Skip to main content

Small reminders as we go through life...


RIGHT SPEECH

There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "A speech will either prosper or ruin a nation." Many relationships break off because of wrong speech. When a couple is too close with each other, we always forget mutual respect and courtesy. We may say anything without considering if it would hurt the other party.

A friend and her millionaire husband visited their construction site. A worker who wore a helmet saw her and shouted,"Hi, Emily! Remember me? We used to date in the secondary school." On the way home, her millionaire husband teased her, "Luckily you married me. Otherwise you will be the wife of a construction worker." She answered,"You should appreciate that you married me. Otherwise, he will be the millionaire and not you."

Frequently exchanging these remarks plants the seed for a bad relationship. It's like a broken egg - cannot be reversed.

NO OVERPOWERING

Many relationships fail because one party tries to overpower another, or demands too much. People in love tend to think that love will conquer all and their spouses will change the bad habits after marriage.

Actually, this is not the case. There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "It is easier to reshape a mountain or a river than a person's character."

It is not easy to change. Thus, having high expectation on changing the spouse character will cause disappointment and unpleasantness.

It would be less painful to change ourselves and lower our expectations...

NO POINTING FINGERS

A man asked his father-in-law, "Many people praised you for a successful marriage. Could you please share with me your secret?"

The father-in-law answered in a smile, "Never criticize your wife for her shortcomings or when she does something wrong. Always bear in mind that because of her shortcomings and weaknesses, she could not find a better husband than you."

We all look forward to being loved and respected. Many people are afraid of losing face. Generally, when a person makes a mistake, he would look around to find a scapegoat to point the finger at. This is the start of a war. We should always remember that when we point one finger at a person, the other four fingers are pointing at ourselves.

If we forgive the others, others will ignore our mistake too.

TRUST

Trust is a very important factor for all relationships. When trust is broken, it is the end of the relationship. Lack of trust leads to suspicion, suspicion generates anger, anger causes enmity and enmity may result in separation.

A telephone operator told me that one day she received a phone call.

She answered, "Jabatan Kerja Raya." There was silence. She repeated, "JKR." There was still no answer. When she was going to cut off the line, she heard a lady's voice, "Oh, so this is JKR. Sorry, I got the number from my Husband's pocket but I do not know whose number it is."

Without mutual trust, just imagine what will happen to the couple if the telephone operator answered with just "hello" instead of "JKR".

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Migration Complete...

If you recall, sometime ago, I was toying with the idea of migrating to the wordpress platform. Today, that idea becomes a reality. The migration to wordpress is complete and all posts from today onwards will be at http://anakbrunei.org Do bear with me for the next couple of weeks while I figure out the ins and outs of wordpress hehe. This site will remain visible for archive purposes. Thank you and see you over at the new pad !

Lucky Little Lad...

My buddy James was asking me the other day to name 4-6 most influential people in Brunei Darussalam's IT development. It was food for thought and I thought long and hard about this over the last few days and James, if you're reading this, below are my nominees: HRH Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Bilah - Senior Minister, Prime Minister's Office HRH is very IT savvy and like all the younger generation, is very comfortable with ICT. I had the honour of presenting HRH with a PDA once and he took to it immediately, and I set up wireless internet both in his office at MFA and in his room at the palace so that he could access the internet from his PDA. This was some years ago when wireless was still a novelty. But from this interaction, I could already imagine HRH being the architect of a globalised Brunei (Cyber-Brunei?) where the knowledge economy would thrive. Pehin Dato Adnan - Minister of Home Affairs, former Director of Immigration & National Registration When he was Direct...

Taurean Mark III

Congratulations Mr and Mrs T on the soft opening of your third Taurean outlet at The Arch, Gadong. The AB gang has a long history with them. Da missus has been supplying the Superlicious ® Home-Baked Brownie Cookies that comes with all hot beverages at Taurean since they opened nearly seven years ago and we're also all members of the Taurean gang since Mr & Mrs T, Da missus and I are all Taureans. Anyway, to Mr & Mrs T, congratulations once again! Impressive architecture Like a cosy living room eh? Ingredients for a good mocktail The smokers' room If you haven't done so, do check out the new Taurean Cafe today! They're open till 1am so perfect place to lepak while waiting for sahur :)