By Jeff Yong
Time has zoomed past us so quickly. The new year of 2023 has already been halved! Or some 25 weeks or so have floated away in a flash.
And the Lunar New Year, Aidilfitri, Easter, Labour, Wesak, Gawai, Keamatan, King’s birthday and Aidiladha holidays and festivals have also flitted by.
We’ve also seen more than seven months of governance by the new Unity Government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. We hope to see much more progress in time to come. There’s certainly a lot of ground to cover to make Malaysia a more progressive nation. Already we’re seeing some of the wrongs being put right. But it certainly takes time to eliminate the bad. It can’t be an overnight thing.
And we must never give up. We should try to contribute in whatever small way to make our nation realise its true full potential.
Certainly we must ignore those who are either wet blankets or insidiously trying to sabotage whatever good many well-meaning people are doing to lift this country out of the doldrums.
As for me, I’ve been on an exciting journey in the last six months. At my vintage, I’d often be thrilled to have great family members and friends around me. It’s important to remember: life is nothing without family and friends. (And let’s not be too judgmental on people with idiosyncrasies in our many social media group chats!)
Now that I’ve parked away gloomy and challenging acronyms or descriptions like MCO, MySejahtera (some even mistakenly say “My Sejarah”), pandemic, endemic, face masks, self-test kits, vaccines, disease trackers, risk status, isolation, hospital beds and the like, I’m facing another kind of challenge.
It’s about trying to say no to countless invitations to yummy eating places, near and far! It’s tough but I think I’ll manage with perseverance and clarity of mind. It all depends on how much zipping of my mouth I’ve to do to prevent my tummy from turning into a big barrel. That will be my number one priority from now on.
So, have you accomplished much? I hope you have. No? All is not lost. Don’t give up hope so quickly.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French writer, once said:”The time for action is now. It’s never too late to do something.”
And Pele, the great Brazilian footballer who passed away just sometime back, did say:”Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
Coco Chanel, the fashion designer, also believed that “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.”
So, what are you waiting for?
Just remember that advice from Pope John Paul II — the future starts today, not tomorrow.
WE