Tuesday Thoughts (Revised)

View from my window - Kampung Sungai Pencala Muslim Cemetery


The days are getting hotter lately. The rains are no more although the noon sky darkens occasionally. It's the kind of weather that has Pak Abu beaming from ear to ear. I could almost read his thought: "Good day for golf, this!"

Me? I am loathe to leave the comfort of my cosy apartment although I dread to think of the subsequent electricity bills. I think we have chalked up quite a sum so far due to the air-conditioning.

It is fortunate that I ply my trade from home. All that I need as a freelance writer/translator are phone access, computer, printer and the Internet, and I am in business.

The days when I rushed around 24/7 like a headless chicken, kowtowing to the most difficult clients imaginable, who sapped every ounce of energy I had and bled me dry of any creativity, is history.

I am thankful for the respite and I hope it stays this way. I used to think I would go bonkers without a regular job, and that I must tie myself to a workplace to keep me sane.

Now I know I don't have to. Life still goes on. Freelancing is also a good way to earn one's keep without having to commit oneself to a rigid routine like a paid employee.

Now that the kids are grown and gone (err, not really.. they are not likely to abandon their 'mobile ATM' that readily!), I have more time for myself, and it's a boon to this worn soul.

As for the children, they turn up some weekends, to partake dinner together or just to see if the old folks are still breathing. That suits us fine, anyway.

At home, I am left with the 'Big Boy' to care for. But he is easy to manage. Just pack him off to the golf course, preferably with a new set of irons and tubefuls of new dimpled balls, and my life is a bliss.

All these jumbled, inconsequential thoughts came to mind just because I happened to look out my window an hour ago, and saw a fresh grave being dug at the Kampung Sungai Pencala Muslim Cemetery below. Al-Fatihah to the arwah, whoever he/she may be.

It was only last night when I mentioned, while standing on the balcony taking in the lights, that it had been quite a while since someone was buried at the cemetery. [The last burial was almost a month ago].

I am inclined to think that the little patch of God's Acre, peaceful and serene, in no small way had helped turn my life around from a harried PR consultant to a laidback housewife and mother.

It has made me think less of 'duniawi' (material world) and more of 'akhirat' (hereafter). It reawakened something long buried, the realisation that I am, (to paraphrase Kak Teh), already in the 'Maghrib' of my life.

There is only one more 'waktu' to go, if God so much as grant me my 'Isya'. So, there truly is hikmah (merit) in staying in this apartment overlooking a Muslim graveyard.

PS: I have to mention this. This morning's burial was attended by so few, I think less than 10 people. I had never seen such a thin crowd at a burial...