Margins Of Life

When I was in my Primary years, my form teacher had taught me to always draw a one-centimeter margin on the right hand side of my exercise book. It dawned on me why the need of margins as it occupies space. With this space, I could have written more letters and numbers, saved more paper and made my exercise book last longer. I felt that this rule was silly though I reluctantly drew them anyway.

Coming to the present day… I was cleaning up my house when I chanced upon my primary school exercise book. I took it up and could not help but smile as I turned those pages of yore. Within this book, it had something special that made me treasured it till now. It was those silly margins. Encouraging words like, “"I am happy that your ambition is to become an engineer", "Interesting narration of a chocolate-box life? love your ideas of giving birth to little baby geese from golden eggs", "you have a good heart in helping blind people by donating your pocket money - keep it up", will be filled up by the margins by my form teacher. She would draw a star, a sad face, a smiley to relate her feeling or just a simple tick to show her reaction and acknowledge to my statement. I also find out that a few pages were marginless; there were no remarks or comments. I wish I had drawn them at that time.

I finally understood my form teacher golden rule of drawing margins. Just as I had drawn margins for her to pen remarks that I so fondly cherish, I should also draw margins in life's hectic schedule so that I can savour the process of my work. I have learned a thing or two about drawing margins in life:

Give allowance of time. Plan well to give time for tight schedules and aim to arrive early by 15 minutes or more for all activities. Much often, stress is created by my ambition to squeeze too much activity into a limited time.

Set time for things that matter. Offer myself time to enjoy my hobbies, time to spend with my loved ones, time to go on a vacation and time to play my favourite sports.

Give time for little things. Give some time talking to a child, pouring myself a good cup of coffee, comforting someone, cleaning the toilet, learning to cook Tom Yam from Mommy, helping the blind person to cross the road, marvelling at the sunset, or just watching the street busker performing.

I assumed that drawing those silly margins was a waste of space and was worried that my exercise book would not last the whole year. The fact was, the margins turned out to be the highlight of my book and by the end of the year the book was only 75% filled. And yes, I had worried for nothing. The value of the exercise book is not measured by its length; it is worth by its content. Likewise, time is not calculated by seconds; it is worth and valued by the moments. I shall continue to create such moments by drawing those margins in my life!