Helping Hands
It was the night of 27th Ramadhan and I was traveling from Penang back to Kuantan after spending three days in Penang delivering a seminar in Effective Corporate Governance through Implementing Effective Internal Controls. When it was all over, I called my wife and she asked me “How was it?” And I said, “I had fun and everybody in the class had fun”. She asked again, “How you could possibly had fun talking about corporate governance?” And I replied again, “I don’t know. I always have fun in whatever I do”. After that phone conversation I sat for a while and pondered on the answer that I just gave. How do I continue to have fun in doing the things that I do? Hmmm… something to think about.It was probably the first time that I had travel this far in the month of Ramadhan and it needed some getting used to because I always wanted to be at home during the month of Ramadhan. But it was this very wee hours of the morning (it was actually 3:30 in the morning) while waiting for my connecting flight to Kuantan that something struck my petals of imagination and inspiration to write this article, which I passionately called “Helping Hands”.
The plane landed in Kuantan at about 8:30 am and got home at about 09:00 am. It was a glorious Sunday morning. The sun was shining gallantly piercing through my glass window. I wanted to snuggle under the sheets but I hate to see a perfectly beautiful day go to waste. I forced myself to wake up and gazed out the window. There was not a single cloud in the sky, the birds were chirping away singing tunes of freedom. The morning air was crisp and fresh. Subconsciously I began humming the tunes of “What a Wonderful Life” in my heart. My heart was brimming with joy. My mind was peaceful and contented. There was a sense of calmness and serenity flowing through my body. Deep inside, I was happy. I was blessed with a lot of good things in life.
As I turned away from the window, my eyes caught a small poster across the room, which read “in order to help others, I must help myself first”. I couldn’t remember where and how I got it but the poster has always been there for as long as I could remember. I didn’t take notice of it before but this time, I could feel something different. Somehow I felt a tingling sensation down my spine. Somehow my nerves were sending signals to my brain formulating pictures and images of a documentary, which I saw a few nights ago about the lives of helpless children in Palestine living in refugee camps. Their living conditions were not even close to what I have here. They lived in overly crowded and cramped tents with no electricity and no fresh water supply. Most of the time they just had barely enough food to eat and they just have enough clothes to cover their bodies for the day. Schools were makeshift huts and even that was considered as a luxury for many children. Entertainment was just mere words in the dictionary. Nobody could tell when it will end. I guess, the right question to ask is, will it ever end? They surely need a helping hand. I sincerely believe that if only all the helping hands around the world could converge and sincerely pledge their commitments to make the life of these helpless children, not only in Palestine but in all parts of the world, which are mostly ravaged by the cruel hands of war mongers, the dirty hands of corrupt politicians and the greedy hands of unscrupulous capitalists, could give light to new ray of hope so that they, these helpless children, could start to believe in themselves and start to appreciate the start of a glorious, civilised and caring world so that history could be recreated for the benefit of mankind.
At that instant I realised that the convergence of many helping hands must start with one helping hand and that is mine. I have been a receiver all my life but the time has come for me to change that. I must change from being a receiver to become a giver. The hands on top are better than the hands at the bottom. The hands on top are the helping hands of a giver. But how do I go about doing this? All of a sudden, I have questions but no answers. I was silently submerged in my own thoughts.
“What are you thinking?” My silent was broken by a familiar voice of my wife’s. Spontaneously I asked her, “How can I be a helping hand?” She took a deep breath, cleared her throat a couple of times and sat on my bed as if a bolt of lightning struck her. After a few seconds of silence she smiled, “Wow, you sure know how to wake me up. Don’t you have any simpler questions?” I know she was joking, but in her mind she was gathering her thoughts. Through the years that I have known my wife, she always seemed to have the answers to all the questions. She said, “To be a helping hand and in the process play some part in changing the world, you have to first of all be successful in whatever you chose to be”. She walked out of the room and I thought, “That was it?” While I was still gasping for more, she walked into the room with a book in her hands. She handed me the book and said, “I wouldn’t be able to explain more than I have but spend some time today to read this and hopefully you will understand what I meant”.
The title of the book was “Over the Top by Zig Zigler”. After spending the whole day reading it, I understood that in order to have a pair of helping hands I need to be successful so that I will have the capability and the capacity to help others. To be successful is a choice and as a matter of fact, to be successful is the obligation of every living mortal. For a man who is still learning in many ways, these revelations managed to unveil the curtains of my ignorance. However, to be successful I have to change. I have to change the way I think and the way I do things. I have to change mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. In order to have a pair of helping hands so that others could benefit from me, I have to continually strive to do my best and be the best because in a world that is rapidly changing and tenacious competition, only the best will survive.
