MOM SAID, "HIDUP INI CUMA DIPINJAMKAN"

Before last Raya, my mom planned to visit my 2 Muslim uncles, her little brothers. She bought like some fruits & junkfoods. I asked mom, for whom these are for? My mom said, she bought them for my uncles. She even bought one nice kain sarung for each of them. Yes like you, I know that what she bought won’t mean much to my uncles. But that’s my mom. When I tried to give that look to my mom that I don’t think it matters so much for my uncles to receive those things; she said something like this to me…It’s nothing wrong to give some to others. “Bukan kita bawa itu duit pigi dunia sebelah, kan?” (Yes Mom, true. Muahssss my mom). I remember that my mom was complaining about our new neighbour. She said that whenever she came out to the house compound watering the plants in the little mini garden, she noticed that the new neighbour always turned their face away. In other words, “That is a way of saying- That is Oh-so-not-friendly!” (Okay, at least that’s how my mom see it). Maybe my mom expects that the new neighbour would at least turn their face in a friendly manner and at least, Smile…(hey, we are neighbours right?). But what my mom told me didn’t surprise me at all. So I told my mom, “Orang bandar memang macam ni. Tidak semestinya dorang jahat tapi memang dorang rasa tidak perlu berbaik-baik sama jiran. Mau jaga hal2 masing2 ja.” My mom gave me that very upset look. She answered, “Mana boleh macam tu. Jiran mesti mau berbaik-baik.” Again, I thought my mom didn’t get it. My point is, my mom got too upset for something that has very little to do with our lives. It’s not like we get ourselves in trouble with we don’t make friends with some unfriendly neighbours. After all, it wasn’t us who choose not befriend with them. After exchanging views, it only made my mom felt more upset. She finally said this, “Yalah, jagalah hal masing2. Bukan juga hidup sampai bila2. Semua sementara saja. Kita cuma pinjam saja ba hidup ni.” Again, after such words of wisdom, I still think my mom went a bit overboard with such a “small issue”. I didn’t want to make the situation worse so I didn’t answer her. At the end of the day, I actually agree with my mom. Sometimes we take it too hard, too harsh, too personal, too everything; you name it…but in everything that we do, maybe we forget that… “We are not going to live forever”. We only borrow this life. It’s simple…if you’re told that you’re going to live for only another 1 week, what would you do? Maybe you would do all the things you would not do for your lifetime when you thought that you gonna live forever. Maybe you would even say Hi and smile to the beggars on the street, or say thanks to the bus driver after a ride…or generously say “keep the change” when you go buy some pisang goreng. Imagine all the small stuff we could do but we don’t do just because we are too self-consumed with ourselves and the good life that we have. Making friends to a new neighbour now sounds like “too simply and too easy” to do; if we bear in mind that how short and how temporary this life is. LIFE IS ALREADY TOO SHORT FOR US TO ENJOY THE FRIENDSHIPS THAT WE CAN MAKE WITH OTHER PEOPLE. COME TO THINK ABOUT IT, THE TIME IS TOO SHORT THAT WE ACTUALLY DON’T HAVE TIME FOR ENEMIES. :)