Look what a passion for rare coins can get you!

I have written on the importance of encouraging any kind of interest our children may have. My elder son, for example, has a lot of interests and all of them are encouraged by me at all times. He was interested in stamps and I took out my stamp collection to help him get started. Every opportunity my son, my wife and I had, we looked for stamps from all over. He had a wonderful time arranging them in stamp albums. From them he learned a lot from the various stamps from the many countries they came from.

He was also interested in coins and notes, collecting coins and notes whenever he found the chance and time to do so, putting the notes and coins in albums, appreciating not just the designs but also their rarity.

And today, in the news was an item about an exceedingly rare coin, the 1787 gold Brasher doubloon, which was sold for 7.4 million US dollars which was one of the highest prices ever paid for a gold coin. The identities of the buyer and seller were not disclosed. The company which brokered the deal was Blanchard and Co., a New Orleans-based coin and precious metals company.(Note: The Brasher doubloon is considered the first American-made gold coin denominated in dollars; the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia didn't begin striking coins until the 1790s.)

As it can be seen from the above, hobbies such as coin and stamp collecting can be as much an investment as antiques and paintings. They are worthwhile interests to cultivate as it takes those interested to a desire to know more which could lead to language learning and further reading. Life can never be boring when there are things to be interested in.

So, let us help our children develop more of such interests instead of insisting upon them to read and learn without the motivation to do so. Yes, it is the lack of motivation that leaves children without a purpose in learning, be it language or skill.

All in the name of love.

On the evening of the 3rd of May,2010, I telephoned my elder son and was told that he was at a police-station to make a police report on an assault on a friend who was with him at the time of the attack. He said he was some distance away when the incident took place. According to my son, it all started because of a girl. That was the bad news.

The good news was that my son was alright. No harm had come to him. Thank God for that. To top it all, was I delighted to hear that he has passed his final veterinarian examination. I thanked God for that too. But, this son of mine do deserve to pass as he was not only diligent; he was really interested in the subject. If you have read my previous postings, you would have read how he was interested in animals and fish since the age of nine. Since then we have had fish and animals in the compound of our house. Today, we still have birds, discus fish, guppies, flower-horn, platty, chillen, corydoras, plecos, fresh-water crayfish, half-beaks, red Cherry Shrimps, Golden shrimps and green shrimps, pig-nosed turtles and star tortoises.

It has been five years of hard work with working holidays through which he worked at various places to gain experience. He was in a pig farm in Kedah, another farm in mainland Penang, Langkawi Underwater World, Indonesia and an animal hospital in Bangkok to gain as much experience as possible. And he was so happy to forfeit his own holidays to work at all those places. Even now, just after his examination results, he was wondering where he could work and gain further knowledge and experience. Not only that, he has already ordered some rare shrimps and would be bringing home exotic fish to study and breed.

He requested for space for additional aquariums. Fortunately, we have a big compound in our corner house, something I insisted on looking for when I bought the house for I realised that a small house will be sufficient but a big outdoor area for fun and joy is essential. Yes, I bought it with myself, my wife and my children in mind. You see, I am one of those who could never get used to being cooped up in a place enclosed by four walls. That is one reason I could not resist the call to wander up the hills, into forests and the winding rivers and the fabulous waterfalls.

When we have the things we love in and around us, the world is a paradise; a joy to be in and life is nothing but happiness. With love for a subject, no matter how tough are the five years of study, it passes quickly and steadily. Work becomes a joy even during holidays and holidays bring fulfillment as it gives opportunities to experience more of what is loved.

Of course, as seen from the beating someone had as a result of love gone wrong, there is possibly some sadness and pain. However, if there is love, love will find the way to the heart and there is no need for a struggle to attain it.

On Friday, the 7th of May, I traveled with my two sons to meet a young guy who, despite being very young at twenty-three years of age, knew so much about aquarium fish, shrimps and crayfish, the breeding of some rare ones and the sourcing of such delightful beauties.

Meeting him at Penanti, Penang, he took us to his house where one portion of the compound of his house was built four big cement tanks and a number of aquariums for guppies of the less common types, most of them albinos.

Then he took us into his bedroom where his shrimps were kept in three long aquariums occupying one whole stretch of a wall. There was a book shelf filled with books on fish. It was an air-conditioned room, the sir-conditioning necessary for keeping the shrimps in a temperature cold enough for them to survive and breed. Imagine the measures enthusiasts would take to ensure success in their breeding programme.
The back portion of the house contained some aquariums with certain rare fish species. This young man has certainly spent a lot of time with his fish.

It is not just time but also money that has gone into his interests. According to him, he had ordered rare fish from importers and sometimes all would die within two weeks. One a friend managed to get a pair of beautiful fish to lose them just after getting some ten fries from the pair. And from the ten, only one is a male. Fortunately, the male was of a good attractive colours. Of course, he is looking after them carefully so as to have sufficient numbers to breed them successfully.
He has put in a lot of work but then it is never tiring as it is a work of love. In fact, his dreams are very much alive and he is planning to start a shop and concentrate more on rare, small, exotic fish.

