Ode To You For The New Year

Happy New Year 2025

Created by gfhX

Ode to You for the New Year.

If you’re like me and most wannabe overachievers reflecting on the year’s achievements or disappointments, you’re welcome to join in the annual ritual of self-congratulations or self-crucifixion.

Before you indulge in comforting or cursing yourself with the year’s hits or misses, know that you have done enough if not too much, in pursuit of those illusive dreams you think your happiness hinges on. Everything happens or does not happen for a reason. Be thankful.

The past year has already been marked by significant global events, from political and social unrest to advancement in technology chiefly artificial intelligence.

If you’re still reading this,(congratulations, most people don’t read) you will know deep down you have done enough no matter how little or much you think you have expended. We have already arrived at year’s end or in a new one.

So sit back, relax and conspire now to contemplate on how much less you should do in the new year and spend more time doing absolutely nothing.

When you seriously focus on doing nothing, which is probably the most difficult thing to do, you'll achieve more.

In essence, if you’re doing too much you’re probably doing the wrong things.

So if you’ll just slow down, sit in a quiet place and spend some time with yourself you will invariably emerge to do the necessary with consciousness and presence.

What got us here won’t get us there.

2024 showed us the rapid advancement of Ai at dizzying speeds. It’s showing us Ai can do almost anything we can. We probably have to discard everything or every tool we used to get us here. The only thing we have left is ourself as individuals.

We are being stripped of our capabilities starting with our thinking, then they will eventually take over our doing or undoing.

As you read this, factories in China running full capacity 24/7 are called ‘dark factories’ simply because they are fully roboticized, no lighting is required save for a man and a dog. The dog’s job is to prevent the man from touching the buttons. The man’s job is to feed the dog. This is not a joke in China. Young Chinese entrepreneur Eric Chen, founder of Kingswills, a materials science company said in the New York Times recently that; “Probably in the future the competition for the US is not China, but A.I. It is coming for both of us.”

Ai is Coming For Us.

As we stand at a crossroads, humanity is faced with the echoes of its past while holding onto the promise of a hopeful future. We are navigating the complexities of progress, and it’s becoming clear: the age of AI is here, transforming the way we live.

In this fast-evolving world, we must ask ourselves: what truly brings us joy?

It is time to pursue those passions with relentless determination.

Now is the moment to confront our thoughts and fears, recognizing them for what they are — often mere stories of regret and anxiety that play on an endless loop in our mind.

Let us release this mental clutter and embrace the present. Our most authentic selves are waiting to emerge,  to create.

Remember, we do not need to chase after more. Everything we seek is already within us.

Whether you connect with a higher power, the spirit of the universe, or nature itself, know that we were equipped for this journey from the moment we were born.

You are enough. We are enough.

As we step into this new year, let it be a choice for creativity, possibility, and hope.

Happy New Year! The future is ours to create.

"Bad things are happening loudly- the injury, the flat tire, the mistake that gets you criticised. Everybody talks about the moments that make things a hassle.

Good things always happen quietly - the completed workout, the healthy meal, the ten minutes of writing. Nobody talks about the little moments that add up."

                             - James Clear 

The Idea of Love.

 Love or The Idea of Love.

" You know, it’s quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. 

There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don’t do it.”

— Jean-Paul Sartre 

Procrustes & Theseus

Whether we know it or not, Love or the idea of love has been brutalised, bastardised and misconceived at best. 

Whether it's through the well-intentioned but ill-conceived notion from our parents or the glorification and gross misrepresentation through the media, chiefly Hollywood, our innate sense of love has been culled, trimmed, shaped even castrated to fit the proverbial Bed of Procrustes. 

The fable of the evil Procrustes who ran an inn in the middle of nowhere, sat and entertained his guests with food and wine until they were satiated and drunk then he'd 'fit' them onto his iron bed by tying their limbs to the four corners of the bed and chopping them off if they were too long or stretching them out if too short. This gruesome scenario pretty much sums up how we were educated and how we educate our young on everything including love. 

