Wisdom-to-share

“Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends.”  ―  Alphonse de Lamartine We passed twenty-six years of marriage on June 2017. We didn ’ t celebrate with anything special. It is actually good for people who have romantic side in their life to celebrate their anniversary with flowers, candle light dinner and diamond as the gift. In my life I didn ’ t need those thing, on that day I usually do the reflection of my journey with my husband. I realized sometimes both of us were busy with our duties, we didn ’ t speak much about our daily activities. We seemed like two people listen to the same song with different harmony. There was nothing wrong about it. We understood each other; we believed we were in the same track to spend our life together, but each of us needed to be alone sometimes. As Kahlil Gibran said, Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. “Let there be spaces in your

It was so common in my class that my students would ask me random questions especially about Indonesian culture. “ Lina, I don ’ t understand your people ” “ Why? ” “ Look, they like to sitting and talking for hours. ” “ O … we call it ‘ nongkrong ’ … . ” “ What the meaning of nongkrong? ” “ Sitting, talking and actually doing nothing ” “ O my goodness. And look at them. They are so happy and do you know they probably don ’ t make enough money. Do you think they have a life insurance or a lot of saving in their bank account? But my maid at home she doesn ’ t have a bank account. The money I gave to her … easily gone ” My other student always asked me “ When some of your people really want to live in United States, why do you still like to live in this country? Your country has no future because of the corruption and they hate each other because of religion or ethnic ” It was so hard for me to explain about those issues. I found the way to explain to th

Saturday, July 8, 2017 I ran to the mall to have lunch together with my daughter. She had been dealing with a difficult person and situation for a couple days before. I tried to be with her all the time when she had a problem. Lunchtime was one of the times we could discuss about any problem and we tried to find the solution. After lunch, we needed to go to other place. I said, “I need to go to the toilet” My daughter, “Sure mom, I will wait here” After I am done, I saw a two years kid standing near the door.   And a nanny who talked to her, “You need to walk, I don’t want to carry you” The kid was about to cry. I talked with her, “Why you don’t want to walk?” She looked at me and she said, “I don’t want to walk” I said to her, “You need to use your feet to walk so one day you can use to run … and you can run faster. Do you want to walk with me?” She grabbed my hand and she walked with me. I didn’t know her name or anything about her. We walked together from the

“ To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors. ” ― Tia Walker, The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love Singapore June 22, 2017 It was a very hot day and I pushed my mom ’ s wheelchair to enter the Gardens by the bay as part of our short trip to Singapore. My mom can still walk properly but she couldn ’ t walk too far, so to make the trip enjoyable for her I always brought the wheelchair. The breeze touched us when we entered the flower dome. There were many people there and they took pictures of the flowers. I saw an Indian couple in front of me, they are probably around my age or slightly older than me. The wife suddenly came to me, “ May I take a picture with your mother? ” I was surprised but I let her do it. Aha … my mother might be famous after that picture uploaded in the social media with the right capture. The husband showed me the picture he took with his cellphone. And they said, “ Thank you ” So I