He is so enthusiastic about his hobby that time passed so quickly as he told us after his many breeding attempts, his successes and failures. Well, when something interests us, time is not a factor. The interchange of knowledge and understanding is of utmost importance.

Learning can be fun

A bird can be a child's pet.
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Children learn from books and personal experiences, discoveries and inventions, if any. In fact, just about everybody learn the same way.

When we learn from books we are learning the experiences and knowledge of other people; knowledge gained from research and discoveries as well as experiences. With the knowledge from other people, from that which is known, we may venture into the unknown, into new discoveries, research and inventions.

Learning can also be active or passive. Passively, we read and gather knowledge from others. We can also take an active role and make observations, do some kind of research or experiment and thus make discoveries that may not have been made by others before our time.

As we can see learning is important to the progress of mankind. As such, we ought to encourage learning. Of course, active learning through participation or our own observation and even through play is certainly more enjoyable than passive learning.

Initially, children should be encouraged to learn joyfully through active learning. Once a child is interested in the joys of learning, it would be easy to have them eager to learn even more. Once their hunger for knowledge is insatiable, parents need very little effort to get them to learn everything there is to know in this world.

Acquiring an interest in a hobby or a pet is a good way to start. It is easy and sometimes it does not require great expenses. Once a child is interested in the subject of his/her hobby or pet, the child would obviously, with a little encouragement, want to know more. Depending upon the age and the reading level, parents can make the knowledge required available. If the child have not yet started reading, the parent can keep the interest burning and help provide the knowledge through visiting places where such an interest can be found, where the people there can talk to you and your child about the matter concerned.

If the child has acquired the ability to read and understand books, then books on the subject concerned could be obtained and made available to the child. If you feed his/her interest consistently, the interest can gather momentum and soon we have a child who is knowledgeable on his/her hobby, pet or interest.

Of course, as the child grows the interest can change. That is good as it will lead the child to new pastures and new knowledge. In time, the knowledge gathered in this manner will be substantial. Besides knowledge, his vocabulary will be enlarged and the language proficiency will grow.

As we can we, learning with joy in this manner can lead a child to better language proficiency and lots of knowledge. So, to all parents with young children, do try it and watch the results with satisfaction.

Search and you will find life so wonderful.

One day I met a retired teacher at a bank. We sat down to talk about days gone past. They were happy memories.

Then this retired teacher bemoaned the present retirement time; how slow time crawled by. He watched television in the morning, then read the newspapers from front to back, top to bottom before returning to his television again. Time was too long. He just did not know how to fill it.

I asked him about his hobbies. Well, now is the best time to continue with his hobbies, with the things he was interested in but could not find the time to indulge in them previously. I told him about my fish, my edible leaves and plants, my tortoises, my birds, my reading, my qi kung, my meditation, yoga and my daily trek up a hill. Those are the things I love to do. In fact, there are still a few interests which I still could not find time for.

It looked like he had no such interests. What a poor fellow he was!

Then I told him he could do volunteer work. There are so many Non-Government Organisations which need our help. Be a volunteer and discover the pleasure of being able to assist others. And such work does not cost you a cent. There is Tzu Chi and other organisations known world-wide. There are old folks' homes and orphanages. I told him about The Art of Living which is sending its trained teachers to schools to help teachers and students overcome tension, to prisons to help prisoners realise and be aware of their mistakes, to love themselves as well as others, to find the divine spirit in themselves. I told him about the charity work done by The Art of Living. And to know more about this organisation, I directed him to http://www.artofliving.org for further information.

He was not interested. I finally discovered that he was still thinking of material gains; he was thinking of money. He could not imagine himself doing work for the benefit of others.

If his pension was a small miserable sum which could not be sufficient to support him through his days, then he was right to think of work and more money. However, I am talking about a guy whose pension was more than most people's salary. See? He was so well-do-to, yet he was so bored with life because he was stingy with his time. And time became a burden, each day bringing more boredom.

Finally, I asked him whether he had ever heard of the saying: GIVE IN ORDER THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE. I told him of the happiness I got from helping and doing such volunteer work, the type of happiness which money can never buy.

I could do nothing else but hope that he could find the right path to the same joy and happiness I derived from my type of work. His path might be different but if he could achieve it, that is all anyone can wish for.

Life is what we make of it. Just do it and everything will be fine.

How can life be boring?

One day, as I was waiting for my turn at the bank, I met this retired teacher. He asked me how was life. I told him it has been great with retirement giving me more time to do the things I wanted to do. Of course, there was still insufficient time to accomplish a few other interests in my life.

Upon hearing my enthusiastic narrative of life in retirement, he asked me how that was possible. He told me of a routine he followed each day; waking up late, having breakfast, reading the newspapers, lunch, nap, watching television, dinner, television again and sleep. It was boring, without anything to make life something to look forward to.