The idea of love may have worked for some who have gone before us, but they would be the exception because overall results then and now are far from satisfactory seeing the increasing rates of separation, divorce and conflict amongst family. The root cause of all the pain and suffering is the idea of love preached from the onset, was one of a conditional or transactional kind. "I will love you only if you always make me happy.." or "I love you but you need to change your habits...”or better yet "I will love you if you obey me.." Most of us have seen or heard these words uttered in front of or behind the children.

When love becomes a transaction, it is commercialised, monetised, prostituted, and sold to the highest bidder. That's why some people wear their spouses like badges, as arm-candy and acquisitions who are willing (or unwilling) participants in this charade. Until...

When the music dies, the lights go down, the curtains fall, in the quiet moments we feel a sense of emptiness, dissatisfaction, dis-ease, even despair and doubt if the person we've ended up with, truly knows us or loves us. Or whether we truly know or love the person we've committed to spend a lifetime with? In short are we happy? The answer is perhaps no. Simply because if happiness is tied to another, to an external entity, how can anyone be happy? 

True happiness comes from within. Like love it starts from within. 

Loving oneself must precede loving anyone else. Even loving your parents is self love because without their care, we couldn't survive. That in part is why we came here alone, to go out into the big bad world alone, loving and taking care of oneself instead of relying on others. Taking care of oneself invariably leads to knowing oneself. 

When one is truly and fully acquainted with oneself, one is then fully and truly comfortable with oneself to be or live alone, even in solitude. There is no need for company for one discovers that one is better off alone than in unwanted company. One then is able to listen deeply within to discern between thoughts and feelings, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, success and failure, right and wrong and not be swept away by all these imposters. One learns to overcome the craving for another's company, for reciprocity, fear of rejection, social validation, because once self love is installed, self worth and independence is realised. 

Then the individual understands that to love another, one must first love oneself, then turn one's attention to the other. One begins to understand the other, listening to what is being said and observing everything that is happening in the other. In short to be fully present is to be fully engaged with the other. Only when one truly understands the other, can one fully appreciate the other and love unconditionally. 

~ A Declaration of Unconditional Love ~

I love you as you are and for who you are. 

I love you for all the pain you have suffered in this life or before, inflicted by others or by me. 

When I say I love you it means that I love you unconditionally with no conditions whatsoever. 

My love for you is purely that- my love for you, it requires not that you love me in return.  

My love for you doesn't require that you be with me always but I shall be with you for as long as you want me to, as long as I can.

I love you as I see and love myself in you. For there is no greater love than loving oneself. 

Unconditional love is the holy grail of love that frees us from the fetters than bind us to each other. 

Love is love, unconditional or otherwise, to love is to be free. 

Freedom of expression, of movement, of choice and freedom to love others. 

Procured only after deep understanding of self and the other, against the backdrop of this ephemeral world, we understand that it is the soul's purpose for liberation, to be free, not to be bound to anything or anyone. 

Because the self is only limited to a body and a mind made of this world, whereas the higher self transcends body and mind, seeks the oneness to return, from whence we came.  

 

" Fall in love with yourself, with life, and then with whomever you want." ~ Frida Kahlo. 

Love After Love

Love After Love. 

The time will come 

When with elation

You will greet yourself arriving 

At your own door, in your own mirror,

And each will smile at the other's welcome,

And say, sit here, Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

The photographs, the desperate notes,

Peel your image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life. 

 by Derek Walcott

Sunset by PineForest

This poem by Derek Walcott opened up a deep realisation that I had since childhood. The search for self  has masqueraded as the search for god, the meaning of life, the holy grail, and the questions of; 

Where I come from, 

What I am doing here and 

Where am I going after life?

When the first and most pertinent question has always been; Who Am I?

The answer to the first question is like the key that will unlock all other questions.

Perhaps the essay that this inspired me to write in my next post might shed light onto my thoughts and feelings on the idea of love. 

