Wandering thoughts by Zai

 

On my way to work every morning, I pray to the Almighty. I thank Him for all the blessings that I have received, I pray that He will continue to bless me. I ask for forgiveness for all the bad things I have done, and all the good things I have not done. I pray that He will guide me daily so I will do what is right and which is according to His will. I pray that He will keep me safe, Suz and Steve, my family and theirs. I pray that all prayers are heard. Particularly, I pray that He will grant a scholarship for Kiray and that He will give Ate Zaida the opportunity that she deserves, whatever it may be. I pray that all who are suffering and have physical pain ; Steve, Suz, Dad, Mama, Luke, Ate Zaida, Zharina, Ricson, Bradpit and all who need healing, may He send the Holy spirit to heal all of us. I pray that all who have passed on; papa, Mannmann, Mum Antoinette, Aunty Nene, all family and friends, may all be at peace. May they be basking in the glory of God the Father and may they guide all of us here as we take up our daily deeds.

I also pray for strength so that I can do the best I can on that day.

I have observed life and the lives of the people around me. I am lucky that I am in a country where there are a variety of peoples from different backgrounds, ethnicity, race, religious and non-religious beliefs. We are blessed that in our lifetime, we have easy access to information through the internet. We are able to check whatever information we need just be searching the internet. There are so many things we can learn just by going online. But there is also a lot of disinformation. In our time, fake news is rampant in media and social media. There is also the raise of artificial intelligence (AI). It is slowly, overtly and if not secretly changing our day-to-day life.

In my lifetime, social media has taken over traditional media (TV). People are watching the internet more and more. The fad is watching vloggers, who are normal people go about their daily life and uploading it on Youtube. There are also vloggers who posts about subjects of interests in all forms: politics, religion, history etc. You can spend so much time just watching Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok and others. It has affected most people. It is normal now to see people to be always looking at their phones, even when they are with other people in a group or with family members. Most people are hooked. Most children now are growing up with a phone in their hands. We are seeing a rise of children who are hooked on the media. There have been a lot of instances that it has caused ill-effects on the children. It takes strong parents to be able to control the amount of time and access of their children with today’s gadgets. How it will affect the future generation, is somewhat of a scary notion. We don’t really know what will happen in the future.

It seems to me that those children who are growing up with less and those who see the difficulties of life at a young age, have a better means of supporting themselves as they grow old. I can only see myself as an example. I grow up knowing that life is not easy, and that we can’t have everything we want. I grew up with play and work at a young age, which developed some life skills in me. I am therefore grateful that because we did not have much, I worked hard to ensure that I am able to support myself and my family the best way I can.

Another thing that interests me is my personal belief about God and the world we live in. I have now viewed that it is indeed a blessing to be a cradle Catholic. For me, it shaped my beliefs about God and the world. I see people around me who have different beliefs and some even don’t have any beliefs. Throughout our know history on Earth, man has wanted to worship something or someone. Each civilisation, each epoch had its own view of gods. In our time, we have the tradition and belief of Jesus Christ, who two thousand years ago came down from heaven to be among us. At our age, Christianity has shaped the Western civilisation. But even then, not everyone has been converted. There are still thousands of religions out there. In my own understanding, we may be at different levels of spiritual growth. Hence, we have different views and understanding of God.

We don’t know what will happen when we die. Some people believe that nothing happens after we die, that ideath is the end. My heart though whispers to me, there has to be more to this? We just cant be living life here with no purpose? Life is a blessing. And there has to be a purpose. For me, my Christian belief gives me a reason and a purpose in life. I believe we are here to learn and to serve one another. Like all the living things around us, each one has it’s own purpose. In the end, when we pass on, how did we impact the people around us? If we have lived our life with some measure of service, then perhaps the people who are left behind when we pass on will remember us. How they will remember us is the question. Are we going to be remembered with fondness or will the thought of us bring scorn in the heart?