Living Moments (Part 20)

A friend that I have not met for more than 30 years dropped by my office and had dinner with me. Except for some wrinkles, his face has not changed.

I once joked on the fb group that put us together again that h…e still has the Chow Yun Fatt style, minus the height. He came with another old friend who has grown a whole lot bigger since we last parted and also a whole lot wiser.

We spent one part of the evening talking about how he got involved with gangsters. No, he was not one of them but he seemed to interact often with them.

According to him, his first major encounter with them was when they tried to collect ‘protection’ money from him. It happened when he was about to start his business.

Instead of running away or cowing to them, he took effort to engage them. He eventually found a way to resolve the issue.

Since then, he tried to understand them with a view of trying to help them. He recalled how he sat through a long session listening to a gangster sharing his life story.

My entrepreneurial friend offered them jobs and even started a business for them. He invited them to church and in his words, he was prepared to go to any church that they are comfortable with. Over a period of time, he won their confidence and even managed to transform some of them.

I have utmost respect for my friend and admiration for what he was trying to do. Instead of passing judgements on the gangsters, he has actually defended them in different ways and even on our fb group.

The lessons I learned from my friend was that I should never run away from trouble or be compromised by it. If I think hard enough, there are always solutions around and within me.

In addition, when my friend took a contrarian view of finding good in gangsters, I re-learned another useful principle. It is better to expect the positive so as to bring out the positive from people.

If judgements and criticism could change lives, the world would have lesser of the bad and ugly living amongst us.
Our words can become rivers of life, rejuvenating and energizing the people that we meet every day.

If each and every one of us reach out and try to resolve the problems in our community, instead of just talking about it, the world will become a better place. When we isolate ourselves from them, we allow them to grow and eventually bring more problems to our lives.

Thank you, my friend, for an enlightening time.

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.

By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.

Visit my Inspiration blog at http://liewinspiration.wordpress.com/

Visit my Transformation blog at http://hsrpatrickliew.wordpress.com/

Please read them and continue to teach me.

Life is FUNtastic!