17 August 2008

What is happiness to you?

Recently, this question keep on coming to my mind.

Whenever I feel lost in this neighbour country, I wonder If I have made the correct decision.

I think it all started after I've watch the movie Money Not Enough II. For those of you who haven't watch the movie, I think you guys should catch it. Not only because this movie is funny ( I mean funny if you understand hokkien) but there is also an important signal this movie is sending to everyone, everyone who is other's daughter or son. The mother in the movie dedicated her whole life for the upbringing of her three precious sons. But when she is sick, they cannot put up with her behaviour and her illness. Then they started to rotate her from one house to another, one of them even put her to sleep in the kitchen next to the toilet so that she can go to toilet when she wants to. True enough that they each have their own life to go through, but they have forgotten about how their mother care for them when they were in troubled.

There is a saying from this movie:A mother does not feel poor when she emptied her savings for children, but she is the poorest when she was sick, she was abandoned by her children.

As for me, since I am working in Singapore, I can't always be there for my family. Whenever I feel lost or emotional, they are not here as well. So I started to think, does happiness means earning more money or being together with the guy you love? Money is important undeniably because without money you can't support your family probably as well. If you don't even earn enough to support yourself and you in turn requires support from your family, would that it hard on them even though you are always with them? I am sure that the answer is positive because afterall we are living in a realistic world. The best of the both word is of course earn enough money to support your family as well as spending most time you have with them. However, usually if your job pays you really well, you will lose your personal time as well. This is a vicious cycle ain't it?

Parents are getting old by each and every single days, if you do not spend enough time with them now because you are always at work , then by the time you have the ability to support them and shower them with all the gifts and luxurious items they want, they might not be able to enjoy it. That's why I need to remind myself to bear in mind that if a job takes up all the time I have, then probably I should consider losing this job. Life is short, why do I want to spend all the time working? Would it be too late when I am at the position that I want to be? Would I still be able to live my life to the fullest when I am unable to take care of my parents?

Of course I understand life is not just Black or White, there are grey zones, many of us stucked inside.

Pardon me but I just don't want to live my life with regrets.I want to spend time with my family, whenever possible. How about you all?

Trailer from Money Not Enough II for you:


catch it and you will understand why it affects me so much..

4 comments:

Daryl Teo said...

Sheryl thanks for the timely reminder. Sometimes we are so caught up with all the getting ahead we forget the things that are really important. U really needn't be far to neglect the people who are important.

3POINT8 said...

wow...this one is a very thought provoking post.

Gee~~ To earn enough money and not being able to spend it and some time with family. It really does make me wonder, why earn in the 1st place.

Simon Seow said...

I think it'll only be shown here later.

Anonymous said...

i have great opportunities to work outside of malaysia but i refused simply bcoz i wanna stay close with my parents..like u said, they are getting old.
u have to always choose btwn quality of life vs money!
i choose the former as i strongly feel that money is not everything..so long as it's adequate, it's good eough for me.