There Is No Map To The Journey Of Life.

Way back in 1979, around this time of the year, I was just a Form Three pupil preparing for my SRP. As I was not a particularly brilliant nor was I a ‘rajin’ student, the fact that I barely sneaked into Form Four later was indeed a huge personal victory. Studying and taking exam are clearly not me!

And what do you know, exactly 30 years on, here I am staring at PMR (again!) - that all-important exam for the 15-years olds in the country.

Yes, my Alia is 15 this year. Thanks to my beautiful eldest daughter, I am relieving those nerve-wrecking moments of 1979 again and again. In fact, we celebrated her birthday on August 10 recently.

Of course, it feels it was only yesterday when we brought her home from the clinic and I was hovering anxiously around my wife trying to help her gave our baby her first bath. Today, we still hover around our eldest daughter – “urging” her to study and to do her chores.

We celebrated her birthday (and her sister’s Asma as well as both are August girls) by having a makan-makan at New York, New York Deli in One Utama recently. An okay lah joint! 2-in-one celebration.... jimat duit this year!!

Anyway, here’s a poem for my Gegenemaye:

There Is No Map To The Journey Of Life.

There is no book to the journey of life, and the road you are destined be mother or wife, will seem at times to have bedrock of fear but never forget sweat pea, I am always near.

Watch for the souls who like trees root in soil, for fear that there heart is the thing they will spoil. Don’t let them lead you to alleys of dark, where you’ll be forced to protect your light and your heart.

Some live as victors and challenge the past, some never get there and live as a cast. I know of life that the road is not clear, but you have your bapak Alia, I am always here.

There is no map to the journey of life, so live to be whole, not just girlfriend or wife. Souls like ours need pasture & plane, and your soul my girl will be restless, again and again.

As you journey ahead your spirit will speak, it is for home you are heading, it is home that you seek. Where that is only you can find, let your heart lead the way and just follow behind.

While I am out here ahead in some way, I hope the signs I write, you’ll find on your way. Read them and do what you will, at the end of the day its your heart to fulfill.

If there was a book to the journey of life, yours would be bound with the pain of my strife. It would heal and protect and ease your pain, and help you find your feet again.

The words would be written with the depth of my love and never forget I am with you, be it here on earth while I’m still alive or even after I’m gone.