Catnip!

Assalaamualaikum...

For those not in the know why I've been abit more busy than usual, late to my meetings and lack sleep, this is why..

My new little kitty!!!! ngeee >_< My parents and I were eating at a newly opened restaurant in Uda and towards the end of the meal, we heard the little kitty meow like crazy. It didn't stop meowing, it was frantic, quite dirty but still so cute. I always see stray kittens and cats often and in my heart I've always wanted to take them in but my parents never let me. I didn't lose hope though and I asked my parents again, after countless cats, if I could take the kitty home. Out of the blue and surprisingly, my mum said yes!

So this is Chobeng, our new family member.

He has been with us for three weeks now. Masha Allah, memang rezeki lah dapat this kitten. He is so well behaved. My mum took care of cats when she was a kid and she said out of all the cats she has seen in her life, Chobeng is the most manja and well behaved. Alhamdulillah, my first kitten is Chobeng =)

My sister wanted to name it chobi but then my mum mentioned that it's ears are quite big for its head and there is an old Malay saying for this, which is "telinganya jobeng". Put Chobi and jobeng together, dapat lah Chobeng! hee..

All praise is to Allah, Chobeng is healthy. He is still a bit underweight but he's improving. The first few days he kept vomiting and had bad diarrhoea. Dia lapar tapi stomach dia dah lama sangat tak ada makanan, so it had stomach upsets for the first week. I didn't sleep much for that week either (sorry again to ashwini, krystal, marriane and chitra, I was like a zombie when i met them, haha). Tapi takpe lah, it's all worth it.

It's like I'm taking care of my own child when it comes to Chobeng. I've to feed him, clean up after him, cook for him, sacrifice my sleep, energy and time for him tapi kalau dah sayang tu, semua ok je. Actually, I don't know whether the kitten is a he or a she because it's too underweight. Took it to the vet and all tapi still tak tahu. But Chobeng sounds more guy-ish so I'm hoping it's a boy. It has it's hyper moments when dia dah puas tidur and dah cukup makan, oh excited nyer dia. He'll run and jump about, chasing bells, pouncing at his own shadow, scratching the carpet, jumping on people, play with string, nibble on peoples toes and attack their feet. haha, oh sho cute! gerrrrrraaamm tengok dia, hehe.

Bila dah penat main, he'll cuddle up close, gives a purr and gently falls asleep on me. When he wakes up, he'll lick my face. Ticklish but it does hurt quite a bit though because the surface of the tongue is like sandpaper. So it feels like somebody is shaving my face. hahaha. tapi cute sangat-sangat sooo takpelah. hehe.

He rarely meows at all now.Alhamdulillah, I think he's happy so he only meows when he's hungry or needs the toilet, just to let me know. He even knows to poopie at the litter box and covers up his mess with sand. I mean, this all sounds like normal cat behaviour but my mum tells me that in reality this is very hard to come by and for cats to keep consistent with such good behaviour is very rare. And he's only 2 months old!

InsyaAllah, he'll grow up with me and I'll try my best to take good care of him.

Assalaamualaikum..

Promises...

Assalaamualaikum...

Promises. Delicate thing they are. We keep to them, people will have more faith in us and trust us. Keep to them, it will strengthen relationships and fortify bonds. Keep to them, it might just be the key to our success. Keep to them, it will set off a chain reaction of positivity. Keep to them and we will see smiles. Keep to them and InsyaAllah we will get our just rewards.

Break them, people might be wary in putting their trust in us. Break them, it might jeopardise relationships and weaken bonds. Break them, a fog of negativity fills the air. Break them, it might be the end of a business. Break them and you might break a heart too. Break them and we will get our punishment.

A promise is a commitment from one person to another, to do or not to do something. We give our word to try our best to stick with that commitment. We have to have the determination and will to keep to it. We have to be confident that we can do it in the first place. A promise is a spoken contract.

Alhamdulillah, I've managed to stay true to most of my promises. But, there are some that I've broken too. Yes, there is always a 'But'.


Here, I would like to ask for forgiveness from all those who I've wronged and had not kept my word to. There are lots of things I need to ask forgiveness for, but I think I'll start with my undone promises because a promise is a promise.

“Dan penuhi (sempurnakanlah) perjanjian (dengan Allah dan manusia) sesungguhnya perjanjian itu akan ditanya.”-(Al-Israk:34).

In Islam, a person is held responsible towards their promises and can only break them due to old age or sickness or because of unavoidable circumstances or situations.

And for those who know me, I rarely give out promises and when I do, I mean them. So for whatever reason I couldn't keep my promise to you, I hope you do forgive me. InsyaAllah, I'll improve on keeping to all my promises. I'll definitely try my best to.

