Hijrah in every sense

Monday, 29 December 2008 coincided with 1 Muharram of the new Hijrah year of 1430. It was a day the family will remember for a long time.

True to the meaning of Hijrah (Migration), the time for one to assess oneself and resolve to migrate to be better, this particular Hijrah day for me at least, really hit the nail on the head.

Mum had a heart condition referred to as angina...and that scared the hell out of me, my sister, my brothers (I think!) and though not obvious, our dad. This is actually a gentle tap on our shoulders, reminding us of so many things.

More importantly for me, is of how precious this being called MUM that most of us take for granted.

That Monday, 1 Muharram 1430 Hijrah, as mum came home after 6 days in the hospital, I feel so much for her I pray God give me every means possible to provide for her, and my dad, more than she did for me.

Mak, I love you as I know you love me, too.

When push comes to shove...

It goes to show how much the average Malaysian family comes to depend on the services of foreign maids in their daily lives.

Our Indonesian maid returned to her home-town of East Java for a month's holiday after more than 2 years of her stay with our family. While my in-laws offerred to help out - mum-in-law especially was all prepared to come over from Singapore to ease our burden in Bibik's absence - I figured this would be an opportune time for our family to be independent.

We have been pretty dependent of the services of maids since our son was born in 1999. The first one was from Pattani, Southern Thailand, the second from Acheh, Indonesia and now, this one from East Java, Indonesia.

So it was that we all now have to chip and put in our two cents worth around the house. Well, we still haven't really gotten the hang of total independence yet; hardly a week into Bibik's leave from duty, we will be travelling down to Singapore for a 10-day vacation.

But in these few days of being maid-less, we seem to be doing pretty well...goes to show that push comes to shove, anything can be achieved!