just getting a little sian doing my medicine case write up..
sort of a random thought.. but i think it's true what rick warren said
"
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. "

last week i talked to this bangledeshi worker who came in for asthma. he was so friendly so i started chatting with him. he came to singapore to work to earn money for his family back home. he works as a construction worker, doing pipes, and roof work and stuff. he got his asthma cos of the occupational exposure to lots of dust. he said previously in bangledesh he was very well. i asked him if he missed his children he says yes. he says both his children a son and a daughter are in school now cos he sends money back. he cannot call home cos if not he'll lose the money he earn for them. he's been here 13 years i think and goes back once in awhile. he says previously his boss was quite nice to him but now his boss is damn bad and mistreats him. he says even when he has asthma attacks, the boss still make him work, saying the more you work the better your body will become. he doesn't know who will pay the medical bills for him. by right it should be the company but he's not sure if they'll pay for him. and if he has to pay for it himself he'll lose a lot of money.

just a simple talk with him made me realise how myopic and grossly ungrateful we can be. especially in a successful country like singapore. there is a higher probability for me to be born as a poor african, indian, or in some poor asian country, into a poor family, than into the family i am in now. because the poor are such a large percentage. yet i am so blessed with everything. even now i am reminded of the cleaner from india who came to singapore to work so he could send money back for his sister's dowry so she can get married.

i talked to this other patient that day who had both legs amputated cos of his diabetes. yet he was able to tell me that he considers himself very lucky, because when he's hospitalised, he looks around and sees people who can't even feed themselves. or even control their passing of urine or motion. he says everyday he wakes up he thanks God ( his hindu God i guess ) for another day.

going back to what rick warren said, i think it's true, everybody, in every phase of their life, always have something good and something bad. if you were to ask me, the bad thing seems to be like, stress from work and from the studying i've to do, no gf (haha kidding) . the good things are too many to name. good friends, good house, good material blessings, good church, good health, good everything.

if you were to compare the bad things in my life now to the bad things of the patients i jtalked to, it sounds real dumb right, quite ridiculous. and i think for all of us, it's always like that. we have both good and bad things. but we always always always focus on the bad things, even when the good things we have a really really really darn good. and it's true we are so blessed. like freaking blessed.

i really wished i'd stop losing the perspective of things or losing the big picture, which happens so frequently to me.

and anyway, if i were a 7 year old child, i'd tell you now that when i grow up, i'll go find all these people in need and help them.

guess i need to stop thinking like an adult and think like a child.