This story set me into great thougts:

One day an old man and his grandson went to the market together. The old man bought a donkey from a stall and he carried his grandson onto the donkey and they continued down the streets.

Some passerby then commented, "How can this young boy sit on the donkey and let his Ah Gong walk instead? So unfilial!". Hearing that, the old man carried his grandson down and he got up onto the donkey and the young boy led the donkey along.

A while later, they overheard somebody saying "How can this man sit on the donkey and let the young boy walk? This is so dangerous!". Immediately, the old man felt embarrassed and came down from the donkey. He then told his grandson saying, "Let's just walk together with the donkey."

As they were walking happily, a little girl laughed at them, telling her mum "Mummy look, why are they so stupid. Buy a donkey but don't ride on it. Then buy the donkey for what?". The old man looked at his grandson and both of them decided to ride on the donkey, and walked together.

Not long after, the old man overheard another passerby whispering to his friend saying, "Aiyoh, look at the poor donkey. How can the 2 of them sit on it? They are crushing the poor donkey lor." Hearing that, the old man didn't know what else he could do. So both of them down the donkey and then carried together, they carried the donkey home.

Somehow this story reminded me of how I'm always so affected by how people think of me and how concerned I can be about this issue. I always find it hard to reject ppl, fearing I'll hurt them or what others will say if I don't turn up for something/do something, not like this is a bad thing of course, but it can sometimes become a burden to me.

As how aptly Niz put it to me yesterday, "Life is an obligation...". No matter how true and how I could find myself associating with this statement, I really hope to change this side of me. Imagine how tiring life would be, if all our life, we are living just to please others. Ultimately, we'll just become indecisive people, not knowing/doing what we want or worse still, what is right. At the end of it all, we are just putting extra burdens upon ourselves isn't it? I'd rather live with this statement "Life is a choice".