Happy birthday Aiman!

Today is Aiman's fourth birthday. Watching his favorite cartoon

in u-tube, playing onlinegames, he's a digital native. I'm a digital

immigrant, having to learn all this stuff at this age.

I write down the alphabets for him to punch on the keyboard such as

T-H-O-M-A-S for Thomas and friend and the such. Then he click and

choose. Once he can read and write, there's no stopping him. I will

only send him to kindergarden when he is five years old. For now,

let him learn using the internet.

Last night I did a simple video editing of Aiman when he was one

year plus. He was so cute then.

Happy birthday Aiman. May Allah bless you all the way through.

Amin

Make mistakes!

There are times when we regret the decision that we have made in the past. We were too naive then. Or too emotional. Or lack of information. Or whatever. At times we think we know better. Don't interfere with my decision. But then at some point in the future we find out that we were wrong. Way too wrong. It is at this moments that we acknowledged the truth of what other people has been trying to say to us that we have rejected so blatantly.

Well, that's in the past now. No use to regret it now. Just need to think forward. Need to move on. Everything happen, happen for a reason. We can only see from our narrow perspectives but Allah knows best.

I always told my students that the best way to learn is to learn from our mistakes. As a teacher I welcome mistakes made by my students. I highlighted why it was wrong, what's the correct method, and reminded them not to repeat the same mistake again. It is like getting to know your enemy. When you know your enemy, you can keep away from them.

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said a good muslim does not repeat the same mistakes over and over again. According to him, everyday we must be better than yesterday. Meaning every night before going to bed, we must introspect ourselves and see what we have done wrong during the day. Of course as mere mortal we always make mistakes. But we shouldn't made the same old mistakes.

I guess what I'm saying is we must move on with our life as best as we can. All the mistakes we have done make us all that much wiser. And we learn more from the mistakes that we made. Thomas Edison have dozens of mistakes before he finally invented electricity.

Make the best of your life. May Allah bless us all.

Water

Over the school holidays I spend a lot of time around water - waterfall, stream, river and sea. Watching water falling from high altitude into hard rock fascinates me. Water is very soft. Nothing compared to the hard rock. But yet it manage to cut holes into the rock. Slowly but yet, steadily. Stream and river carve jagged lined into the surface of earth.

A lot of people are like the water. They are soft, not at all out spoken, lingering at the back of the stage of life but yet make an impact of their own. My mother is one of them. She will never shine in any function. She is just ordinary. Never brag about her kids. But all her kids are successful in their special own way. No need to make comparison. There's no point to do that. In a lot of ways I'm like her. Always being an underdog but always manage to get myself afloat and survive. Survive well at times. Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah.

In the middle of the vast South China Sea while following my husband to one of his fishing trips, I keep on thinking about a verse in Al Qur'an. Allah says that if we use all the drops of water in all the seas of the earth as ink to write down Allah's knowledge, we will not be able to do so even if we have double the amount of ink.

"And among His signs, He shown you the lightning, by way both of fear and as hope, and He send down rain from the sky and with it gives life to the earth after it is dead. Verily in that are signs for those who are wise," chapter Ar Rum verse 24.

Watching National Geographic, it shows how a dry out lake, when scanned with infra red light, will show signs of eel, fish, etc. embedded under the dry earth and waiting for the rain to come to spring up back to life. The dead river will come back to life after a splash of rain. Al Qur'an told all about this 1400 years ago.

There's a whole lot more for science to discover the truth in Al Qur'an. Only the wise will get it.

May Allah bless us all. Amin.

Relax!

School holidays is almost over. I should say that I enjoy this school holidays. I give my concentration to my family. I took two of my kids to Apple Student Workshop. Now they are familiar with MacIntosh system, I find it hard to use my Mac. My Mac always end up in my son's room, doing video editing using iMovie, creating his homepage using iWeb, managing his photos using iPhoto, and the best of all creating his own piece of music using GarageBand. GarageBand is very much a mini studio. You can create any types of music using all kinds of instruments including traditional ones like tabla, indian percussion, etc. Then you can record your voice and change the voice from male to female and vice-versa. Two of my sons are involved in nasyid group in their school. I finally can have my lovable Mac back after my husband bought a music expression handphone for my son.

We went to Tanjung Bidara Beach, Malacca to celebrate three birthdays. My first, second and forth sons' birthday. We enjoy the beach and the swimming pool. My four year old Aiman don't want to get out of the pool. I had a hard time trying to get him out of there. At night we went to Tanjung Balak beach and did some shopping.

Family is very important to me. It is not what you do that is important but what you do together. Doing something that all of us enjoy is the key. Find common interest. We need to get away from hectic time table and relax with family members.

Appreciate each and everyone around us. May Allah bless us all.

Empathy

I was waiting at the gate, looking on at students who came late to school. Being a dicipline teacher, it's part of my work. From afar I saw a prefect striding hurriedly towards the gate. As she walked pass me, I stopped her and admonish her for being late. As a prefect she is suppose to set good example to other. I gave her a little pinch just to show show how serious I am. To my astonishment, she twisted her hand and scolded me. She said something that I can't remember but whatever it was her act surprise me since I taught her that year and she has always been a nice sweet girl. After assembly that morning, she approached me and knee down beside my chair. She took my hand and kiss it and said how sorry she was. I stopped her speech and immediately said it's o.k because I knew she must have had problem at home. My words had unleashed her tears and she walked away wiping away her tears.

Often times we are mad at people for the things that they do or say. We always feel that person shouldn't have done or said the things that they said. When husband came home and shouted at small, trivial mistakes, when kids shot back at parents, when friends suddenly are at bad mood. But we seldom ask ourselves what make that person do what they did. In other words, we always think and see from our perspectives but we seldom try to look at the matter from the other person's perspectives. Maybe the husband had a bad day at the office, maybe our kids just quarreled with their best friends, maybe our friends are not well. There can be hundreds of reasons.

Empathy is putting ourselves in other people's shoes. Trying to feel what he/she feel, trying to figure out what could have gone wrong, trying to visualize if we grow up in the environment that she/he has grown up, would we act the same way? It doesn't mean trying to make right what is wrong. What is wrong, is wrong. It means when we understand why he/she did that we can tolerate it better; being less angry. And when he/she has manage to cool down, he/she will appreciate that we didn't act like what other people would normally act. My prefect student appreciate my understanding of her situation. She expected I would have gone mad at her but when I said I know she had a problem at home, she was so touched that she cried. When she was relieved that I wasn't mad at her, I was relieved too. At least I didn't accidently add up her problems. She already got a handful of problems to handle.

Allah is full of justice. If we try to understand people, they will try to understand us. Try it out. You might be surprised with the results. May Allah bless us all. Amin.