Life Lesson #2: Of A Man and His Wheelchair

On a Tuesday evening, my mum took us out for a trip to the night market.

We got some Nasi Lemak and Laksa for our dinner, besides loads of other hawker snacks as side dishes.

As my mum was having a gander at the wide array of fruits at the stalls, I turned behind me to observe my surroundings.

Everything seemed perfectly in-sync with a pasar malam trip - people holding plastic bags full of purchases, people lining up at stalls, people bargaining.

Something didn't seem to fit in with the image. It was a man, perhaps into his 50s, coming up the road.

It was common to see Westerners at the market. What wasn't common, was that this particular Westerner, had a disability - he didn't have any legs.

On his wheelchair, he rounded the market, checking out the stalls.

I lost sight of him after he passed the fruit stall.

When I was getting into my car, I saw him again. This time, he was parked next to a stall, eating his newly-bought snacks while watching the world bustle about.

When life is unfair to us, when all the odds are turned against us, it's easy to complain and be mad about how unlucky we are.

It is easy to forget, that there are many people out there who've had it worse than us.

In the end, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to talk to this man.

He didn't need to achieve great things to teach me to be more appreciative of my life.

All it took was to enjoy his food and watch life go on.

Life Lesson #1: Of A Spilled Bowl of Noodles

In the hustle and bustle of city life, it's really easy for us to lose our cool and blast off at people when they make mistakes. At some point in our lives, we've all been guilty of directing our anger at our family members, friends or total strangers. But do their unintentional mistakes justify our unnecessary outbursts?

By being angry, we seem to let out a lot of steam. But many times, we almost always regret blowing our tops off in the first place. When what has happened cannot be undone, why make ourselves go red instead of keeping a cool head?

It was a Sunday. My family and I went out for lunch at a restaurant. Having just ordered our dishes, we tried to settle ourselves in our seats. That's when I felt something wet drip on the back of my neck.

I turned around and was greeted with the sight of a woman, half drenched in curry soup.

A waiter had accidentally spilled a bowl of spicy, soupy noodles on his customer. I think everyone in that particular area of the restaurant was anticipating an inevitable outburst from the female customer.

Except, it didn't come. She just lightly nodded her head at the waiter's apologies and graciously accepted the manager's offer of a towel and a free dish. Some of her family members helped her to wipe off the mess, the waiter continued serving plate after plate of steaming food, and life went on.

My first thought, wow. This lady can seriously keep her cool.

It got me thinking about many things in life.

That was a really unlucky thing to happen. But as the Malay proverb goes, the rice has already become porridge, so why waste our energy on doing something that is about as benificial as doing nothing?

Instead of feeling mopey about what's gone wrong, why not think about how to make it right?

All those times spent on thinking about "what if"s, we could've spent them on figuring out how to solve our problems.

And it took a spilled bowl of noodles to teach me that.

P.S. This was not the particular bowl of noodles which also "attacked" me. This was from Bangkok, and it was yummy! :)