One Lazy Sunday Afternoon.

Lazy Sunday Afternoons.

*Batik Painting by Chuah Thean Teng

 

Not to be mistaken for lazy Saturday afternoons or any lazy afternoon, the lazy Sunday afternoon is special if not spiritual in very many little ways. 

 

Apart from having to be on Sunday, the lazy part is largely accessed via feelings, emotions and experience. Lazy is in the sense of being aware but disenchanted. It is a moment where time stands still or at least drags on with a long languid languor of purposelessness. Usually imbued with heat and humidity - hence afternoon, one is caught in a situation one is inextricably part of, even though there’s really nothing happening. The situation as it happens, happens by unfolding unplanned.  A situation within a situation, if you get my drift. 

 

Visualise a situation in real life, in a café by the street, at the seaside, poolside, or simply gazing at nature, where you get to be the observer observing yourself in it. 

It is a scene where everything happens as it should, nothing is amiss. Like a scene in a movie setting waiting for something to happen except nothing happens… not a word is said.

Here is where Sunday makes its distinction, being the sabbath, a holiday largely observed, most people are not bustling about at work or in traffic. Some are cooling off in an after-lunch siesta. Few if none are required in the scene as stillness directs.

This little window of inactivity on a lazy Sunday afternoon is a sweet spot for observers of nothing, at the same time it is ‘full of life’ for the observant. 

 

A childhood memory of such an instance brings me back many years to when I was 7 or 8. It is our family homestead where just three of us were cast in an idyllic scene that framed the perfect lazy Sunday afternoon for me. 

A large luscious lawn spreading out under several coconut palms, under the shade of a short one, sat my mother slicing coconut fronds with a small sharp knife stripping them to their thin stems. The dogs are taking refuge from the heat under the house, my older sister then only a teenager, cradled my head on her knee, using a tiny wooden ear digger exploring my inner ears for wax. My mother while slicing deftly, was surveying the surroundings looking for stray chickens, goats or cows that may wander into our compound. My sister deeply engrossed with the insides of my ear, forced me to keep completely still, only allowing me to take in the entire scene lying on my side as if it was my job to capture, frame and archive this subliminally. While variations of this scene happened several times before at our home, it was this particular situation that stayed with me all these years. Perhaps I was fully engaged with all my senses in that moment feeling a deep sense of connection to the ladies of the house who took care of me. But it wasn’t just about the ladies in the scene as I recall the entire vignette comprising even the smells and texture of the grass, trees, plants, shrubs, background fence, including the large Chiku tree at the end of the fence gently stirring in the afternoon breeze. It was a periphery vision that I had tuned into. A sort of floodlight vision that augmented my spotlight vision that afforded me an expansive even oceanic feel to experiencing the life I was living. 

On that lazy Sunday afternoon, I felt I had a place in this big, complicated, and mysterious world I was thrust into. I felt safe coupled with deep physical and emotional comfort not fully comprehending then, that what I felt was love. 

*Batik painting featured - Chuah Thean Teng, Malaysian artist born 1914 in Fujian, China is widely regarded as the "father of batik art" who developed batik as a means of painting;^[1] "his adaptation of the traditional batik medium into an accepted form of painting ... elevated the status of batik as a craft to an art medium."^[5]

Lemongrass Ave.

 Parsley Run.

Photo by Mostafa Agami on Unsplash

 

 

After work and meditation when it’s much cooler to get out, I chance the much anticipated evening walk that occurs only a few times a week. Now it’s almost a daily affair if not for the skies that threaten with dark clouds to unleash a thunderstorm at will. One time it was hot & clear with a smattering of clouds, I strode out merrily only to be pelted with tentative drops of rain two hundred meters out. I beat a hasty retreat back home and it turned into a full-fledged downpour best enjoyed from my balcony. 

