graphs of my Universe
Teachers can be those telling me something new to me to understand, those reminding me what I forgot and/or those confirming what I’ve comprehended.
Life is beautiful.
thank you, Abu for always sharing your learning process; thank you, dear Mbak Iie for sharing your journey — you both are blessed
In everyday life
Leaves are on trees, trees on roots;
Blooms and fruits on hopes--
my everyday life is prosaic, i recompose it to be poetic so i can enjoy it with my loved ones
💕
Lyrics (softly spoken, deep and on point)
What in the world are we going to do?
Look at what everybody's going through
What kind of world do you want it to be?
Am I the future or the history?
'Cause everyone hurts
Everyone cries
Everyone tells each other all kinds of lies
Everyone falls
Everybody dreams and doubts
Got to keep dancing when the lights go out
How in the world I am going to see?
You as my brother
Not my enemy?
'Cause everyone hurts
Everyone cries
Everyone sees the color in each other's eyes
Everyone loves
Everybody gets their hearts ripped out
Got to keep dancing when the lights go out
Gonna keep dancing when the lights go out
Hold tight for everyday life
Hold tight for everyday life
At first light
Throw my arms out open wide
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelu-halle-hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelu-halle-hallelujah
Yes
When I found you,
It was a spellbound day.
The feel of being bewitched,
Charmed, tormented and blessed at the time brought me a big question.
What is this?
A dream?
A mirage?
An illusion?
Another test?
There will be a day
To judge if
You materialise or
You fade away.
If there is a mystery, it is
You.
You appear in the door of my heart
As a surprise.
Is that really you?
Or a ghost assigned to test?
If it is truly you, be you.
If it is a ghost, be gone.
Although everyday
I want to say to
You anything I want to say
But say not as I bet
You know how I feel,
You know what I wish,
You know whom I miss,
You know and
You know.
One day heaven knows which day
I will say to
You anything I want to say
Everyday although
You know how I feel,
You know what I wish,
You know whom I miss,
You know and
You know.
That I miss
You is out of question.
Yet does it matter if
You have one closest place within me
Where I can whisper to
You about stories of my daily hope,
About plans beyond my here now?
Only to
You--
I don't have to shout to the world about how much I wish to be with
You because
They don't need to know.
I don't have to show to the audience about how much I wish to hear from
You because
This softest prayer is one of the most clangorous wishes.
They say loving intensely is a waste.
No.
Loving you intensely is simply
Throwing you a sweet smile,
Holding your hand,
Walking with you,
Sitting in silence next to you,
Staring the same scenery,
Breathing the same air,
Humming a tune that some day heaven knows which day
Only love does matter.
What are you reading today?
Said I to myself.
I did read pages of books
Seen in my favourite bookstore,
Met in MRT, the mall, the restaurant and on my way.
They all were read by me that life is either difficult or light, easy or heavy,
Yet none wanted to leave among the disarray.
Do they love their life?
Maybe yes, maybe no
But they were willing to stay,
Living in their own way
To finish writing their stories
With a
Happy ending.
How should I write my book?
I plan a
Happy ending
When only love matters.
In the writing
I use my own letters.
the 3 on top must be completed by end of Oct then i will read other thinner books; otherwise i can’t achieve 2024’s reading target — i am competing with myself to achieve better than myself last year
this year 4 of the books i read are based on recommendation; thanks for recommending the good books — i skip some recommended though with some reason
among all books i’ve read some have changed the way i perceive life: Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea, Jack London’s The Call of The Wild, Quraish Shihab’s Jilbab, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, Bhagavad Gita, and several others — all those writers are collaborating to teach me how i should dismantle my rigid thought about life and so i’ve been gradually set free as a human being
when i like a book, i will read it again and again; fyi, i seldom scribble on my books, so i put post-it or book-markers or just a piece of paper between interesting pages — many of my books are dog-eared but mostly clean
every reader has one’s own habit to love one’s points of reading
😊
Rain, don't go away.
There's a clay land to spray, then
I'll welcome what may.
i love rainy season as much as i love autumn as they feel like falling in love everyday; i love other seasons as they feel like dreaming of an upcoming love everyday
💕
Be playful, dear self
At the same time
Be kind.
Be free
To be who
You truly are
Although to do it
You've got to sneak out
For a while.
