the war inside

 

We are always in constant battle with our own self. We have a lot of inner demons to fight. There are some days that we won, but there's also some days that we lost. We have to check and re-check again our iman, our morals, our self-control in order to not lose so much, so frequent. Or we'll lost ourselves. What's important is self-realization. If we always keep in mind about how good or bad we are each day, we will always make an effort to improve. We are humans, so as long as we are still breathing, we are all exposed to the attractions of lust and excessive desire.

 

The key to do this successfully is to do it slowly, bit by bit, but continuously. We can't just do a little and stop, or we'll never get pass that transformation gauge level. Try to leave the source of our lust and desires bit by bit, and exchange it with positive materials. Don't ever let your mind be idle, fill the void with the positive things. And the most important thing is never let our prayer down. Always keeping it up, and hot, and continuous. Keep our relationship with Allah swt warm, if we never forget Him, He will never forget us.

 

An insight to ponder on, if we are a good person, we will always feel bad and guilty if we realize that we have made a mistake. So, if we are still able to feel that guilt, we still have our iman close to our heart but it really need to be revved up. The problem is when we don't feel any guilt or worry or something amiss when we leave our responsibility as a Muslim. Then we won't realize our mistakes.

 

Every day is a battle day. And this piece of writing is an effort of self-motivation to remind ourself to keep fighting, for whatever wins or losses that we get each day, we will bring them all with us, after we stop breathing, that's when it all stop.

 



it's epic!

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Today I watched a very fun and entertaining new animation film, epic, which was directed by the same man who directed the hilarious Ice Age. It's a fantasy film with comedy and drama elements in the package, adapted from William Joyce's children novel entitled The Leaf Men and The Brave Good Bugs (1996).

The teenager Mary Katherine aka MK went deep into the forest where his estranged and eccentric scientist father lives to stay with him after her mother passed away. Apparently MK's parents divorced many years ago because her mother couldn't stand her father's tenacious-to-the-point-of-madness study about a world of tiny people living in the forest. After giving up on discussing with her father about stopping to pursue his study, MK decided to leave the house when his father's dog, Ozzy, suddenly ran out of the house into the woods. MK then also ran into the woods to find Ozzy.

Meanwhile, deep in the forest, in the Moonhaven kingdom, there exists a group of little soldiers called the Leafmen, who are the only creature in human form that function as the protectors of the Queen, and that also means, the forest. The Leafmen is led by Ronin, their leader. Nod, is Ronin's dead friend's son whom he tried to mold into becoming one of the Leafmen soldiers but Nod just not interested and insists to live independently. Queen Tara, is the queen of the forest and the main power who controls and protects the various life and creatures living in the forest. On the other side is the Boggans, the hideous creatures led by Mandrake who oppose the kind of balance the Queen is protecting and do nothing but rot and kill the forest.

So all these characters will soon have their paths cross one another when it's summer solstice and the time comes for the Queen to choose the new heir for the forest. The first part of the ceremony is for the Queen to choose a suitable leaf pod from a lake. These pods are nursed and guarded by a pair of slug and snail, Mud and Grub. When the Queen finally made her selection, the Boggans ambushed the ceremony, intending to kill the Queen and the pod. In the process, Mandrake's son was killed and the Queen was fatally wounded. On her last moment, she fell near MK who's looking for Ozzie and managed to transfer her powers to the pod and gave it to MK, at the same time shrinking her into tiny size and told her to take the pod to Nim Galuu.

From this part onward, it's a spectacular journey for MK to get the pod to Nim Galuu, assisted by Ronin, Nod, Mud and Grub while she tries to come into terms of being tiny and then surprisingly thrusted into the world that she didn't believe before and that her father has been searching for so long. The group has to dodge and secure the pod and themselves from the relentless attacks by Mandrake and his Boggans who after the death of his son, now wants to steal the pod for himself to create his own Dark Prince.

This is a very fun and entertaining story and you couldn't help but laughing at Mud and Grub with their funny dialogues. And watching this movie in 3D is really awesome. This film encompasses some good morals to discuss with your children. The first being the relationship between family members as shown in MK and her father's relationship. The second being the importance of protecting the environment and maintaining the balance in the nature's cycle of life (at one part Mandrake told his son that the forest is not built in one day, and his son replied that they can destroy it in a day...which is so true..). The third is about teamwork and even though everybody lives as individuals, no one should be alone. There's quite a lot of wisdom quotes in this movie. You can never go wrong with this type of movie, although this one is not the rolling-on-the-floor kind of funny but it has a nice amount of humour in it and the story is good, sensible and entertaining. The animation is also so beautiful. Recommended.