The Dawn of a New Year

The first day of 2012 dawned just like any other day for the last fifty years of my life.  I woke up before the sun even got up, did my Suboh prayer, took my bath and by 7.30 I was out of the house, searching for shops to buy breakfast for my family.  Unfortunately here in this town, shops, in particular restaurants, surprisingly don't open on weekends even though it is during this time food business would usually be booming!  I managed to chance upon one shop, bought some Roti Canai and was about to leave when, as a second thought for my girl who is very picky about her food, I decided to buy Fried Koay Teow specially for her!

I got home and helped my wife to lay the food I had bought on the table.  And after everything was ready, woke my daughter from her sleep to have breakfast together.  She got up, doe-eyed and sleepy, took one look at the food that had been laid on the table for breakfast, pushed the plate containing the Fried Koay Teow with a flick of her wrist, and grumpily huffed back into her room, obviously in sheer anger and distaste!

My heart fell onto the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces!  She had done it again!  She had managed to break my heart and caused it to bleed profusely yet again, without the slightest feeling of remorse or regret for her action!  It seems for the past few months, nothing I did could ever come up to her satisfaction or at the very least make her feel grateful for my efforts.  It seems to her that I am just an old man whom she is unfortunate enough to have as a necessity for her;  a parent who is just a mere necessity once squeezed and bled out of it's usefulness can be discarded at will!

Not a good start to the new year, I know, but I regard it as one of God's ways to test my patience as a parent and to see how I best overcome the situation.  I thank God for having enough trust in me to put me through this test and for that I shall persevere.  And to all my children, including this very testy one, I shall do all that I can for you; to ensure that you will have a chance at a good life, and for that I thank God yet once again.  But whether or not my children thank me, it maters not for I know I have done all that I can and continue to do so, with God's guidance.  Amin.