Tag: haiku

Saturday night, Love
Keeps her radiant and calm
In a place called heart.

I became hungry and decided to slice carrot, beet root and chayote for salad.

For this Saturday night’s calm vibe, I sliced shallot, chili, lemon grass and kefir lime leaves then sauté them in coconut oil added with shrimp block.

Alhamdulillah yum yum❣️

Timed

It's timed, Beloved
That that evolves. It won't last.
How blessed I'm mortal.

Refreshed

Redreshed, Beloved
By love sprouting from within
A mother called Earth--

I often freshen and refresh my body by drinking “jamu”, the Javanese herbal medicine or herbal drink that I mostly concoct with my own hands.

The Life List (movie)

Learning, life, Poetic, This Person

Life list, Beloved,
Not about glory or lost.
It's what truly costs.

I used to list what I wanted to do. Every year I made the list longer until I stopped as I’ve found primary list that I won’t forget to make come true.

One of them is writing my own book (I’ve written with friends in anthology books) so I’m working on it.

Another one is having a home where family and friends feel the true selves in them. My first house was but as it is located not in a preferred place, I decided to make a new one. Working on it–

Many more and I’m working on all of them.

They might come true or not as age is not predictable yet at least I’m working on all of them.

Sooner or later

Amen

Origami

What's origami?
Paper in a pair of hands,
Finding its beauty--

Head Piece

Head piece, Beloved
What I've kept in head and heart.
Always about you--

Bulang Mandailing – a head piece for woman of Mandailing ethnic group

Suntiang Gadang – a head piece for woman of Minang ethnic group

Blue on Green

Blue on green, my love
Is where air is thick as blood.
Peacefully given--

when visiting my mom’s place, I’ll at least go once to where rice field spreads from road to river

how about having a painting of this view?

Just a while ago I realised that luck is not solely given, it can be requested with terms and conditions applied. I feel lucky when these conditions are met: believing on what’s not sensible, connected to and loyal with the conscience and not reluctant to share what I’ve got. What about the terms? I leave it to you; you’re the determiner.

I’m the bearer of conditions; you’re the bearer of decision. We both are interchangeable pre-condition.

So I’m lucky to have you, your luck won’t matter without me.

☘️

Sweetness

Sweetness, Beloved
Shows on the plates, wok and wrap
In one sweet dinner.

veggies, rendang and deep fried (sweet potato balls & banana) — sweet

rendang I prepare for Eva next Thursday’s ifthar in a Japanese restaurant — what a sweet mix 😁

today’s sweet herbal chocolate

Look

How do I look, Love
Before the mirror of heart
Talking honesty.

Who doesn’t want to look young or beautiful at the longest time? Looking young and beautiful is one of the best feelings in life. But how far can human beings stretch themselves to stay young?

Today I bumped into a movie in the flight from Hanoi to Singapore: The Substance in which a woman (played by Demi Moore) is struggling of being not wanted in the industry because of not looking as young anymore. The horror of doing so much to stay young gave me a wake-up call that liking it or not, I who looks younger than her age will definitely age and weaken through time.

How long can I stay young naturally?

I won’t look young all the time especially as I decided to not do expensive facial and body treatment. Factually that’s very not necessary (for me).

Truly at 65 this body is weak and can’t work as now. By then I hope that I can appropriately function as a wise soul staying in a relatively healthy body that does light works everyday until time kindly escorts me to the next gate of life.

Dear, Life.

Thank you for taking care of me.

Please always guide me to stay in the path of human being in the making as long as time allows. I might not get everything grandiose but I don’t want to lose anything precious.

Please give me big heart enough to always experience joy through all senses and to share it everyday.

