Good Timber By Douglas Malloch 

The tree that never had to fight
     For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
     And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
     But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
     To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
     Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
     But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease,
     The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
     The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
     In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
     We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
     Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
     This is the common law of life. 

nowadays i'm circling back to the topics of.. why am I doing the things that i'm doing? am I happy where I am right now? why is there a sense of discontentment? what is my drive? what does it mean to live such a life? what is earning money about? how much is enuf? do we even need so much? what do I want to achieve in life?

it seems like a lot of people are lost in the pursuit of more money.. more status.. quick fix.. instant gratification.. we are consuming at a rate that is unprecedented.. nature is suffering the consequences.. and soon or maybe even now humans are already being affected..

do I want to go down the road of overconsumption? do I need a house? what is all these money for?

it seems like i'm well on my way to a secured retirement with cpf, investments and insurance.. maybe a little more investments in shares to put some money in diff pots for just in case..

then what? I ask myself.. then what? is this all there is to life? to get out of the rat race?

I want to think that there is more.. that life has more meaning than this.. so what is it? how do I find what it is?

is money the blinkers? is family the restrictions imposed on you? what about society's interpretations?

what if money is no issue.. what would I want to do? where would I want to go? who would I want to be with?

it feels like life right now is a mirage.. all the planning and the chasing is for an expected future which may or may not appear..

we would not know what the future holds.. what is our insight for the future?