Chapter 7--"zhen xi"

On this Vesak day, let talk about "zhen xi" or treasuring things.

1.) Family members
Now although I know that it is politically correct to say that we should and must treasure our family members, I really admire those who really really did. For me, it is extremely difficult not to take my family members for granted.Perhaps it is because that I am not the sort of people who can just hug my parents and say I love you! without feeling goosehumps all over my body. In fact, I feel that it is easier for me to convey my love through actions rather than words. For instance, I prefer to help out with the house chores and to just forged ignorance when my mum is nagging at me to prevent the situation from getting worse rather than losing my saliva to talk back. In fact, I feel that it is very fake whenever I see people on tv saying those types of lovingly words to their parents especially on occasions like mother's day etc.. However, do get it straight also that I totally do not envy those people who have the courage to say those words because well, I guess that it is just not yongster habit to do so. I could still vividly remember the uneasy feeling I felt when I overheard one of my friend calling his mum "mimi" over the phone. For goodness sake! MiMi! how could he bring himself to say this word considering that he isn't really young anymore? Of course one of the reason my friend would have easily countered back is that it has already become his habit since young and that I do have any right to "destroyed" this wonderful relationship with his mum. Anyway, it is really none of yongster business that they are such a closed knit family and I do hope that they will be able to continue such "closeness" for he can become a mummy's boy for as long as he like.
Therefore you could see that I am really not an expert on family relationships because I have to admit that I do not really shared tight bonds with the rest of my family members. At home, I seldom communicate with them unless it is necessary to do so for I just find it so hard to search for a common topic that we could discuss. At such, how do you expect me to treasure them when one of the pre-requsite of treasuring something is that we must at least like that thing very much? Hopefully, as I matured more in the future, I would be able to find more reasons to treasure my family members as I am fully aware that as children and siblings or even as realtives we should not take them for granted as they are usually the ones that are there for us when we fall deep into the valley.

2.) Friends
Again, hand up those who do not take their friends for granted. Well for me, the degree of taking friends for granted are at least not that strong as which I feel for family members. In another words, friends are actually quite important to me for they are also the ones who are most likely able to share similar experiences with us. What do I mean? well unlike family members, friends are the ones who would most likely went through thick and thin with us in schools, in army or in work place. When we think of a particular period or moment in our life, we would most probably also thought of the friends that suffer with or bring joy to us during that period of time too for they are the ones who went through the same path with us. Therefore, I do take each and everyone of my friends seriously regardless of whether they are those who are still in contact with me or those who have come and go for everyone of them leave an unerasable print in my memory.

3.) Health
Finally this is something that I totally do not take for granted and will always treasure it for as long as I live. Yet, it is also health which I feel that many people especially a majority ofyoung people like us who is taking it for granted and not treasuring it until something terrible happen to it. Based on my own personally experiences especially when in the army, I could not and still do not comprehend how people can be so proud of their health "handicapped" just so that they could skip certain more strenuous activities like outfields or IPPT etc. For me, I feel that I might as well chose to fail or do poorly in these activities rather than to compromise on my own health for really, what could you do without good health? Therefore, although you people could be saying that I am proud when I say these words, I would however want to stress again that I would NEVER downgrade my pes status just to avoid the annual IPPT or any other outfields activities during my reservist years.
Yes, I am proud to be pes A, what about you?