When reality hits...berpijak di bumi nyata

It’s 9 on a pleasant Sunday morning, looking outside of my new balcony, the adjacent road is literally empty with one car passing by after almost 10 minutes.. and I thought it’s time to pen to share my thoughts…

I could hear birds chirping and dogs barking from a distance.. and rooster crowing from the neighbourhood. But off late the usual busy morning has turned still... is this the new norm... two weeks plus into the MCO the world of routine and planning for days ahead came crashing...

Most of us were taken by surprise unprepared; parents working from home, children studying from home, 2 hours queue getting into supermarkets with social distancing etiquette, habitual hand washing and nose covering are the new scenes.. new disciplines perhaps . We know for the fact that the days we’re in is uncharted and I personally could not visualize the new future as anything but bleak and  gloomy, not until I received an inspiring article from a colleague and short inspiring video from my dad….. Began reflecting, suggests, there are 3 phases on how we could place ourselves in relation to the current situation i.e fear phase, learning phase and growth phase.

Seeing ourselves past the fear stage, we are in the learning and growth phase... the situation could perhaps be “ a rethinking”, bringing ourselves back to the basics and ground ourselves to the reality. Probably the best period for a reality check ; do we ready need more cash to satisfy the desire than the the needs, do we need to live an extravagant lifestyle - expensive clothing, expensive cars, do we need to spend lavishly on our food or can we adjust to modesty. Do we need to waste on natural resources - water, electricity. Our Malay proverb says Berpijak di bumi nyata literally can be translated as a reminder to bring oneself back to the reality.. 

The last 2 weeks the environment we are living in has a taken a breather.. first time in as many years we could feel the pollution level has come down. Nature started to readjust to its original shape..  On the other hand, we are seeing people suffering, lost of income and jobs. Most recent incident, self-witnessed by us, a mother carrying her 7 months old child into a supermarket nearby, asking for help to buy milk powder for the child. Husband used to work at the car wash on daily wages and the wife as helper in a local restaurant, lost their job and income. 

Perhaps it’s time to readjust ourselves.. to support the others cutting across the differences in the society, across the religion, race and ethnicity. This could be the best moment to help our fellow mankind and finding a balance with the nature; as we were reminded again and again and this time probably much harder than ever “disease, death and natural disaster does not spare anyone…”

Our frontliners are battling the “war” to safeguard our future and we could perhaps support in one way or another without impacting our personal safety and safety of our own family off course….

When things get back to normal... we may want to remember these days as the lesson thought by our best ever teacher in the form of nature.... thought us to check on our greeds and ground us to the reality ... let us not forget, this could be the MOST critical phase of the modern world and shall be used as the best ever checklist to be ticked whenever we deviate.

Humbly learning and adapting to “Berpijak di bumi nyata...”