On my part, I told him of my walks up and down a hill, meeting friends all or part of the way. After the sweating and the exercise, I look forward to breakfast with self-planted raw herbs and vegetables, coconut oil, noodles and sometimes desiccated coconut together with my honey and enzyme or apple-cider vinegar drink.
Even the food I eat changes as I gather new knowledge. Raw edible leaves from plants are a constant interest to me. The search to maintain excellent health is a part of my life.

With that, I look into the cleanliness and health of my fish, tortoise, turtle and birds.

Besides this blog and hobbies such as photography, meditation and breeding of various types of living things, there is always new information on a variety of interesting subjects from the library and the internet.

Of course, each day is an unknown event, sometimes with people needing injury massage service from me early in the morning before I had an opportunity to attend to my pets. During such massage services, I get to meet new people. As I do not maintain a shop or distribute cards, such people know me through word of mouth from those who had been cured. And the stories these people tell are interesting.

Then, there is some volunteer work which I do for The Art of Living from time to time. Whenever possible, I take part in its activities too. Besides this, I serve as the secretary of my housing estate residential association.

I do teach English, mostly to adults. However, recently, I had tutored students to prepare them for the Asian Scholarships. I do some free-lance teaching. When time permits, I agree to teach the English Language to the staff of companies through a Language Institute.

So, each day is totally new, with some known as well as unknown events unfolding as I move along. There’s still so much more to learn, so many interesting people to meet, so many unknown challenges in life. As someone recently remarked, “How can 24 hours be enough?”

In my own mind, the answer to that is “No. It’s certainly not enough.”

As you can see, life can never be more interesting than after retirement. There’s so much more in life if we live it without expecting any financial rewards or returns from it.

Just live it to the full whenever and wherever possible!

Hobbies motivate learning.

Can you remember a time when you are performing a work of love. In love, there is no tiredness, no boredom and every desire to continue with the work at hand. When you are in love, you do not use anything as an excuse not to be with somebody or something you love. That is an undeniable fact.

In the same manner, when you love something, a subject or an activity, you wait for more opportunities to be with the subject or the activity. An example of such activities are hobbies.

How wonderful, then, if your child has a hobby, especially one chosen by himself, something he/she really loves doing. So let us allow the child to have a hobby. However, to give him or her a hobby fascinating enough to motivate learning, we ought to expose the child to as many types of activity as possible, so that the child has the opportunity to choose one that is aligned to his/her personality, interest and natural inclination. This, I feel, is of utmost importance. Just as we cannot force our love on someone no matter how true or sincere our feeling is, we cannot force our children to love something. To do so can only bring problems.

I know of parents who, with very good intentions, try to have their children cultivate an interest in something the parents feel would be beneficial to their children. They are good parents. There is no doubt about it. Their children, out of love for them, may even try their very best at the activity but they can never excel. Difficult it is to wish to learn more about something which lacks their love.

Furthermore, children can become frustrated when it takes so much effort on their part to just try to be interested. If, like some parents, you do not understand how your children can dislike something you believe is good for them, put yourself into the following situation. Have you ever tried to be interested in a girl or boy whom you have no feelings for? Try it and you will understand this part better. Parents must do no harm to their precious children.

As someone who has a myriad of interests, I find my interests the best motivator to study and learn. I am interested in fish. Wherever I go, I search for aquarium shops to see if there is any fish I have yet to see or know. It is my boast that there are very few attractive aquarium fish I do not know about. I have read so much about them. At the age of twenty-five years I bought the first published book on discus fish at a very high price. I read and reread the book before I saw my first live discus. In 1971, I heard about a shop in Selangor which sells such a fish. I was told I could book unseen discus fish at RM350 per pair. For me, as a teacher, that was equivalent to almost a month’s pay then. Even then I would have bought it if I could see how healthy they were. No, and I was to give a phone number and once they ring me I must immediately proceed to the shop to claim the fish, failing which, the shop could not be responsible for my dead fish! Eventually I did buy some to breed successfully. In those days, discus breeding was a lucrative hobby as very few people had the knowledge to do it successfully.As a result, young discus fish was exceedingly expensive and profitable to the breeder.

As a result of my interests, I studied about finches, canaries, floristry, video-camera filming, edible plants, enzymes, chlorophyll, nutrients, the human body, muscles, tendons, nerves, joints and the latest scientific and medical knowledge on health. Today, I discover there is still so much to live for with so much more to learn. And all this learning comes without effort; in fact it is a pleasure, a joy in a world of discovery of fantastic facts.

Through my pursuit of knowledge of things I am interested in, I was surprised to learn that protein in diary milk may cause osteoporosis, that a saturated fat such as coconut oil has so much health benefits and does not cause health problems, that CLA or conjugated linoleic acids, in grass-fed animals can prevent so many types of tumours, that exercise is the most important factor in ensuring health. I can say that hobbies and my interests motivate me to an even better, healthier life.

My children’s interests have also lead them to read on their own all those subjects or knowledge which interest them. My elder son has a number of similar interests and we often share our knowledge. This brings a greater bond between us. We are closer because of our interests.

As you can see, interests and hobbies bring so much benefit to us and our precious children. So let them be passionate in something. Encourage them, then watch them grow and develop on their own.