Spirit of Eid

In a few days time, we'll be celebrating Eid and I thought since most of you back home will probably take tomorrow off to make a headstart of the "balik kampung" trend, I decided to post something today.

Over the last few years I have developed my own annual menu. The young lady knows this too well. In fact, once she asked when Eid will be as she missed having my signature dish! I told her that we can make it anytime and not necessarily have to wait for the Day to arrive. Apart from yellow glutinous rice or pulut kuning, we will have beef rendang and soto. We usually host our open house immediately after prayers, which means I will be burning the midnight oil the day before and wake up very early in the morning to make sure everything is in order. Last year, we were fortunate (or unfortunate if you were the cook) to have an extra 10 guests, courtesy from my adik2 as they didn’t have anywhere to go. I had to make extra pulut during the day.

Just after lunch, we usually make our rounds to our friends’ place. Mrs Dior whose lemang is to die for (I must learn how to make this before either one of us leaves this place) and Mrs Rock who is now back in homeland. I guess this year we shall visit Mrs Patience to replace Mrs Rock’s slot. Her house is just 10 minutes walk from Mrs Dior, so it makes sense to kill two birds with a stone.

Anyway we would like to wish Salam Aidil Fitri and Maaf Zahir Batin to D, Momster, Kak Teh, Naz, IDB, n.i, Fizzy, Darlene, Jane, Hunny, Simah, Inah, Danial, Jumper, Aporn, Akmal, Pak Idrus, LHM, NJ, Cosmic Gurl, Touch Cookie, Missus R, mun and Hazia.

To the ladies in the house, the young lady and I have chosen these for your gift. Feel free to take one and I hope we have enough for everyone.

I would also like to share this quote by Maya Angelou:

Well, I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live you will make mistakes. It is inevitable.

But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.'

Quite often if we hold onto the mistake we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror, so we can't see what we're capable of being. It is equally important to see the mistake and to forgive oneself for it. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self.

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.

If you have a moment to spare, please revisit my last year's posting on forgiveness

Of Eid Wishes.

May you have a blessed Eid!
.