The odd one

Yes, every family has an odd member, which means every person has an odd sibling and every parent has an odd child who seems to be completely different in mentality, lifestyle and emotional quotient.

Usually there are some similarities in characteristics amongst siblings, but there's bound to be an oddie that is mysteriously unexplainable eventhough they are all produced by the same set of parents. Somehow, there's a lack of cohesiveness to other members of the family, this member is always feeling alienated and unsupported. I'm not speaking of a second child syndrome here, which is another set of ballgame altogether.

I once had this very topic of discussion amongst a few friends, and they've all come up with a theory, jokingly - Same factory's produce may not necessarily mean the same way of making the product. Yeah, a little crude, but it shouldn't matter, doesn't it? lol I have no idea, I'm not experienced in that department.

Now, jokes aside, don't you find that it's really mind boggling at times when an odd child can only be identified by the family unit, and 'never' by most outsiders? The dissimilarities in characters could even jeopardise decision-making in family meetings etc. Let's not even mention gender differences or child-position-syndrome differences. It's no wonder why dysfunctional family movies are a big hit, because every individual can identify with a character or two in the movies, and it's not spoken widely enough, yet accepted without a whimper as if it's a common thing - non-issue.

So, what am I quipping about at the end of the day? Perhaps I'm 'odd' in the sense that I have a high EQ, in which lots of people are not bothered about thinking of other people's emotions but just take care of his / her own. Perhaps this could this be just the odd child's perception towards his / her family that yields a different set of behaviour or something else which may still boil down to the essense of "why does this always have to happen to me"?

Speaking of this, I personally have an odd sibling, who actually accuses me to be the odd one instead of him. I've certainly made enough waves and enough statements in the family unit to pay attention to this. My parents call me the 'over-sensitive child'. To me, I think to live in the society, one has to have proper decorum e.g. table manners, opening sentences, politeness etc all in the book of life to fit into the society. I accept a child's rudeness and will correct it, and expect it not to be repeated. My parents somehow, never corrected my brother's... and it has carried over into his adult life. What more, he has recently matched himself with a partner who is just as well-accepted of his flaws. So, there goes, things will not change.

Well, whatever it is, I've come to a conclusion that it could just be a character clash at the end of the day where even the saying "blood is thicker than water" might not even make the cut? So, sistser moneybags is still indisposable to my brother, while sister cookingwok is since a voluntary replacement has taken place :D. What more is there am I to complain about?

Beauty

Today, I've learned the most simple, and yet the silliest thing ever from a friend. Still, it warmed my heart and tickled me pink, and filled me with thoughts for the day: -

Question: If I have a bee in my hand, what's in my eyes?

Answer: Beauty

Of course, before I was presented with the simple answer, I was asked to guess. My guess, as frank and laced with cynism was, "Stinging pain". When asked to explain my answer, I said, "the stinging pain is due to the trapped bee stinging my palm". How negative. I sadly possess a lack of simple intellect to link the question to the old English adage, "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder". In the case of the question, it was a play of sounds, "bee-holder". I laughed so hard, that I could feel a stitch on my side, and think "how could I miss that"? Well, it's simply because I am like every citizen of the fallen world, my mind is corrupted with negative thoughts, that end up being complex for even the most simple line of questioning.

We think 'survival', and arm ourselves with negativity to fight imagined negativity in defense. Despite there's hope of positiveness, we easily choose to ignore it and retaliate and react with pseudo intelligence at times. Such tomfoolery.

My mind burned with this thought, "Have we become so suspicious and careful that we ourselves are the creators of our own stumbling blocks in life?"

Speaking of stumbling blocks, I thought of how we create potholes and craters in God's providence of a pavement in gold and silver for our journey in life. We are hardly grateful of God's blessings. No matter how much goodness is given and provided in this journey, we still think that this pavement for our journey is not good enough. Instead, we take our journeys in our own hands, and decide to add tar, chemicals and do all sort of rough patch works on it to 'perfect' the road.

Did this 'perfect' road, paved by our very own selfish needs lead on to what our very hearts desire? Do our desires yet to quench our thirst and dim the beauty of God's Will in our lives. In our pursuit of our desires, our eyes have lost its sheen of beauty, and replaced with a glimmer of greed for a materialistic life. We shun God's Will, thinking that we will be unhappy to follow through. Do we know better than the Creator?

Many of us have corrupted, even repackaged and rebranded 'beauty'. We live in denial that we could be the God of our lives. We go by physical beauty, eye-candies that can be weathered with age and time. There can be beauty that cannot be waned by the weathers of life, and that is looking at life positively.

Look carefully, every soul still have that beauty, a sense of positiveness though it could be shielded by harsh experiences. Beauty in the soul can be easily lost along the way due to our exposure to the ways of the world.

Picking up ugliness is always an easier way, a shortcut to other deceptions of "beauty". True and real beauty is long-lasting, and will not be drained of its vibrance and meaning in life. We need such beauty for our spiritual growth, and to reach out to those who are thirsty or to quench our very own thirst for our spirits. The spirit man needs spiritual food, and that's from the beauty of God's plans for us.

Today's experience helped me remember "beauty" and its essence of purity, innocence and simplicity. It may seem child-like to the point of being naive to think of such essence to apply to the world and its people.

Our focus in life is to build up more beauty in the world, rather than concentrating on its downsides, deceptions, disappointments and all those inter alia with negative forces. Ridding of negative forces involve bigger works and efforts than gaining the joys of positiveness.

With today's experience, I take it as a sublimal reminder that it's good to remember what God has done in my life, and give thanks. I'll take this day to heart, and renew my vows for the umpteenth time that I shall, and want to stay focus in my journey on that very road that is paved with silver and gold.

It's not easy to see this pavement of silver and gold, as I have to put on a heart of a child. A child-like heart is vulnerable and has no guard, it's led by faith. It's truly easier to enter the kingdom of heaven this way. While travelling down that road of providence, don't forget that it's essential to bring along our companions, namely faith, hope, love, grace, mercy and forgiveness.

There is bound to be beauty in one's eyes when such companions are travelling together in one's journey of life. There, my world of beauty defined :).