Cactus and Caterpillar

Once there was a man who asked God for a flower and a butterfly.

But instead God gave him a cactus and a caterpillar.

The man was sad. He didn't understand why his request was mistaken.

Then he thought: Oh well, God has too many people to care for......... And decided not to question.

After some time, the man went to check to check up on his request that he had left forgotten.

To his surprise, from the thorny and ugly cactus a beautiful flower had grown.

And the unsightly caterpillar had been transformed into the most beautiful butterfly.

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GOD does things right!

His way is ALWAYS the best way, even if to us it seems all wrong.

If you asked for one thing & received another, TRUST.

You can be sure that HE will always give you what you need at the appropriate time.

What you want..... is not always what you need!

God never fails to grant our petitions, so keep on going for HIM without doubting or murmuring.

Today's THORN is tomorrow's FLOWER!

God gives the very best to those who leave the choices up to Him!

Leaders - be a shepherd

Last week, I had a very interesting talk with my friend. He is a great friend of mine, and we love to talk about life. He loves to share the experience of his life and philosophy and I always find his sharing interesting - though I might not agree totally to everything he says.

There is this one thing he shared which I think holds some truth in it. We were sharing about how important it is that in an organization, leaders ought to take full responsibilities in ensuring the welfare of its workers are well taken care of, besides focusing on performance and scores.

We see that in many organizations, leaders who have failed to show good examples in what they do has led the subordinates to lose trust and faith in him. We who are at the lower or less important ranks would like to see our leaders to be considerate and listen to our plead - understand our needs.

Just as we work our ass off to help you- get you what you want, we too have desires on what we think you can help us in the same way. Please don't come to us when you need help and deny us upon your self interest. Show us that you care too.

Like what my friend said, be a shepherd that looks after his flocks, don't be an eagle that wait to prey on the flocks (when opportunities come).

How I Wish......

When it comes the end of each week, I will be very troubled. I will worry a lot. On my appearance, I will appear very normal but deep down, I am troubled. I know I have the issue to resolve. And this issue will always be there every end of the week until I-don't-know-when.

It is the issue of transportation.

Last year, my few colleagues and I had been taking turn car-pooling to school. It was the best times of the year. But, happy moment will not always be there.

Early this year, 1 of my colleagues had transferred to somewhere far far away. So, she is out. Left the 3 of us car-pooling. The issue began when I no longer have my car to fetch my fellow colleagues. The car I have been using is my dad's, and now he needs it. And, I am left to think of what to do next.

There are few things I can do. One is I can pay others to drive me which cost me RM80 per month. Two is I can take a bus up which cost me RM13 up and RM10 down.

Problem arise when I felt very ashamed (not feeling so nice) when it comes to asking my colleagues whose car i can use and pay. They were sometimes reluctant to drive their cars as i know they sayang their car very much (considering the journey to my school is not really that smooth sailing due to many potholes, and other factors like tyres and engine maintenance). But I remained thick-faced to pluck up my courage to ask them. And each time i asked, they did agree to drive though I could see in their eyes that they had a pinch of reluctance sometimes. But i knew i could do nothing. I had nothing to offer. I feel bad.

Then, things got a little more complicated this semester after the leaving of another colleague. This time, there are only 3 of us (me n 2 colleagues) sharing the car pool, with me having no car to offer. I am once again very troubled. Actually, i got more worried and troubled than before everytime Friday and Sunday is approaching.

I know I can afford to get a car. Having a car will be blissful. It will solve all my problems besides getting anywhere i want with my new car. But deep down inside, I know the time to buy is not right yet due to several reasons.

So, what is happening now is, I am either following my colleague up on Friday and Sunday or I am taking a bus up. With another 2 months to go (half of Sept, Oct and half of Nov), I think I will continue to be troubled and worried every Friday and Sunday. By the end of the year, i am thinking my face skin will grow 5 inches thicker.

So far, I am glad that my colleagues are willing to drive me back. I don't have to hitch a bus to go home. They are such a nice and helpful bunch of people. I just thought perhaps, i should add more values to their service like stopping me at the nearest place near their home, so that they won't have feel the reluctance to send me. Or was it just me being over sensitive thinking they would be unhappy to send me, or thinking I am a burden to them.

In fact, I am learning more to do good deeds and learn to 'mengampu' at the same time, in hope that they would send me home. OMG right?

How I wish I have the car like everybody else? How I wish these 2 months would quickly come to an end? How I wish I don't have to worry anymore about who I follow back with for the weekend? How I wish...

Perhaps, I am learning to accept the fact that I can't have everything I want, and to embrace anything that I'd been given.

(photo taken from Cartoonstock)

tomorrow

It's Friday. I am supposed to return this Broadband stick but I haven't - I didn't. *winks* ini ambil kesempatan to go online nih...

Tomorrow, I have this LDK ceramah i have to present, entitled 'Instructional Leadership'. I have absolutely no idea what it is in the beginning. But after reading the presentation slides by Pahang State Education Office (Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri), I briefly have some ideas on what it is about.

(in one of the slides)

Something about being a teacher is that you never know what you will get/do (Some of you teachers out there will definitely agree with me). Your work is never just about teaching. But very often, you will be involved with various administrative tasks and responsibilities which are not related to teaching - at all.

For example, this early morning, I was busy doing administrative work for almost 2 hours before I could sat down on my own working table relaxing my mind and body. The 2 hours were spent on writing reports for water shortage in school (Laporan Kekurangan Air di Sekolah), and report on Post Mortem Pre-UPSR Trial Examination. After completing those reports, i had to do the letterhead for those reports to be submitted which was supposed to be done by my absent-clerk.

There are some things i don't understand about our country's education system. It seems over a quarter or half of our business hour in school has been spent on doing administrative work, i.e. key in marks, doing questions analyses for each question, counting alat alih (Portable Equipment), designing drawing plans for new proposed building, synchronising system files, programmes after programmes, reports after reports, meetings after meetings, and paperwork after paperwork. A lot of work, right?

But i am glad i love doing most of them. Doing all these work, in many ways, offers opportunities to learn new things about the system - what it is, why doing it, how it works and its efficiency towards improving our education system.

This year for example, i have involved in some of my school's most busy tasks, being the Setiausaha Peperiksaan, Guru EMIS Data/Media and Guru ICT. These positions offer great chances for me to network with teachers in other schools as much as my own school, carrying out tasks handed by district level and state level, doing 'donkey-job' of keying in marks for every student in the school and invigilating examinations in an interior school.

And tomorrow, i have this presentation i haven't prepared yet. Once again, it was given to me a few days earlier. Oh~~ i love this job. it is not evaluated of course. Yet, i think i am just going to try my best to entertain them.