The Climb

It's been a while since I wrote something here. I started working and life is a cycle that goes on and on. Now I know why people dread working. However, I did manage to get a twist from my usual cycle last weekend. Climbed the glorious Mount Kinabalu and made it to the top!

It was not easy. It was definitely challenging whether physically or mentally especially for a person who is so passive like me. The many hours of climbing drenched the energy out of me. I was dead tired after a 6km long trail of climbing uphill but the journey did not stop there. After dinner, me and the other two cousins went to bed before waking up to continue the climb to the summit again. Woke up 1.30am to get ready and had some food before starting to climb at 3am in the morning.

Trekking in the dark under the moonlight, arrived the summit after hours of climbing those rocks. The moonlight that night was so bright that it shown every contour of the mountain. Had to use ropes to climb those steep areas and it was not an option. I freaked out. I did. One wrong step and I would be rolling down the mountain. I made it through though. Overcome my fear and got through stages by stages. After the many hours, reached the peak of the mountain with the help of a friend. It was such a blessing that it didn't rain on the way up that night. Thank God for the good weather that I made it through.

The entire journey was exhausting. I injured my knee on my way down the mountain and I had to walk downhill all the way. Brand new experiences gained from this conquest. What I gained from this memorable journey was simply priceless. I conquered the highest mountain in South East Asia and I am proud :) Would I go again? I might ;)
  

Love is a Verb

I know I have been gone for a while. Anyway anyhow, enjoy this passage I adopted from a friend in Facebook.

At one seminar where I was speaking on the concept of proactivity vs reactivity, a man came up to me and said, “I like what you are saying. But every situation is so different. Look at my marriage. I’m really worried. My wife and I just don’t have the same feelings for each other we used to have. I guess I just don’t love her anymore and she doesn’t love me. What can I do?”


“The feeling isn’t there anymore?” I asked.


“That’s right.” he reaffirmed. “And we have three children we’re really concerned about. What do you suggest?”


“Love her,” I replied.


“I told you, the feeling just isn’t there anymore.”


“Love her.”


“You don’t understand. The feeling of love just isn’t there.”


Then love her. If the feeling isn’t there, that’s a good reason to love her.”


But how do you love when you don’t love?”


“My friend, love is a verb. Love — the feeling — is a fruit of love, the verb. So love her. Serve her.
Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are you willing to do that?”

In the great literature of all progressive societies, love is a verb. Reactive people make it a feeling. They’re driven by feelings. Hollywood has generally scripted us to believe that we are not responsible, that we are a product of our feelings. But the Hollywood script does not describe the reality. If our feelings control our actions, it is because we abdicated our responsibility and empowered them to do so.


Proactive people make love a verb, Love is something you do: the sacrifice you make, the giving of self, like a mother bringing a newborn into the world. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others, not expecting anything in return and even for people who offend, turns the coldest shoulder or do not love in return. If you are a parent, look at the love you have for the children you sacrificed for. Love is a value that is actualized through loving actions.

Proactive people subordinate feelings to values. Love, the feeling, can be recaptured.

- Covey, S.

Tears

10 years ago, my brother makes me cry because he stole my comics without telling me. Not exactly mine, they were my friend's and I was responsible for them. He took them without my permission and it made me very angry to the point one day I actually cried fighting with him.

Today, my brother made me cry again. Not because of some silly old comics. I was touched with he who has grown up. He asked bout me and parents back home and those little things that made my tears naturally start rolling down. I started crying before I even finished reading the letter.