Ash Wednesday!

Ash Wednesday was today and marks the beginning of Lent. It is a very important period in the Catholic calendar as we will go through 40 days(excluding Sunday) of preparation before we celebrate Easter. Easter marks the resurrection of Christ after being laid in the tomb for 3 days.

I love this period actually. It is the time for us to reflect on humanity and abstain from the luxuries of life. It is living like how Jesus suffered throughout this period before Easter. For me, it is a time to be humble and be appreciative to what I have and to remember those who are less fortunate than me. Let us remember those who are suffering because of war, injustice or illness.

Anyway, back to Ash Wednesday. I went to the Assumption Church in Jalan 222 after going home to take a bath to feel fresh after work. It was a rainy day and I hate rainy days as the possibility of accidents are higher. I took a slow drive and parked my car along Jalan Templer, rather far from the church as it was already packed with cars.

I didn't get a seat as I was a bit late and the church was packed with parishers who came after their work. I stood under my purple umbrella near to the porch. I tried as much as I could to listen to the homily given by Father Phillip Muthu who was talking about fasting and abstaining. Our fasting is very much different from the deffinition being practiced by Muslims. We still can eat during the day but nothing fancy or expensive. We are to live a simple daily life throughout these days.

What amazed me was when the church minister placed the ash over my forehead making the shape of the cross. She said, "Repent and be faithful to the gospel". I quickly sent an SMS to Ruby to share with her how inspired I was by the words.

To me, that sentence can be simply broken down in my own understanding:

Repent would be to admit and acknowledge the mistakes you have done. Be it skipping church, robbing or sleeping with your neighbour, confess it to God and move on. Sin in this world can never be avoided. It is because of human nature. As much as we pray and follow the holy teachings, we are still tempted by the evil or fall to the weakness of our humanness. God is loving and forgiving. He loves us.

Faithful to the gospel would mean living the word of God. Like as I said above, it is difficult to follow but we should atleast try. If trying is also difficult, then we should look deeper into ourselves to see what is stopping us from trying. It could simply be our attitude. Nothing is impossible.

I wish that during the moment of Lent, we may discover something new about God that will touch our hearts. It would be good to share it with your friends or family about what you discovered. Share it with people regardless of their religion or who they are. You never know as they may be touched by your words.

If you are having problems fasting and abstaining, consult your Muslim friends. I am sure they will be happy to share how they went through it during Ramadhan. Trust me, what they do is a lot harder than what we Catholics are doing. Nonetheless, some of them do it flawlessly and is not a hassle.

Also, pray as much as you can during this time wherever you are; in your car stuck in traffic jam or waiting for the Facebook website page to load. Although we may be saying short prayers, we are atleast still remembering God during this time.

Open your eyes to the world as you may receive messages indirectly from God that will stimulate your mind spiritually and move you.

God bless all of us during this moment of Lent and may it be a life-changing moment to us all.

Poor Karpal over-doing his best for the people

I am a concern citizen about all the local political news that has been going on in my country. I have reached a point of feeling disgusted and ventured to move to global news that is more interesting especially with what Obama is doing in the U.S. Atleast it is more satisfying and does make sense.

Big hoo-ha on what Karpal Singh said that a Sultan can be taken to court has become sensational news. A lot of people not happy at him for saying such things and now they are sending death threats to him and threating to harm his family. WTF!

Poor old man. At his age, he is still so active in the political arena. He started out as a young lawyer who grew into politics and being on the opposition side. The opposition party, DAP, has been struggling to take over the country in Malaysia since independence over the rulling party. The 2008 general elections finally showed fruits of their labour when they won in a few states.

Karpal's comments about the Sultan came about when the Perak state government under PKR(opposition) had to be desolved by the Sultan when the state exco members resigned. It gave BN the majority of seats in the state and BN was back in power without any state election taking place. Does this sound democratic?

So I guess people were not too happy about the dissolvement. Some tempted to challenge that decision and came out with possible solutions on how they are going to fix this issue. Karpal Singh is one of those some who challenged.

This has left me curious on who is right and who is wrong.

According to the 1957 Constitution of the Federation of Malaya with all the ammendments done throughout the years(taken from Wikipedia) , Article 181 states:

Article 181 guarantees the sovereignty, rights, powers and jurisdictions of each Malay Ruler within their respective states. They also cannot be charged in a court of law in their official capacities as a Ruler.

The Malay Rulers can be charged on any personal wrongdoing, outside of their role and duties as a Ruler. However, the charges cannot be carried out in a normal court of law, but in a Special Tribunal under the purview of the Council of Rulers.

I do not have much knowledge or experience with the law but from what I have learnt using my common-sense is that it is possible to take the Sultan to court under special conditions.

Come to think of it, would Karpal Singh even want to say something which is baseless considering the reputation he has as a prominent lawyer in Malaysia? We Malaysians aren't stupid and we can do our own investigation with the help of Google to validate his claims. Haha!

Also, could all the protest aimed at Karpal reflect the shallowness or lack of knowledge of us citizens on the constitution of our country?

Anything is possible. By using our common-sense and openning our closed minds, we should try and think about all this possibilities. We keep worshipping and thanking God for all his creations. Some of us dress up like prophets during the dawning of religion and camel handlers to show how religious we are to the outside world. But are we using God's creations to our fullest potential?

Jeez... I really do not know how I get this ideas and thoughts sometimes! Lol!

Time is certainly ticking... faster than you can imagine!

I was surfing cnn.com/living today and stumbled upon this article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/02/03/o.kogan.40.something/index.html

It is certainly interesting on how the author narates how time has passed and what she has been through in the past 20 odd years. Although, most of it indeed are very feminine experiences, she writes, but it also tells of how time was like back then; the technology, food industry standards, social life, pass times.

It also brings back my memories of the past where a mobile phone was an item of luxury and I would be dieing to have one. I remmember walking around shopping complexes with pride in holding my aunt's gigantic Motorola flip phone. As time has gone by, throughout my experience of being a cell phone user, I have had a new mobile phone on average once every year since 2000 and it is now a mere need than a want. Or the years when the Volvo 240 was the ultimate executive car to own, with safety and power as a feature. Power at 8 valves in todays motoring standards? Yeah right.

Somehow I can imagine how the writer feels today after being through so much. Deffinitely the phrase "Older but wiser" can be applied in this context. Life is indeed a learning experience. We continue to learn new things everyday contiously or uncontiously. With information greatly multiplying so does our knowledge and we grow with times and deal with change.

I am sure she faced many struggles in her career and social life. She has probably learned from such painful lessons that have made her stronger in getting through the toughest moments of life. People like her would be the right people for the younger generation to consult during trying times. The environment we live in may have changed but with the right attitude and will-power within each of us, we can lessen or even eliminate the suffering.

The oldest real-life lesson that I have learnt was from my grandparents days when they worked hard and did not have much to boast about. Today, it can be attributed that because of their hardship, I am the generation that is inheriting the comforts and happiness that they had worked hard for but did not live long enough to see and enjoy. God bless their souls.

I will probably be like the author one day, reminiscing on the past and my early years like through looking back at the posts of my blog. A lot of good and bad has happened throughout my life that has only made me a better person. Life should not be lived with regrets but with optimism to what lies ahead. As much as we are enjoying our current moments, things change and so should we although it is really hard to accept this reality.

As I write this, I remembered the fridge magnet on my uncle's fridge that I stumbled upon only last week. It says "Let us grow old together, as the best years are yet to come".