A reminder to myself before others:

A promise needs to be said with sincerity. A promise needs to be carried out with integrity.

And for the Muslims, a promise needs to be said with 'InsyaAllah'.

Promises aren't meant to be broken.

I'm sorry.


Assalamualaikum...

Snail trail...

Assalamualaikum..

Well, this post is a comment on Arif's blog post titled 'Recognition'. I intended to leave a comment but when I tried posting it, it said that my 'HTML is not accepted. It must be at most 4,096 characters long'. I guess mine is more than that and I didn't bother checking. So I'm posting it here, copy and paste kat bawah ni je.

So whoever is interested in knowing what I'm blabbering about kat bawah ni about snails and fire, haha, do read up on Arif's original entry to this topic. Here's the link http://ana-safwan.blogspot.com/2010/08/recognition.html .

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Assalaamualaikum Arif..

Prof. Kopanski's analogy is very interesting to me. And to answer your question in the 2nd last paragraph, I think that the world can be represented by a snail. A snail can not live without a shell, but a shell is just a shell without the living creature inside it. The living creature gives meaning to the shell. It requires both the elements to be a 'snail'.

The shell represents the material things in this world, may it be a need or a want. While the living creature is the society that gives these material things meaning.

The elders that you mentioned (likely 60+ years of age now) that are wise and brighter than the younger 'educated' generation of today, I think they are that way because of hardship. To find a job back in their time wasn't easy and even if there was, it was back-breaking jobs. Putting food on the table was one of the top priorities along with family ties and keeping to tradition. Through hardship, these people learnt how to be human. They still had shells of course (material things) but whatever they had was enough because keeping the living creature alive was more important. This is even more relevant when World War 2 happened. The people focused on being a community and how to be strong as a unit and care for one another. They gave importance more to the slug, the living creature, than the shell. Nevertheless, still a snail.

The generation after this one (around 35+ years old now), fortunately had better life opportunities. Negara dah merdeka, economy is becoming more stable (though still needs improvement) and living necessities are more attainable. Since surviving is not as big of a challenge as it was before, this generation put its focus more on the shell. Nothing wrong with that though, we do need technology and progress to improve our living standards. Yet all these advances were still in their early stages and were prone to mistakes, problems etc. This generation still had their hardship but it came from labouring at their shell. It took a lot of energy to get where they are at and they appreciate what they have because they toiled over it.

The upcoming generation now (in their 20's or below), hm, well, our shell looks pretty okay, thriving well enough with all the readily available goods and top nosh to keep us alive. Then, what should we focus on? I think today's generation is at a crossroad and most of us get confused. Everything is COMPARATIVELY much simpler to do or to get. We start taking things for granted and our fitrah naturally attracts us to the shiny and the beautiful. Most of us focus on our shells, but its not like before any more, because of the geometric progression of growth in technology and its overwhelming speed in advancements, its so easy to get lost in the material world. Some people get hooked, chasing fame, status, goods etc. Others who aren't into shells as much, they socialize. Again, our fitrah as humans, our nafsu too, can mislead us. sometimes its easier to do the bad things rather than the good and most of us fall into this trap. Merempit, drugs, clubbing, over-socializing etc.

Everything is so attainable, accessible and in abundance, we just don't know what to with it sometimes.

I think this is our generations challenge. To put whatever we have, may it be material items, social status or knowledge, we have to put it to good use.

The first generation I mentioned, the elderly, had survival to remind them of this. Whatever they had, they had to put it to good use, kalau tak susah nak survive.

The second generation had their investments to remind them of this. If they didn't put their projects on their 'shell' to good use, then all their effort would be wasted.

As for the latest generation, there is a lack of things that push us or to help to remind us of this. That motivation and will is barely ignited because we take the fuel that lights it for granted. The generations before us worked so hard for their fuel and when they got it, they ignited it, lighting the dark.

Now when we look at our society, we wonder why everything seems superficial, busy without meaning, sad, sombre and dark, and we ask ourselves "where's the fire?".

Anyway back to the snail analogy, yes, we're still a snail. We have a shell and the creature living in it is still alive.

But it's sleeping... =.=

We need to wake up!

Use our 'aql (akal/intelligence) positively and wisely, reignite the moral fibre within us and purify our actions with sincerity. InsyaAllah, Allah will recognise us. Never give up in hope and prayer to attain His Redha. A reminder to myself before others of course.

Sorry my comment pajang sangat >_< anyway, good post! Shukran for making me think. Alhamdulillah I still can =)

Wassalaam..

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Blaze the snail trail..

Assalamualaikum..