101% Principle

In the morning of my second visit to Selandar, I dropped by at Calvary Care Home (CCH). When I reached there, I saw David pacing the front yard alone. While waiting for Sarma and Kee Ming to pick me, I spent about half and hour chatting with this boy who was keen to show me how he exercised to train his muscles. That day, I desired to do something for him so that he would not idle those precious hours of Saturday mornings. I planned to bring him and the other boys for swimming if there was no discipline problem among them during the week.

Unfortunately, I could not fulfill my promise soon--I had learned that I had to replace my 18-hour lessons in advance on all the four Saturdays in order to have an extra four-day holiday in September. Last Saturday, my morning class started at 10.30am. So I made up my mind to serve as the CCH driver for this sport. John would not be available. After taking the rest of the boys' recent behavior into consideration, only David was qualified. He did not mind at all not having other companions to swim together.

Saturday morning, I did not have to wake up this early bird in my house. During our journey to the swimming pool at Bukit Beruang, I asked David, "You like to do your own things alone sometimes, right?" I had observed this quite some time ago. That was why he usually was not the person I approached most when I spent a few hours at the Home. I added, "I'm also like you. That's why we get along."

We arrived at about 8.15am. The previous time in February, I had not noticed this huge tree whose leaves turned red beautifully like in autumn. David told me that in those evenings there where he used to go for swimming lessons in the past, leaves fell onto the surface of the water and created a magnificent scenery with the reflection.

A mother was sitting on a bench under the tree. At first, I also wanted to follow her example. I returned to my car to take a book. When I walked past David who was in the pool, he asked me, "Do you want to see me swim?"

Suddenly, I realised that what this boy longed for was not only swimming itself, but also my attention to his interest. I immediately said yes, put back my book and sat at the pool side to watch him swimming as if I were attending a live concert.

I thought of my teenage days. Even when I did not have to go to school, I still got up early. Dad's presence was my motivation to do reading in the living room while he was writing his article or browsing through a newspaper. Sometimes when he was free to listen or talk to me, that was a bonus.

Then I also remembered once I suggested to the CCH boys other people to send them for swimming. I thought they just needed a driver. But their reaction showed that they would not be keen to follow anybody except for those whom they identified as their friends.

I began to understand that if I had simply left David there alone, even though swimming was his favorite activity, he would not have enjoyed himself as much as when there was someone willing to make him feel special during one hour,

someone who made him feel like a hero when he showed his self-invented swimming style.

That morning, I also decided to bring him for breakfast at an Indian restaurant to extend my quality time with him before I sent him back to CCH and went to my class. We shared about our experiences of diet and exercise.

That day, I was actually the more blessed one because David had given me an occasion to practise the "101% Principle" that I had learned in my MLM class--Find the 1% you have in common with someone, and give it 100% of your attention.