Today I had mala dinner with a few of my closest friends at school. It was day one of another semester and i had the sweetest dinner to celebrate the end of the day with over a nice yummy mala. While we were picking out the mala ingredients together, my friend took two heavy bamboo shoot, and I swear it felt like they were 2 kg dumbells each. Gosh I thought to myself, these bamboo shoot is going to cost us a bomb cuz you know some mala stalls go by weight (grrrr) and not by portions.
And so i verbalised my thought process and said, "Eh take one only ah, very heavy eh.." My friend was so kind and we placed one bamboo shoot back on the mala shelf. I did that (kinda) knowing the bamboo shoot was one of my friend's favourite ingredients in mala.
Over dinner, the same friend confided with us that his grandfather just passed on over the weekend. My gosh. We then had a very heartwarming conversation about the cycle of lives and the impact of the loss of our loved ones.
Apart from going over quotes such as "To learn how to live, you must learn how to die",
"we become emotionally stronger from such experiences", I learnt to always let my friend take the second bamboo shoot. Let them do it.
More generally, be kind to people around you, friends or strangers- always allow them to take the second bamboo shoot for you never know what they are going through.
this post was posted on 19 May 2025
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