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Thursday, January 19, 2006
So, today - It was Chemistry lecture and I was sitting right at the back between my good friend and my male canoeist classmate. Unsurprisingly, my attention gradually trailed away from the lecturer's monotonous voice and I was soon chattering happily away with both friends. I don't know how but the conversation between my good friend and I arrived at graphology. In case my reader doesn't know, graphology is the practice of deducing certain personality traits from a person's handwriting. My good friend leaned over and took a glimpse at my scrawls on the notes before declaring,"You worry alot about the future, don't you?" Yes, I do and I was taken aback. Really, I didn't expect her to be so right on. Apparently, as I found out from her, the direction in which a person's handwriting slant towards to indicates whether he or she thinks more about the past or future. If your handwriting slants to the left, you are likely to be someone to remininsce the past whereas if it's to the left, you are probably a worrywart - which I am. My interest piqued, I turned over to my canoeist friend and asked to see his handwriting. It was tilting to the left alright. And then - "Of course la. Must reflect on the past so you know where you go wrong and can correct the wrong mar. Worry about the future for what? Why worry about something beyond your control? Must sui yuan (follow nature's course). If it's yours, it will be yours!" I laughed. Yet, those light-hearted words stayed with me for the rest of the day. They reflected a certain truth that I had known but had been elluding me for ages. That we can never predict or even control what happens to us. Worry is fear of the unknown in the future. And since the future is pretty much unpredictable and uncontrolled, worry is absolutely unwarranted. However, so many of us worry about things still, some even spending sleepless nights over it. That is because we harbour an emotional attachment to desirable consequences of events. For example, if I worry about my exams, I am truly thinking that if I need the necessary grades to be happy. But will good grades really make me happy? For so long, I have been worrying excessively about those unnecessary what-ifs and all it took was simple words of jest that jolted me back to reality about what things truly are. And there were those moments of nostalgia and remininscence. While my dear canoeist friend was right in saying that reflection on the past is good, but the past is ultimately the past. It is useless and meaningless to dwell in memories which are basically just remnants of the past which cannot be undone. In the end, what really matters is the present which we are really in control over. This knowledge should empower us and give us hope to persevere even in face of almost insurmountable obstacles. Happiness is our birthright and why do we have to deny it so willingly by imprisoning ourselves in the past and future? The present holds so much possibilities and that is freedom. Posted by |z|r| at |
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kindly. SHOUT. archives credits |
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