Branching Out

* The view from my (office) window

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent, that is to triumph over old age. ~ Thomas B. Aldrich

So. Ramadhan came, and went. Eid ul Fitr also came , and went. My birthday came today and is going to end soon. How time flies. I realized this as I opened the window of my office and stood facing the palm tree leaves that have sprouted out to cover 50% of the view. The trees must be really tall, I thought, since my office is on the second floor of a three-storey building and when I moved in 4 years ago, the leaves had not reached my floor. When I looked at the leaves, I thought they looked every bit like the pandan leaves. Green and robust. Always branching out…growing and growing. Occassionally, these leaves would have to withstand scorching heat, heavy rain and thunderstorms but they still grow. One of these days, the view from my window will be completely blocked by these leaves. But that’s okay.
Like the leaves, I suppose I have been branching out since my last birthday. There were times when things got really tough. Like when I decided to cut out someone from my life. Never mind that he'd been there for me for the past 5 years. And when things got really ugly with my greedy uncle who was adamant to get his share of my late dad’s property. And when I was told that the University had insufficient funds to send me to UK, after going through a lot of hassle to apply for a study leave. These were really stormy, nerve-wrecking phases in my life for the past year but somehow I’ve managed to move on and fulfilled most of the roles expected from me. Sometimes the empty pangs got harder and harder to ignore but I’m still sane. One year older and like the leaves, I'm still branching out. I am indeed blessed.

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