I begin to remember more lessons from my Thailand travels. It could just be that my memories are justifying what I currently think, but small matter. It's like saying, you rationalise what you understand through tainted memories and unreliable recollection.
Do I have the answers to the universe? No, I don't. However, I do know what works and what doesn't, for me.
Once, I was eating at a roach-infested stall in Bangkok. Prawn fried rice, Thai-style. After dinner, you could see roaches coming in and eating the leftover morsels of prawns on our plates.
But the lady manning the stall was friendly enough. Though her face did look like a cracked coconut.
"Where you from?"
"Malaysia."
"Wah, Malaysia, petrol cheap-cheap."
She then began to explain how she had to sell her car and move to another place, as well as get another job because of the economic crisis as well as the hike in petroleum prices.
As she told her tale of woe, she was smiling all the way.
"That's a sad story. Why do you look so happy?"
"Because I am here today. Alive. And I'm talking to you!"
That just made all the problems I had back then seem silly and inconsequential.
No matter what happens, you're still alive. And while you can never change the past, or people, you still have today and with it, you can shape all your tomorrows.
"You want to go to loom? I boom-boom in your loom!"
"Err... No, thanks."
