A Love Letter to SL on Independence Day.

Merdeka Day for the Nation, Liberation Day for me. 

Pix by PineForest

Dear SL, 

August. A month of significant events, mostly of endings and beginnings, the end of summer and the beginning of fall, then comes winter before spring re-emerges. A time of rejuvenation, renewal and rebirth. 

August is an appropriate opportunity to dwell on the 3 Rs. On why and what is the significance of this eight month that happens to be the departure point of the women and young ones from my life. We have often wondered why among most things ponderable. 

You and I once wondered what it would be like to only live off on only one’s wits? 

What a question! 

What a life we have lived ever since we took that pilgrimage of only living on one’s wits to survive especially for the last seven years. Wittingly or otherwise. 

I know it’s nothing new to the many people who live not knowing where their next meal will come from. But nothing beats the experience of helplessness and anguish, I learnt that, like joy and happiness, they soon vanish like the morning dew and the morning glory. You stay fully awake and aware of the feelings yet detached to the emotions. It is just another one of life's experiences, it rises and soon passes away. 

We stay connected to reality while fighting the thought and question demons in our mind. 

Or stay lost in our thoughts suffering unreal stories. These are the only two choices presented to us in every moment of life. Stay present in reality or lost in fantasy. 

In the greater scheme of things, life is meaningless, so don’t take it too seriously. It is up to us to give it meaning. Our individual mission is to find out what drives our passions to give meaning to life. 

Tough question to address at first. But it simply starts with finding what you enjoy doing most and to do it until you can monetise it, live by it. You sell your own creations and that makes you an artist. 

Everyone who has picked up a tool, a pen, a knife , a move, a shovel or a gun to survive, has lived off our wits. 

Everyone lives by their wits, knowingly or not. We sell our talents to survive. Many still have yet to tap into their own passions. 

Find the intersection between your talent and your passion you will find your calling eventually. 

Once you find your calling or gift. You spend the rest of your life honing it and then give it away for free or for a price.* That’s Enterprise. 

• both monetizable. (Picasso said the first part, I added the rest.)

We have found our calling - You & I. It was the day we decided to leave the company of friends, old and new, at the Bank to seek new experiences in the field of Advertising in 1984.  It was a decision I had not regretted for we found ourselves in a world where creative, pragmatic dreamers run riot and thrive. And now, we are on the tip of a large enterprise, like most social enterprises with heart, to make the world a better place joining others to grow a new earth. 

Sounds altruistic but that’s what we have found lacking in this world that needs to be done. 

And if the journey to live only off our wits, has taught me anything; it’s this; 

We are enough. We are it. We are - Existence. Consciousness. Bliss. 

The universe truly conspires in our favour. 

Have faith. Come what may. 

One of my favourite quotes on life is “To joyfully participate in a life of sorrows” from Pico Iyer is 

further soothed by Albert Camus’s “ Life is absurd therefore meaningless.” 

He goes on to say; “ therefore it is up to us to give it meaning…”. 

I have to say on my part I was living with presence of mind - POM, searching & finding meaning all my life until now… when I realise I’ve found meaning when I found you SL in solitude. It was quite an eventful journey to traverse just to end up in inevitable solitude with you. If not, I dread to think how dreadful, scary and anxious life would be for me/us now. 

Life's like that I suppose; it happens to us like breathing or the beating of our heart, it's done for us. We don't know how or when it will stop or where it'll lead us, we just have to face or participate in this life unfolding in front of us. Unavoidably until we face it's greatest mystery- Death. 

And so I say, give your life meaning, write your story and tell your story. 

Inspire someone to live a more fulfilling life. 

It is our only defence left over technology. 

When we realise this, it is not only our independence day but liberation day as well.

With love 

Peter. 

P/s. Stay the course, let go and relax. 

Pp/s. Living off your wits means going out into the unknown, no well trodden path, no evidence of success or even survival. Enduring all that while forging a new path no one’s gone before. It is only when we were willing to abandon the shore that we sail the unknown horizon. We leave our stories as legacy. 

Ppp/s. This post also hallmarks the period we fly the magnificent coop we holed in for near 7 years living off our wits, to a lofty aristocrats neighbourhood nearby. 

Pppp/s. Did I say I Love You? I’ll say it again;  I Love you. 

Ppppp/s. I’m truly deeply, madly in love with myself. Because I am nothing and I see myself in everything and everyone around me. 

Since the first of the month I have been feeling under the weather. Cocooned in my shoebox for 3 full days I finally felt fit enough to wander around this new exclusive neighbourhood within a 500 meter radius. It was a delightful discovery of quaint little establishments that stocked my favourite things. From teh tarek & roti canai, to swanky omakase restaurants and quaint hipster cafes to a rustic supermarket stocking fine fare. Reminds me of Jalan Batai in Damansara Heights, Holland Village in Singapore and Washington Street village in DUMBO Brooklyn. It has been a different kind of new experience that signals a new phase in my life. Quietly pleasant.