Happy weekend❣️

Sun Quickly Sets

Learning, Map It!, Poetic

Who doesn't love it?
Sun that quickly sets with joy
To rise tomorrow.

sunset in the West Lake

sunset in the West Lake

sunset in the West Lake

sunset in the West Lake

after a long week, with the team enjoying sunset, the ladies always like to take photo ☺️ (near the West Lake)

closing the day around Hoan Kiem Lake

the music that sweetly hurt the heart

How Clear? (Language #1)

Learning

How clear, Beloved
Do messages show to you?
As clear as clear glass--

About language that is claimed to make things clarified. My ranting just now…..

Language is a tool in the form of spoken, signed/gestured or written symbols structured and agreed by a group of human beings and used by them to communicate and express opinions, emotions, experiences. In the growth language is also to reflect cultural and social identity.

Once I wrote that language is logic of a nation. The way a nation structures the language proves the way one positions itself before nature or other human beings. That’s why the first person is using a capital letter (I) in English in which individuality is prioritised, while formal form of second person is Anda (with a capital letter A) in Bahasa Indonesia in which individuality is second prioritised in a group. It also explains why some language categorise their nouns into genders (male, female), while other language don’t. Do you know why Subject is less important than Predicate that the doer won’t be mentioned in a sentence? Why do some languages have level of honorific (Javanese has 3 levels), while others don’t? Logic of a nation is introduced as early as how the nationals speak the idea: through language. How interestingly do Eskimo have many words for “snow” of different form, time, size; as the Arab have many words for “horse” of different type, movement, emotion, sound of gallops, etc?

The logic of a nation aka language is indeed born through the interaction of nature, culture, nurture!

I wonder though how well a language can convey a message. Which language can convey the message the most clearly? Is it the one with the best grammar? Is it the one with the most vocabulary? Is it the one with the most beautiful intonation? Is it the oldest one? Is it the simplest one like binary code? Which one?

Maybe each language excel in one subject. English and German excel for science. Arabic and Javanese excel for literature. Language with script like Sanskrit, Japanese and Chinese excel in developing strong cognitive with their intricate writing. And so on. Please don’t quote my limited knowledge and analysis that is based on my limited education.

As much as I admire those who master many languages, I still doubt if they can convey their emotion clearly and honestly through the logic of their nations. Maybe scientifically and logically they can speak or write about something. Yet there is one deep emotion that will fail all languages in many occasions.

What can fail any language? LOVE.

Look at Rumi. Do you think Rumi talks about his wife? No. He talks about divine love. But can Rumi stop others to use his poems and quotes to admire other human beings. No. Freedom of expression. Unclear boundary, failure of accuracy. Dishonesty. Honesty.

How would you trust the sentence “I love you” even if someone truly loves you with no reason? How would love be conveyed with language if “I admire you” can’t even convince the other?

Yes. In general language is a tool to convey messages; but in some cases language is a blocker of a true message.

Some message won’t be strong enough articulated in any language but silence.

Silence is truly the highest level of communication.

Again please don’t quote me because I didn’t review my writing before uploading: typo and immature thought is everywhere.

❣️

Knot

A knot is a safe
For love to bind a promise
Until time is up.

I bought the gold knot stud earrings in Madrid, a place making me realise that a most stunning place can be the least safe one

when buying it, I didn’t know the meaning of knot: they just looked stunning

only when ending the 20-day solo travel in some EU countries, I know the knot stud earring means love and unity

beautiful!

Sun Flower

Following the sun
Travelled by the earth no end
Just slowly or fast--

sun flower facing the sun until the sun is no more shining

Ripples on The Heart

Ripples on the heart
Is smiles decorating days,
Starts every morning.

your laughter is my morning ripples

Sunday, Fun Day

Learning

Weekend in Hanoi means walking around a lake, this time the West Lake. It was fun especially when closed with facial treatment in one local spa, May Spa.

Hanoi has a lot of spas named May but my friend said this is the “original” May Spa. Ok, I took the chance to relax there with facial treatment.

Hoa, the one doing the treatment was a polite woman who did her job very gently and thoroughly. Thank you, Hoa.

Let’s face the next week with the vibe!

with the daughter of the spa owner, cute!

Light

Learning, love, Poetic

The light, Beloved
Knocks on this heart with a song
That hums love and hope.