I realise now that “in order to help others I must help myself first” has a deep-rooted meaning than meets the eyes. Helping myself means to be successful in whatever I chose to do and then only I can help others with my helping hands. The convergence of all the helping hands in the world can make this world a peaceful place so that one day we can perhaps “fly to the moon and play with the stars”.
The plane landed in Kuantan at about 8:30 am and got home at about 09:00 am. It was a glorious Sunday morning. The sun was shining gallantly piercing through my glass window. I wanted to snuggle under the sheets but I hate to see a perfectly beautiful day go to waste. I forced myself to wake up and gazed out the window. There was not a single cloud in the sky, the birds were chirping away singing tunes of freedom. The morning air was crisp and fresh. Subconsciously I began humming the tunes of “What a Wonderful Life” in my heart. My heart was brimming with joy. My mind was peaceful and contented. There was a sense of calmness and serenity flowing through my body. Deep inside, I was happy. I was blessed with a lot of good things in life.
As I turned away from the window, my eyes caught a small poster across the room, which read “in order to help others, I must help myself first”. I couldn’t remember where and how I got it but the poster has always been there for as long as I could remember. I didn’t take notice of it before but this time, I could feel something different. Somehow I felt a tingling sensation down my spine. Somehow my nerves were sending signals to my brain formulating pictures and images of a documentary, which I saw a few nights ago about the lives of helpless children in Palestine living in refugee camps. Their living conditions were not even close to what I have here. They lived in overly crowded and cramped tents with no electricity and no fresh water supply. Most of the time they just had barely enough food to eat and they just have enough clothes to cover their bodies for the day. Schools were makeshift huts and even that was considered as a luxury for many children. Entertainment was just mere words in the dictionary. Nobody could tell when it will end. I guess, the right question to ask is, will it ever end? They surely need a helping hand. I sincerely believe that if only all the helping hands around the world could converge and sincerely pledge their commitments to make the life of these helpless children, not only in Palestine but in all parts of the world, which are mostly ravaged by the cruel hands of war mongers, the dirty hands of corrupt politicians and the greedy hands of unscrupulous capitalists, could give light to new ray of hope so that they, these helpless children, could start to believe in themselves and start to appreciate the start of a glorious, civilised and caring world so that history could be recreated for the benefit of mankind.
At that instant I realised that the convergence of many helping hands must start with one helping hand and that is mine. I have been a receiver all my life but the time has come for me to change that. I must change from being a receiver to become a giver. The hands on top are better than the hands at the bottom. The hands on top are the helping hands of a giver. But how do I go about doing this? All of a sudden, I have questions but no answers. I was silently submerged in my own thoughts.
“What are you thinking?” My silent was broken by a familiar voice of my wife’s. Spontaneously I asked her, “How can I be a helping hand?” She took a deep breath, cleared her throat a couple of times and sat on my bed as if a bolt of lightning struck her. After a few seconds of silence she smiled, “Wow, you sure know how to wake me up. Don’t you have any simpler questions?” I know she was joking, but in her mind she was gathering her thoughts. Through the years that I have known my wife, she always seemed to have the answers to all the questions. She said, “To be a helping hand and in the process play some part in changing the world, you have to first of all be successful in whatever you chose to be”. She walked out of the room and I thought, “That was it?” While I was still gasping for more, she walked into the room with a book in her hands. She handed me the book and said, “I wouldn’t be able to explain more than I have but spend some time today to read this and hopefully you will understand what I meant”.
The title of the book was “Over the Top by Zig Zigler”. After spending the whole day reading it, I understood that in order to have a pair of helping hands I need to be successful so that I will have the capability and the capacity to help others. To be successful is a choice and as a matter of fact, to be successful is the obligation of every living mortal. For a man who is still learning in many ways, these revelations managed to unveil the curtains of my ignorance. However, to be successful I have to change. I have to change the way I think and the way I do things. I have to change mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. In order to have a pair of helping hands so that others could benefit from me, I have to continually strive to do my best and be the best because in a world that is rapidly changing and tenacious competition, only the best will survive.
I realise now that “in order to help others I must help myself first” has a deep-rooted meaning than meets the eyes. Helping myself means to be successful in whatever I chose to do and then only I can help others with my helping hands. The convergence of all the helping hands in the world can make this world a peaceful place so that one day we can perhaps “fly to the moon and play with the stars”.
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