 

Today I felt an even more urgent urge to take my walk having discovered I’ve run out of parsley. The urge to get out was even stronger especially after an unhealthy diet of several videos & newsreels of the first presidential debate last night on Sept. 11 in Philadelphia. It was akin to eating too much popcorn at the movies. I just had to get out, despite being out the day before foraging & gorging on local favourites. (Even more reason for parsley diet tonight)

 

I sauntered down the hill and as I turned the corner on Lemongrass Avenue, I came upon the familiar sight of a pretty golden retriever sitting in the middle of the walkway. She was taking an extended breather with tongue hanging out and ignoring her Filipina companion urging her on her leash to move, but to no avail. I, of course couldn’t resist the chance to run my hands & face all over Ginger, an overweight ten year-old golden retriever bitch who reminded me of my own 10-year old golden bitch. My Eleanor was just as pretty but wasn’t as heavy when she was alive a lifetime ago. 

Ginger was still nonchalantly seated on the walkway on her haunches still ignoring the Filipina as we reluctantly parted to continue my brisk walk. 

Further up as I reached the crest of the long avenue past the Lemongrass luxury condo, an unusual sight was approaching, a lady pushing a small-sized open pram with a miniature chihuahua sitting on top enjoying the ride & the view. As we passed I complimented her as I saw it- ‘what an unusual sight!’ I said. She chuckled softly, her chihuahua  sat erect, looking nonplussed. Now that I’ve seen it in real life, it really seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do. Except instead of walking the dog she was walking with the dog riding on a pram. Love certainly knows no bounds. 

 

Feeling a lot lighter after encounters with privileged dogs, I breezed down the avenue, turning left to cross the main thoroughfare teeming with evening traffic crawling up the hill, and bumper-to-bumper traffic going down, broken only by the traffic lights at the T-junction halfway up and down the lengthy hill. I crossed the pedestrian crossing at the lights and made my way to and through the MRT station accessed from lifts at one end, passing across the foyer, to lifts on the other end of the station. The huge lifts were spewing out hordes of office staff & workers like ants spilling onto the narrow foyer and into the station, as I weaved my way into an emptied one. I stepped into a lift that looked like an emptied and discarded milk carton just ravished by a mob. As the lift descended, I smiled mindful of the fact I didn’t once look at anyone in the milling crowd. 

 

The lift door opened to two lines of more people waiting on the ground floor eager to get up to the station. I promptly alighted avoiding bodies or eye-contact slithering silently across the labyrinth of walkways leading to the lifts in the basement of the Pavilion complex. 

The lift delivered me to an interior floor of Pavilion mall, I scamper across the road from the prestigious complex over to a more down to earth DC mall scantily appointed with retail outlets, restaurants, bars and a spacious supermarket called Jaya Grocers. This is my ideal grocery shopping haunt and teatime sanctuary where I get my best teh tarek fix, complemented with delicious nyonya kueh. 

I reluctantly passed on the teh tarek fix but happily acquired some rare nyonya delights for supper.

 

The parsley was sitting pretty in the greens section and I grabbed a pack casually and judiciously thought of objectively leaving having gotten what I needed. But not my wants. 

We all have ten thousand wants and desires, surely satisfying a few more wouldn’t hurt since I’m already here. So being the miser that I am and the carefree wanderer inside, I explored the sections & the aisles spending more time than necessary browsing and debating the necessity of items begging to be bought. The tally in the end; sweet young tapioca leaves (oh so young & sweet, I shall simply sauté them with garlic) tau foo pock (must have in soups), 2-packs of barley (midnite desserts), a packet of Chinese herbs (for cooling the body), a roll of raisin cookies (for teatime), a pack of roasted salted kidney beans (for movies) and half a chicken (for the freezer). Pleased with my selections and my frugality I navigated my way around the well-lit, well appointed, spacious & almost empty supermarket to the checkout counters. The local Malay boys & girls at the checkout are a joy to interact with. They have a quiet, detached but warm reverence in their manner. 

