How much is enough

It has been bizarrely hot this past week here in Sintok Valley. It feels like the gates of Hell has been accidently open -- not that I know what hell feels like.

 

However, yesterday was different. It was suddenly cool and beautiful. So I took baby Mukhlis, who is staying with me for sometime, for a walk around campus. Now this young lad of one and a half years old is very obsessed with freedom, hence I gave him the freedom I considered necessary for him to learn.

 

When we discovered a pebbly pathway of a small Surau, situated on a little hill, somehow he found it exhilarating to walk up the pathway then walk down it as fast as he could. One could see me frantically rushing behind him whilst trying to reach both his arms while he screams on top of his lungs a do-not-touch-me-leave-me-alone kind of yell. He manage to walk up and down without falling but eventually, on his fourth try he fell and severely scratched both his knees.

 

Until now, I can not stop pondering, how much freedom should we provide our love ones so that they won’t “damage” themselves and “impair” us in this process called learning.