I won't lose you,
Hey little sweet girl in me.
Trimmed up, Beloved,
A heavy bough of ripe fruits
With nice and light smiles.
heavy week completed with nice and light smiles — alhamdulillah….
happy weekend
💕
I'm a soul of thousands of years,
Traveling through space and time
To introduce a flow of notes
Performing a play
Full of poems.
Someday the story will be
Composed in prose.
Do you care to read,
Beloved?
Weather, Beloved
Changes with the wind and sun.
Different from my heart:
Stubbornly dances for you
Even when the rain falls hard.
rain stopped when i reached home (with my keys) but the cold was wrapping my wet body — after some light shower, i decided to cook my favourite oxtail soup (lucky i boiled the oxtail this morning – i am blessed with every luck)
who said blessings don’t come when someone is under the weather? the weather waves white towel to this person just because of a bowl of oxtail soup, a bowl of pomelo and plums and a bowl of yoghurt
trust the gut and even bad weather will turn to a sweet evening
There are flying keys,
One right to open a door
To a heart that loves.
i left this AirTag attached to a group of keys (key card to apartment and block gates, unit door, bedroom door, locker, a drawer and another secret key) in my office desk and so i had to go back to office through the most accessible U-turn which is located right in front of my home compound….
….and it was raining cats and dogs!
how did i feel? one second of down then lucky the whole journey: what if my iPhone didn’t flash my left AirTag? i might have reached the gate and got nervous not finding the keys to open all doors
a tragic comedy of the keys attached to an AirTag
even a sad story can be a laughable
thank you, iPhone and AirTag
😁
How can I be loved? Asked I.
She said:
There's no way out
But in;
To bravely expose
The beauty within
To the beast without,
To sincerely open
The beast within
To the beauty without.
Getting yourself observed,
Criticised,
Appreciated,
Evaluated,
Complimented,
Gossiped,
Praised,
Judged through
Word and look
As sharp as
Guillotine.
Being vulnerable
Is amazingly
Magical--
It gives victory
To an exhausted troop
Right before
They fall into an abyss
Of despair.
Be
Vulnerable,
That's the way to be
Loved.
whatever they say, i prance lightheartedly — my dreams are beyond what they think 💕
The sound of splashes
Echoing around a pond
Shows a frog refreshed.
home dinner gets me truly refreshed — not so much time to cook, so let’s eat raw then enjoy the music and books
❣️
You're a book she's read,
Much to digest and absorb.
A witty preface--
i breathe books in everyone i meet; their life stories are all worth telling; some in secret, some in public — no one is unworthy
sometimes i can sense a dazzling story just by reading its preface; sometimes the preface doesn’t represent the helter-skelter conflicts within the book; sometimes a book simply puts me to sleep soundly
😎
A tiny feather
Leaves a trace on still water.
Message to the calm--
be true
When love is set free,
It rushes out to fly true
To its home called heart.
be true
She can hear silence
Whispering rhythms through the wind.
She then writes the rhymes.
Get rest, Beloved.
You've raced with a packed schedule
That's tamed by weekends.
the drink is “Teh Botol Sosro” the most legendary bottled tea in Indonesia 😘
mini tumpeng for today’s birthday dinner (most components by me) – need to rest my hands after cooking; this weekend is gonna be biking to east coast
Good morning, dear self.
Fly my love across the sea
Where heaven's sitting.
RC Gorman’s work of art – i feel strongly Gorman knew exactly how it feels to be a not-married woman: dressing herself nicely, wearing herself comfortably, greeting environment sweetly, loving her own self dearly like loving her beloved
Happy birthday, myself.
Continue doing what you love.
If not, love what you are doing with commitment, discipline and some gentleness called love.
Know that every single deed be recorded in a ribbon coiling around you, reviewed and rewarded.
Know that however sincere and true you are,
You sometimes will be misunderstood
Even by those closest to you,
And sometimes explanation won't clear the way.
Just be true,
Be kind.
Or, walk out of the room for a while.
Enjoy your double-life: being one in the crowded road and the other in the silent pathway, always
With some sprinkle of love.
You are blessed.
A moment of happiness, you and I sitting on the verandah, apparently two, but one in soul, you and I. (Rumi)
I am 49 today….