It’s the Malay culture of ingrained gentleness no matter how hard their leaders try to indoctrinate them to hate. 

I then head to the pork and liquor section after paying for my halal groceries. I picked up a packet of back bacon (for breakfast) & contemplated on a bottle of Dewars White label (it was on sale) in the expansive liquor section adjacent to the pork section. 

By the time I was ready to leave it was past 8 and I was already feeling hungry. I reminded myself to be stoic about bodily desires and made my way back. While retracing the path I came, I contemplated the monks’ austere but healthy life and the sadhus of the Himalayas who mastered the cold and hunger for months or even years, I decided that I wouldn’t have to endure extremes to transcend but still I marvel at such super human feats and that mind control is paramount to human endurance and spiritual achievements. I imagine if I could just master my mind in controlling my thoughts, I would have succeeded in attaining a significant level of spiritual wisdom.

I exit the MRT station I had just crossed over from the Damansara Heights town center housing the huge Pavilion complex and the DC -Damansara City complex, to stride half way up the main Maarof Road to the slip road leading up to Lemongrass Avenue. Passing the Bangsar Princess condominium, I pondered the merits of enjoying a dinner of Cantonese fried kway teow at the Venicia housed in the Princess’s back lobby. The ‘wok hei’ of the Kung Fu chau kway teow served in this restaurant is well known. I pondered again. The free library of books shelved in the corner of the main lobby has gifted me many paperbacks of significant authors and titles of many genres over the years. Alexander Dumas, George R.R. Martin, William Boyd, Mark Manson and AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to name a few authors. The Three Musketeers, The Game of Thrones, Brazzaville, The New Confessions, The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fc*k, and The Science of Self Realization, to name a few books. It’s also been a while since I was last there, maybe gifts of new titles await me. Soon I was sitting down to a dinner of classic Cantonese fried kway teow accompanied by a newly acquired paperback of Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth that was sitting on the community bookshelf destined to be mine. Not a bad decision after all.

What a haul of goodies, groceries, good food and good book for the body and soul. 

Satiated with my meal I shouldered my backpack and walked back, down Lemongrass Avenue once again. I am homeward bound 500 meters away. I greet the friendly Nepali guards at the Lemongrass luxury condo while gliding home on a cloud of serenity into the night still contemplating the bottle of Dewars on sale. 

 

I am blessed.

Jiwa Merdeka - The Spirit of Independence.

This Merdeka, we celebrate the Mah Meri tribe of the Senoi people. The original people of this land aka the Orang Asal. They have lived for centuries off the land in harmony with nature. Their deep reverence for nature has made them renown for their art of carving masks and statues which they use in prayers and ceremonies. Each carving has a folklore linked to natural and benevolent spirits that live amongst us. We're taking a leaf from these people to transcend the physical and political to embrace the spirit that unites us as a nation. 

Much like the delegation of diverse, multiracial and multi-talented individuals who journeyed to London in 1956 seeking independence from the British. 

“Don’t ask, don’t get.”

This must have been the thought driving our founding fathers as they embarked on their historic journey to London in February 1956, determined to secure our independence from British colonial rule. Armed with meticulous arguments, well-crafted proposals, and a deep understanding of the terms set by the British, they were prepared for the most important negotiation in Malaya’s history.

The delegation was formidable in its resolve and preparation. So persuasive were their presentations, so thorough their negotiations, that independence was secured in a single formal meeting on that chilly February day in London. While the air may have been cold in the British capital, the sun was undoubtedly shining brightly over Malaya.

Malaya, or Tanah Melayu, was granted independence that very month, with the official date set for August 31, 1957. And as they say, the rest is history.

Let us pay homage to the elite team who journeyed to London and returned with our freedom:

1. Tunku Abdul Rahman

•          Position: Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya and leader of the delegation.

•          Role: Tunku Abdul Rahman was the head of the delegation and the primary negotiator. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and would later become the first Prime Minister of independent Malaya.

