It all started when my child blurted out one day "It's not fair!" when she didn't get her way. I ignored the statement and took it as one of her pertulant outbursts when things don't go her way. Until the "not fair" outbursts became more frequent and over the smallest stuff that I began to sit up and take note.

So one day when she uttered the infamous words again, I decided to give her a piece of my mind. I told her in a firm but calm tone, "Baby, you're right. Life really isn't fair, that is why you have food to eat, clothes to wear, and papa and mama to love you, when there are little children in other poor countries who don't have all these." It seemed to work as the frequency of her "not fair" outbursts have magically reduced. In fact, I hardly hear it lately.

A recent survey shows that Singaporeans are generally happy, scoring a 6.6 on a scale of 1 to 10. And according to Dan Buettner, best-selling author of The Blue Zones and Thrive - Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way, "Singapore is the happiest place in Asia".

However, Singaporeans have rated their personal savings, or the lack of it, as the area in which they are most unhappy with, according to a research study titled The Happiness Report recently released last month.

The study, which was conducted by Grey Group, also revealed the top 5 things that Singaporeans were happiest about, with 78% citing Singapore as the best place to live in the world, followed by close family ties, spirituality, social support networks, and personal time being the fifth on the happiness index. Interestingly, the study also discovered that men were happier than women at the workplace.

Can happiness be bought with a price tag? Some would say "yes", judging from the long queue of thousands of people, some of whom stayed overnight, outside the new H&M flagship store when it was launched here.

Came across this meaningful passage and thought I would share it here. This story of a carpenter who disregarded the instruction of his client but instead helped save a strained relationship.

Sometimes we build invisible walls around us so as to protect ourselves from being hurt, not knowing that it also prevents us from being loved.

Hope this beautiful story touches your heartstring and inspires us to build bridges, not walls.

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Once upon a time, two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side-by-side, sharing machinery and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch.

Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference and finally, it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

 Photo courtesy of Angelight

If you are planning for a short getaway with no rush, no fuss and lots of shopping and makan, I would recommend One Utama -- a mega award-winning shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur -- which we visited last year. We also stayed at the One World Hotel, a nice business-class hotel conveniently located within the shopping mall itself.

Staying in a hotel within the shopping mall proved to be a bonus as it means we could wake up late (since the shopping mall only opens at 10) and shop until the mall closes at 10 at night before dragging our tired feet back to the hotel in just five minutes. Of course with a young child in tow, it means that we have to go back to the hotel room to let her take a short afternoon nap, so staying and shopping within the same area is a great convenience indeed.

I have chosen to become a stay-at-home-mother (SAHM) since DD came into my life. And I have not regretted a single day of it.

Sure there were some days I had wished I were working instead of staying home to look after DD 24/7, especially in the first year after her birth as she was a needy and fussy baby who needed to be breastfed every 2 hours. Some babies could just sleep or play through with dirty diapers. Not my little princess. She would cry at the top of her lungs if her diaper got wet with urine or dirty with poo. This meant she could wake several times in the nights and insufficient sleep for her daddy and mummy.

Happened to chance upon this video on Youtube -- visually stunning and the words are thought-provoking and inspiring.

Recently a distant relative fell and hit her head on the ground. She fell into a coma later and died soon after from massive head injury. Then I heard another sad incident of a boy who accidently fell from a highrise and was declared braindead, his life sustained only by a machine.  

Such tragic real-life incidents made me realise life is really unpredictable. No one knows what is going to happen in the next moment. The inspiring words in this video has prompted me to be even more appreciative of life. Like what it says in the video,

"The happiest people do not have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything."

"Live simply; speak kindly; care deeply; love generously." 

As a mother,  I always thought I have inculcated some moral values and life lessons to my 3-year-old daughter (DD). But lately I realised that unknowingly, she has also imparted some life lessons to me through our daily interactions and conversations. It's a humbling experience to learn from a young child, and these are the things I've learnt from her:

1. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.
DD never goes to bed angry. She may be a little 'chilli padi' at times but she doesn't hold her unhappiness or frustration for long. She recovers quickly from any unhappy incidences and does not harbor grudges, even those who had upset her.

Many times, we adults can hold grudges from wrongs done to us decades ago.