Learning to be grateful...

Today on the bus, I got pickpocketed on a crowded bus... my bus pass and a box of tic-tac was stolen... I saw the person put the tic-tac in his pocket... I said: "Hey!" because I felt someone's hand reach inside my bag... but even though I witness the person steal my things... I did not confront him... I told my sister that someone stole my things... (in mandarin) The pickpocket knew he was busted... so he quickly moved to the back of the bus... I was in a state of shock and later cried... not bcos I lost those things but bcos I was angry with myself for not reacting...

Throughout the whole bus journey, I kept replaying the scene of what I could have done, what I should have done...

I was angry that I lacked the courage to stand up and confront the pickpocket... even though I saw him steal with my own eyes...

I thought if I couldn't even confront someone who steals my things, will I look away if I see a pickpocket stealing someone else's things?

I hated my own cowardice...

My sister tried her best to console me but my anger toward myself was so much that I ignored her...
On the way home, she told me that I was always very lucky... even though the pickpocket stole my bus pass and my tic-tac, my loss was not great...at least he didn't steal my cell phone or my wallet... She says I was had so much luck that I never see just how lucky I was...

When I was in Singapore, I left my handphone twice and my wallet 3 times overnight in my bicycle (basket) parked in the void deck... and I always recovered them the nxt day...

I dropped my wallet on the street once and a stranger returned it to the police station...

In sec sch, someone stole all my money when I went for the morning assembly and my classmate Brian recovered the wallet and my other personal belongings in the dustbin... the wallet was a present frm my sister when she went to australia...

My sister was never so lucky...

She lost her wallet to a friendly person only to discover later that he was a pickpocket...
She dropped her Nokia 3310 (1st handphone) from the table and it broke...
I put her 3rd handphone in the washing machine not knowing that it was in her pants...
She dropped her 4th handphone on a cab, went back less than 5 minutes later and the person denied finding any phone...
She dropped S$50 outside our house in the corridoor... it was never found...
She lost her bus-pass (US$45) on the 8th of last month...

My experience today pale in contrast to her entire history of bad luck...

My handphone was in the same section as my tic-tac and bus pass... so i was really fortunate.. plus the bus pass expires at the end of the month and today's already the 22nd....
I wonder why I didn't see it this way... perhaps my luck haf made me take for granted that misfortunes will not happen to me... and when it does I get angry that I angry that it happened instead of seeing the silver lining in my misfortunes...

I feel bad now that I made such a big deal of this matter when things far worse haf happened to my sister and that she had to console me over this small matter...

Thanks Ga for making me see....

I truly am grateful......