Hi and Selamat Hari Raya to you all! I think its still not too late to wish Hari Raya right :) Oh how I really love having this kind of 3 months holiday as a uni student, & I can raya all month long! Eventhough my Raya this year was not really good in the beginning since I had quite a bad fever on the first few days of Raya.. but still alhamdulillah still got the chance to raya now hehe.
I think its like the first time after sooo long that I suddenly had a topic to write in mind. Usually, I'd just pour whatever it is in my heart at that time haha. The other day I was on a video call with my friend, and somehow we started to talk about the books that we read growing up, so I started to show some of my books I still kept on the shelves. I felt really happy to be able to share with other people about one of my most favorite and valuable interests, which is my books. Then after, I thought about sharing here a lil bit of the lessons I've learnt from my favorite books that gave really big impact in my life.
So let's start off this first post with a book with the biggest impact, I shall say. The book is......"The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The amazing story behind this favorite book of mine is that.. its not even mine. Haha. I actually borrowed it from my dearest neighbour whom eventually become one of my best friends, Didie. If I'm not mistaken, I'm around 15 years old at that time. Maybe it was after my PMR, so we're like having lots of leisure time. So I was reading another book, Rooftop Rant by Hlovate and in some part of the book, the main character of The Secret Garden, Mary Lennox came up. How Mary found escapisme in the secret garden she found, and how from that point, she eventually found her way out into the happiness of her life.
The version of the book that I read was quite a thick one, and the writing was a classic English one. It basically uses 'thou', 'thee' as pronouns. In summary, the story is about Mary Lennox who lived in India, but had to move to England to live with her uncle after her parents' death. Her uncle lived in a huge mansion, and she never really met him, except once I think. So she was basically living as a lonely girl there, only having a few maids as company. Soon after, Mary started to venture around the mansion and as she explored more and more, she finally found a secret garden, all locked up, where she found Dickon. Dickon is a cheerful young boy, and he is actually the brother of one of Mary's maids. They became friends and Dickon showed Mary that there is more to life. That she can be happy, she can enjoy life, too. Another mystery of the mansion is that, Mary's uncle actually have a son, Colin, who was sick and never got out of her room. He was full of despair, and always throwing tantrums. The most amazing part is how Mary and Dickon finally able to convince Colin to continue living, to let go of his sadness and resentments, and to persevere.
This book really have inspired me and taught me a lot of things. As you started picking up the book and read, you'll find a bitter little girl, fussy and never satisfied with what she got. Moreover, as little Mary lost her parents and went to her distant uncle, she continued living as a lonely girl. Just like how it was back in India. You'd see how she treated the maids with no courtesy, quite rude I would say. But then, as she found the Secret Garden, the red headed robin, Dickon who's always talking to animals and playing his music ( I cant remember what he was playing, haha) , Dickon taught her about life, they took care of the locked-up garden together and made it live again, they played together in the garden, until you can finally see her laugh, and the mansion was somehow no longer a lonely place. So you learnt that even at a place where it seems as if there's no more hope, as if you're alone, there's always a way out..into happiness. You just have to work through it.
Of course the character that played a strong role in triggering all these positive changes in Mary is Dickon. Amazingly, Dickon not only taught Mary to change herself for the better, but the good vibes were so strong that as Mary saw how Colin was, she felt the need to help him to be better too. That was really an important point. I believe one of the critical indicator in being a good person is not only about ourselves, but to the extent that we want good for others too. Eventually, even the grumpy gardener, Ben Weatherstaff became kind to them too haha. Be good to people, even when they weren't really good to you. It's not about them. Doing good even when people don't treat you the same, will bring your heart content. Try it, and feel the warmth inside you :) (of course there's a limit to everything, but that's not the point here, u got it right?)
So I guess that's a few points from this really inspiring book. Of course I can talk about it whole day long, but for the sake of picking up lessons from it, I think this much would be enough. Thank you so much for reading! So what's your favorite book?