Nature

Nature, Beloved
Where I plant true self of mine
That springs up lushly.

I saw this scarf in LUSH and got charmed with its theme; it’s a natural resources map from where LUSH source the raw material of its products

Indonesia: coconut oil, patchouli oil (both my favourites)

it will be a gift to an old friend who’s been raised in agriculture family. I hope she likes it.

A Home

Learning

A home, Beloved
Is never far, it's now here
In this very heart.

I thought building a house was easier than building a relationship. In fact it was as challenging. Even with money I can’t make it happen as a home is built also with love & trust; both must be there, the absence of either will collapse the plan & block the execution.

Korine Jati, my home, was planned to be ready some time ago but with some reasons, she has to wait patiently for some time to host the housewarming with my family and friends. Reasoning was made there (and beyond my capability to handle) but the actual thing is Korine Jati’s timing was not yet coming & I have to accept it without blaming anyone in the process.

It caused me problems by then & affected some aspects of life but now I’m ok.

Bismillah.

Korine Jati is restarting & with God’s grace she shall be ready within 2025.

To all that have helped in the process, matur sembah nuwun (thank you in Javanese).

I’m not resentful; I was simply upset. It’s just the way it is.

Thank you.

Sweet Dreams

All dreams should be sweet.
They should leave beautiful trails
To be well followed.

living with acceptance is a dream

and I’ve achieved it to some extent; I’ve learnt letting go each and every day

and now I want to enjoy my life with someone who has the same project with mine: to live loving & forgiving, to die loved & forgiven

because to me that’s the only way to live happily

Still About Dreams

When dreams are calling,
Get up! The sky's the limit,
Be the wind that blows.

my dreams call the wind so they can meet you soon

❣️

What About The Dreams?

I still keep the dreams:
You're the only one to meet
When sky's clear one day.

I hug my dreams in the dark day; they will again fly to find home when the wind sweeps clouds away

💙

🥰

Love

What's love, Beloved?
It's what she does and becomes.
As red as ruby--

I love jewelry; these are a set of ruby I bought in Scott Market in Yangon, Myanmar in 2018

so many gemstones made my eyes wildly browsed all possibly affordable ones

i bought sapphire, ruby, jade and amber that have become my precious entertainer cum advisor when I’m lost.

gemstone is not only beautiful but also symbols of wisdom and beauty

Thank you❣️

Blue

What's blue, Beloved?
Tranquility. Sky and sea
As calm as can be--

painted my nails blue to keep my spirit on and on and on

it doesn’t matter if people say I just look wise but actually unwise — I’m not wise indeed ☺️

I only say what’s aligned between my head and heart and even my belly

☺️

Why?

They ask, Beloved
Why repeated the same thing?
Based on what you do--

why I say the same ideas repeatedly, only moving the point of view?

because those are the things I not only know but also embrace, internalise and experience in life

saying something I don’t truly know and feel and walk feels like not stepping on the ground

❣️

Clear Glasses

Clear glasses, my love
With which colours and shapes seen
Are cleaned everyday.

it’s both the glass container and the glass spectacles should be clean to see clearly

exactly like one person’s action and the other’s perspective

❣️

Kitchen Calls

Kitchen calls, my love
Those in love with life and taste
And the folks in heart.

today’s ifthar with so much love

we call it bothok not the Botox injection — it’s tempeh, anchovy in grated coconut + santan wrapped by my hands in banana leaves 😍

sayur asem (sour soup) normally the sourness is from tamarind but today I used buah kedondong peel

Japanese cracker that I love always

still the Bac Ninh oranges

kedondong

Today’s Joy

What's for today's joy?
Colourful and full of taste
On a wooden tray

today’s ifthar

salad for fresh evening from my fridge

kolak (stew of sweet yam, aloe vera and sago pearl) from my kitchen

orange from Bac Ninh, Hanoi

steamed rice cake from Bengawan Solo

Loved? Fulfilled?