….feeling blessed with what I’ve been given. #andnotgiven
….feeling good with by whom I’ve been surrounded. #andnotsurrounding
….feeling lucky that still looking younger than my age (said one selling me a life insurance and said ones selling me bright coloured dresses). #paradoxicallyblessed
When people say “age is just a number”, I’ve always disagreed. Age is counted with number to highlight various processes and stories along a linear line although to me life is never linear, it’s always inward spiral. Originally the phrase “just a number” is to comfort those afraid to age, those who think getting old is scary and less favourable. In fact, getting old is fun and blessed. I’ve never thought that I still can have fun at this age, responsibly do what I love to, go to places in bucket list (no backpacking), dress the way I love to, fall in love every single day with myself and those making me love myself more, look forward to dreams coming true, and a lot more. I am talking about getting old, not being dead– the latter is mysterious and I’m still not committed to be 🤓
What is the essence of getting old to me? Getting old is a journey ahead of total maturation of how a human being chooses to responsibly respond & tactfully react to given situations; and a journey back home to childlike sincerity within of how a human being playfully celebrates failures and successes of life. I refresh maturity each day, at the same time playfulness and candour.
When birthday comes, people like to remind me of me being Virgo, but am I truly a Virgo just because of being born in Sep? I am not sure, in fact Virgo is in both my sun and moon, my rising/ascendant is Aquarius and several other zodiac signs sit in the other houses in the chart. Actually yes I see at times I am a pendulum swinging from being “Virgo’s pragmatic approaches, worrisome nature and rigid ideas” to being “Aquarian’s free-spirit, living life one day at a time, enjoying here-now moment” and in between I am transiting in different zodiac signs in experiencing this precious life. By Chinese astrology I am a Rabbit. By Javanese astrology, oh sooo complicated!
Particular family members, friends & colleagues quote astrology to assure me that they know my personality when commenting about my behaviours.
“It’s because you’re Virgo so you are like this,” said they. “It’s because you’re a Rabbit so you are like that”. “It’s because you’re blahblahblah….”
Well, I respect their willingness to at least understand about me through the pseudoscience called astrology. They don’t judge with bare hands, they present something to my hands. Science or pseudoscience to me though must follow my conscience; their opinion might slip from between the pores of my existence, from between fingers of these hands.
Anyways, to my understanding about this self: I simply accept that this person called Rike is a combination of inherited & evolving DNA, family upbringing & social interaction, life experience & trauma, decided responses & reactions, hopes & dreams; which might happen in awareness or not, well organized or random. If astrology does matter, it is only part of all. Once a human being understands one’s self through one’s own self (in Javanese wisdom it includes but not be limited to “mawas diri” or self examination), astrology knowledge is just frills in a gown.
Please don’t get offended by my personal opinion, take it as a stupid if not humble one.
Whatever strong opinions about or labels given to me –how ugly or how grand– by other human beings won’t change the true me that I experience intimately. I won’t let those labels rob this intimacy. Even all identities I embrace dearly shouldn’t shake this intimacy. Those human beings labelling me and I are raw stones massively tumbled in a giant tumbling machine called life; we each other all hit, break, scratch, polish to finally shine and show the true colours of each of us. How painfully beautiful at the same time beautifully painful life is!
Thank you, Gusti Allah for this beautiful journey called human life.
I know you’ve had boundless repertoire of sweet surprises. Please give me wonderful time like always.
💕
The lights, Beloved
Bring what dark has long hidden,
Disclose where to walk.
the structure in the picture is called The “Monument to Man” located on the hill above Chisholme House standing as an invitation to all of humanity to return to the origin of all love and to express it in the world
it is a tombstone of Bulent Rauf, a sufi master who founded the Beshara School where life is discussed and experienced through discourses and daily experience
i never thought that my inner journey would achieve its major disclosure in that remote place, far away from my home, poles apart from my culture
one friend sent this picture to the whatsapp group: the aurora borealis light on the “Monument to Man” — this brings my memory back to my stay there, a serene at the same time busy days
for 10 days i did a full day of work among the scheduled English morning & afternoon tea, breakfast, lunch and dinner — i celebrated my birthday silently, i kept it secret, and i felt so close to my own self, until now i believe all of us felt the same with what i felt and i wanted everyone to celebrate their serene days without distraction
since then i’ve committed to keep myself true to myself so i can be true to all; but what i do is just a little of it as i am not a saint, i am not either pious or religious, i am a sinner, i am a walking dirt but i want to keep my tiny spark shine within me and so it goes…. a human being in the making
💕
thank you
If I'm asked to plan,
I'll plan colourful events
Where bravery rules.
plunge into ocean of possibilities – be brave, Beloved; you’ve failed and fallen, another plunge won’t kill
execute the plan to once again plunge into it and then…. done
💕
It is now raining,
Water combs dust down the roof.