2. Tun Abdul Razak Hussein

•          Position: Minister of Education.

•          Role: Abdul Razak was an important figure in the negotiations, representing UMNO. He would later serve as the second Prime Minister of Malaysia.

3. Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman

•          Position: Minister of Commerce and Industry.

•          Role: Dr. Ismail was a prominent leader who played a key role in the negotiations and was instrumental in shaping post-independence policies. He later became the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia.

4. Tun Tan Cheng Lock

•          Position: President of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA).

•          Role: Representing the Chinese community, Tan Cheng Lock was an essential figure in ensuring that the interests of the Chinese population were considered in the independence negotiations.

5. Tun V.T. Sambanthan

•          Position: President of the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC).

•          Role: As the representative of the Indian community in Malaya, Tun Sambanthan was responsible for advocating for the rights and interests of the Indian population in the new nation.

6. Dato’ Abdul Razak bin Dato’ Hussein

•          Position: Minister of Education.

•          Role: Dato’ Abdul Razak played a significant role in the negotiations, particularly in discussions related to education and administration.

7. Dato’ Wong Pow Nee

•          Position: Chief Minister of Penang.

•          Role: Representing Penang, Dato’ Wong Pow Nee was involved in the negotiations to ensure that the interests of the state and its people were addressed.

8. Colonel Tun H.S. Lee

•          Position: Minister of Transport.

•          Role: As a representative of the MCA and a key member of the Alliance Party, Colonel H.S. Lee contributed to the discussions on infrastructure and transport policies for the new nation.

These delegates were part of the Alliance Party, a coalition representing the three major ethnic groups in Malaya (Malays, Chinese, and Indians). The successful negotiations in London led to the agreement on Malaya’s independence, which was officially granted on August 31, 1957. *

This diverse group of talented individuals, representing a cross-section of our nation, laid the foundation for the country we now know and love as Malaysia.

The Malaysia We Know – And Love

However, the Malaysia we see today is but a shadow of the nation we were in the decades following Merdeka. While we have enjoyed political freedom for 67 years, the journey toward achieving true spiritual independence—'Jiwa Merdeka’—remains unfinished. 

This theme resonates deeply in this year's Merdeka celebrations.

What does ‘Jiwa Merdeka’ truly mean?

At its core, spiritual independence was the very essence of our founding fathers’ vision. They understood that our greatest strength lies in our diversity. Our multiracial composition demonstrated to the British that we could govern ourselves with peace, harmony, and prosperity. It was this very criterion—the ability to unite despite our differences—that convinced the British to grant us independence. The diverse composition of our delegation, coupled with the merit of our negotiations, sealed the deal.

Our multicultural society is the lifeblood of our nation, and our existence as a progressive country hinges on it. Yet, the ever-looming clouds of race, religion, and colour threaten this vision. ‘Jiwa Malaysia’ or spiritual independence, calls us to transcend these divides and embrace a collective spirit that sees beyond physical and political distinctions.

That is the true spirit of Merdeka—*Jiwa Merdeka*.

Happy Merdeka to all.

Visual rationale:

The Mah Meri tribe belongs to the Senoi people, one of the indigenous peoples of Malaysia, renowned for their ancient mask carvings from the wood of the blackboard tree for use in celebrating festive occasions like weddings. The masks embody benevolent spirits that, in the animistic pantheon of the Mah Meri, are used to drive away evil, soul-stealing spirits.

Source: https://www.maskmuseum.org/mask/mah-meri-moyant-kuhau/

Visit them online to discover their amazing story  here: https://www.mmcv.org.my/fully-customizable-2/

*Handcrafted by human, verified and cleaned up by ChatGPT4.

Sources; "The Making of the Malayan Constitution" by Joseph M. Fernando >https://www.mbras.org.my/monograph31.html

"The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya" by T.N. Harper >https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/end-of-empire-and-the-making-of-malaya/introduction/6D87C369666F27067AB19D136F2E1FAE