This song --

while on the bus ride home today,

I realised how beautiful it is.

my heart feels ache-y and hopeful all at once.

it's my song of the moment.

are we all lost stars,

trying to light up the dark...

This is lovely.

Loneliness is simply a price we have to pay

for holding on to a sincere, ambitious view

of what companionship must and could be.

This is from the famous School of Life. I remember coming across a whole corner of The School of Life merchandise at Harrods in London earlier this year, and gushing over everything. The sales attendant was amused.

I just might one day, take off, and go attend random classes around the world.

This is so good.

I really, really am so awed by his amazing attitude.

A lot of us live by societal expectations or by fear, and the rules they impose on us;

he says, think again, question it, is it real.

Anybody who feels crummy, or terrible, or when life sucks --

just watch this and get some inspiration.

This reminds me of another example we read from our book club text, The Element.

In October 1931, a 12-year-old John Wilson had a Bunsen burner accident during a practical lab session at school and was subsequently blinded for life. His parents were understandably distraught. His attitude to life however was nothing short of superb. He swiftly went on to learn Braille, went to an esteemed school for the blind, Worcester College, and excelled as student, rower, swimmer, actor, musician and orator. Then subsequently studied law at Oxford, worked at the National Institute for the Blind, formed the British Empire Society for the Blind (now called Sight Savers International), helped in organizing inoculation of children in Ghana against blindness-causing insect bites, led his organization in conducting millions of cataract operations, dispensed millions of doses of Vitamin A to prevent childhood blindness, and distributed braille study packs to afflicted people throughout Africa and Asia. And he had said, "It did not strike even then (at 12 years old) as a tragedy."



This is one of those moments, you ask yourself, What's your excuse?

Finally watched Oliver Stone's Snowden last night -- 

it was so gripping, despite my having known the story anyway. 

Also, knowing that this is a true story in relatively recent times -- 

makes it that much more exciting.

So cool, really.

!!!

I remember writing once -- and believe me, the epiphanies one can get with writing -- that courage is a muscle. It really is true, isn't it? And this story is another one; the first time you encounter something, it bugs you, but you're afraid because you can't be the only one thinking this or wanting to do this or what if you're wrong. All these just rush through your head, you know? But then as your principles are accosted again and again, and you do that little bit more and little bit more to be brave -- and then you realise, one day, you really are brave enough.

I love that there are such awesome people in the world. Alive today. You know, that they're not all dead and in books.

... the good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination. The destination is that selected by the total organism, when there is psychological freedom to move in any direction.

(Carl) Roger's view was that the good life is not an outcome to be achieved, once and for all, but rather it is a process that we are constantly engaged with and are continually moving towards when we are the authors of our own lives. Rogers described the directions taken by people as they become more fully functioning. These include movement:

• Away from facades
• Away from oughts
• Away from meeting expectations
• Away from pleasing others
• Towards self-direction
• Towards openness to experience
• Towards acceptance of others
• Towards trusting oneself

In these ways we become free to move in a new direction that is most authentic to us.

-- Professor Stephen Joseph, Authentic: How to Be Yourself and Why It Matters

I am in Seremban.

Datin S is making thosai downstairs in the kitchen.

She tells me I should sleep cause it’s holiday, but I just watched Clinton’s concession speech and it made me non-stop cry. I didn’t think I would be so affected but it is a difficult time. The world is a difficult place; but you know what, maybe the world always has been. Sometimes, we just see it clearer, sometimes we forget. We always have a tendency to whitewash the past.

8 years ago fresh into adulthood, I remember E and I chatting away excitedly about Obama, so happy to move on from Bush. And today, this.

Okay, no, I came down and Datin S was just reading, her dad was in the kitchen -- we had appam! Hehe, with coconut milk -- and it was so good. Oh dear, I think I am going to crave this for breakfast back in SG. I feel like I am on an immersion program, Indian-Malaysian version.

So this was in Datin S's room --

(very in character)

We travel not to escape life,

but for life not to escape us.

:)

Will find a time to post again --

this is an entirely chill and laid-back holiday

and it's a ripe time for me to lay out my thoughts again proper.

Sometimes the best posts are made on a whim, on that flash of inspiration, rather than painstakingly thought over, and planned. I have something I've been meaning to post about, but that's for another day. This, this right now is on a whim while I fight sleepiness on a worknight after watching an episode of Scarlet Heart (i.e. the only Korean drama I'm following now; my current kdrama phase seems to be waning -- yes, probably a good thing).

I bumped into S = Shweta on Gchat -- which never happens because I don't even know Gchat is a platform I appear on -- but hey, how wonderful it is to bump into beautiful people I have loved. It makes me think of all the wonderful people I've known in my life and how I don't have the luxury of having all of them with me. My heart aches just a little now. For friends who used to be close but now aren't.

Datin S, you better not be another one of my friends I will lose because of the distance between us. We are only an hour away by plane, okay; it's no excuse.

Isn't it funny who ends up in our lives.





A random thing tonight -- my dad told me he met up with his Arabic teacher and they got to talking about Shaykh Hamza for some reason, and the teacher said, Oh, he's a good friend of mine who comes to visit me at Darul Arqam! And my dad was all like, If he comes again, tell him my daughter wants to meet him.

O.O What is my father doing. Anyway, huh, what do you mean Shaykh Hamza comes to Singapore every so often. Are you kidding me. And uh, I would probably be somewhat awestruck if I ever meet him --

but after that I'll compile a list of questions for him to answer, hehe. Too many times I've come across a situation and felt frustrated about the way people think about things, and then wondered what Shaykh Hamza would have said about it instead. I suppose this is what happens when you really value someone's opinion.


--

Some more randomness from today:

If Harry Potter was anime! hehe this was so funny to share with friends.

E: I thought that Dumbledore would be drawn as a cutesy old person. 

But he was a cutesy kindergartener HAHA.

This was such a nice vlog to watch because ohmygosh, older BTS fans, yesss. 

For a while I was going through a crisis wondering if I was the only overgrown woman loving this boyband -- but no. They are clearly marking themselves as legitimate musical artists that attract people of all ages. And that's the mark of great art, eh -- transcending language, people, ages, and genders (see: Harry Potter as classic example).