She's trapped in the cold.
rain, i have no chance to warm up in the roof garden so i just sit in a sofa wrapped in my warm knit poncho
rain, i love it but at the same time have to struggle with the cold in the air conditioned building
rain, stay as you wish
Guide me, Beloved
Traveling in this dark maze.
Keep my trust intact.
our work group is moved from building 1 to building 3 before later finally to building 2
how much ever we love building 1 (we all don’t like working in high floor), we must move as building 1 will only be used for new process bloody heaven knows what
what makes me rather ok with building 3 6th floor is that it has a “garden” that is very helpful for me who don’t enjoy low temperature for too long — today i stayed in the garden for 30′ to warm my body
it has some natural plant, but plastic grass 🙃
today was my 1st day in building 3 6th floor — i was lost going to toilet then guided by janitor, lost to pantry guided by unknown colleague, lost to find the lift guided by another unknown colleague
thank you!
When this wine is aged,
Will it be smooth and pleasant?
Or acidic and weak?
If you ask me what I love the most about this body, without doubt I will say hair and eyes. I am given naturally pitch-black straight hair and deep sharp eyes. And now both really give me patience test.
My hair needs to be treated with more vitamin and tonic to stay strong and dyed (once in 4 months in certain part, not all) when insecurity comes for discoloured hair at the front left and right side of the head. My eyes demand glasses more often than before especially when reading.
Hell! In fact I can’t deny that there is a shade of insecurity of getting old. I understand aging is inevitable but when it changes some features loved the most, I am obviously offended….
My best friend and I often talk about aging and both of us accept and make fun of it. She is not interested in indulging her body, while I am once in a while so I will be the one telling her to keep the body relaxed and fit, while she reminds me to visit my physician and take the meds regularly. No, I never think beauty is the goal of physical treatment, it is always the health and comfort, while beauty sometimes comes as either a bonus or a consequence. And yes, I am against alteration of part of body for beauty; yet I respect those doing it.
Today I posted a photo in instagram and captioned it with two sentences about my fringe and insecurity, my best friend commented “camouflage is a key!” 😂
Hitting the core yet it is true! I will extend the coverage of fringe and probably have my hair coloured (maybe dark brown instead of black to remind me it is not natural) more frequently because I look tired with grey hair, while I want to look fresh both alone or with people. Someday though I will accept the grey hair sitting on my crown, maybe 10 years from now 😛
Getting ooooold. Congratulations! Wait until the time hits the age soon, Aging Wine! 😎
Rike, your grey hair (said they)…. i just smiled but then secretly extended the fringe 😎
my hair really tested me today: messy of wind and refused to be back to normal, stubbornly showing the world that they were against me!
What's best, Beloved?
The one assigned to you now.
It's one and for all.
she is not the best mother compared to others, might not even better, but i think she is the best assigned to me
it’s great to talk to my mother now and then; please live healthy and longer, Ibu 😘
Beloved,
It is about whether or not
The path is walked.
Not about prediction,
Not about opinion,
Not about hurting or getting hurt,
Not about giving up,
Not about result.
This journey is
Mine.
The destination is
You.
The end is
Heaven knows.
Today’s dinner
please don’t judge hungry stomach — today was another reading, cooking and eating plus a bit of napping, laundry was missed and will be done tomorrow night after office 😎
this plate is a work of 3-hour labor of an amateur: potato perkedel (potato hash mixed with minced beef), fried rice with corn in Balinese sambal matah & teri kacang (my 1st attempt soooo challenging, too sweet, almost giving up, next time better with different recipe) – yay❣️
i made chicken soup for my own soul and my friend sent me sourdough from her bakery — alhamdulillah….
RAMBUTAN!!! 😍 exotic tropical fruit
rike jokanan 
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