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Chapter 8 - Threading a Needle One day, in my secluded home, I discovered a button had fallen off from my lama outfit. Fortunately the button was still around. I also found out that the stitches on my pants had loosened and one of the trouser legs was longer than the other. I needed to sew the button using needle and thread, not forgetting to sew the trouser legs as well. A sewing machine would do a better job than needle and thread when it comes to sewing pants. I know sewing. I was independent even at a young age, and I had learned to use an old sewing machine. In my youth, I also learned to use needle and thread as well as a pair of scissors to sew back my loose button. During my military school days and spending a good fourteen years with the military, I had to do everything by myself. Now that I live as a solitary old man, I merely revise what I had learned and done in the past. Within the confinement of my hut you shall find no sewing machine. So I had to buy some needles and thread to sew my button and pants. It then dawn on me that I could no longer discern the tiny eye of the needle. This posed quite a problem as the needle eye was simply too small. I strained to see the needle's eye and it was just a blur. No matter how hard I tried to stitch the thread through the needle's eye it simply sliced around it. I was sweating profusely; my body boiling. Yet, my many attempts to thread the needle remained futile. Then it hit me. My sight was failing. A tiny thread wavered in my hand and I simply could not find the bull eye as everything seemed like a blur. Now what? If I had someone helping me that would certainly be a welcoming news. But it is impossible. I live in reclusion all by myself and I have to attend to everything by my own effort. I can no longer rely on others. Then, I bought myself a pair of magnifying glass. Hooray! I finally got the thread through the needle's eye. I first tied a knot and then began my sewing, one stitch at a time. When I was young, my mum taught me this:
I laugh thinking about all these things. My teeth simply have no strength to bite off the thread. All I need is a pair of scissors to cut the thread. If I have to bite with my teeth I might cause my gum to bleed! I did a good job sewing my button. But the workmanship on the pants was much poorer in comparison. This is due to the fact that sewing a pair of pants requires finer workmanship and every stitch must be tight and properly aligned. Due to my eyesight, I had to settle with a poorer stitch and I was not satisfied at all. Despite that, it was still bearable. I remembered saying this to my students, "To accomplish every small thing is accomplishing a big thing." Now I am putting my heart and soul to accomplishing every small thing and they are about the most trivial things you can imagine. Here's a verse:
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