down the walls, he found that there was a lizard stuck there because a nail from outside hammered into one of its feet. He sees this, feels pity, and at the same time curious, as when he checked the nail, it was nailed 10 years ago when the house was! first built.What happened? The lizard has survived in such position for 10 years! In a dark wall partition for 10 years without moving, it is impossible and mind-boggling. Then he wondered how this lizard survived for 10 years! without moving a single step–since its foot was nailed!

So he stopped his work and observed the lizard, what it has been doing, and what and how it has been eating. Later, not knowing from where it came, appears another lizard, with food in its mouth. Ah! He was stunned and touched deeply. For the lizard that was stuck by nail, another lizard has been feeding it for the past 10 years…

Imagine? it has been doing that untiringly for 10 long years, without giving up hope on its partner.

Think, will u do that to your partner?

Think, will you do it to your Mom, who brought you after a big struggle of nearly TEN long months?

Or at least to your Dad, Friends, Co-workers, brothers and Sisters?

Imagine what a small creature can do that a creature blessed with a brilliant mind can’t.

As information and communication technology advances, our access to information becomes faster and faster. But the distance between human beings. . . is it getting closer as well? As for now, I don’t think so…

Last night, I dreamt that I bought a RM1.5 million villa for my family. The kids were running about and told me how excited they were to see so many secret rooms in the villa. I woke up the next morning feeling as good as ever! Yeah.. I learnt that a dream will forever become a dream if there is no goal and no action.

“A Goal is A Dream With A Deadline”

~ Napoleon Hills ~

Steve, my American business partner was in town lately. It was his second visit to Malaysia and one of the culture shock he experienced was Malaysian parents virtually do not have car seat and children  seem to be all over the car, including on the steering wheel.

Parents, if you love your children, belt them up!

You can really tell when someone is so passionate about what he is doing that he just can never stop talking about it! I met one such person last night… Greet, qualify, invite, greet, qualify, invite, all night long… I really salute you, Steve!

Big J had a heavy breakfast this morning. By lunchtime, he told me that he was still full and could not possibly finish his lunch. Trying to “bribe” him to finish his lunch, I told him that if he could finish his lunch, he could have a chocolate.

10 minutes later, he called me from the dining room. I was upstairs in the study room. He asked, “Mom, can I have the chocolate now?” I just replied, “Yes.” without checking if he had finished his lunch.

2 minutes later, he came up and told me. “Mum, I don’t think I would like to have the chocolate.” I was surprised by his remark. I asked him why. And this is what he told me.

“I did not finish my lunch. Hell was telling me that I can have the chocolate because mommy says ok. But Heaven was telling me that I should not have because I did not finish my lunch. So I decided to listen to Heaven and not listen to Hell.”

Surprised, I asked him where did he learn about Heaven & Hell and his answer was TV! Hmm.. TV does have good influence on our children..