Tag: journey

Coincidences

Learning, Poetic
Coincidences,
Unexplained experience
In one fast crossroad

——

‘M supposed to watch Coldplay in Japan with Vito, my nephew. We’d planned the trip since May; he passed away in July. Feeling desperate and not wanting to go alone, I was about to cancel the trip when coincidently one best friend said she wanted to visit me in Singapore in the week of the supposed-to-be-cancelled trip. I offered her a free Coldplay ticket to go with me. She agreed! And so the trip cancellation didn’t happen. 💕

I am still selecting which photo of his is the best to bring. I want to take picture with his picture before, during and after Coldplay concert and wherever we would have been going in Japan.

Sometimes we live to walk on others’ dreams and those who have the dreams must let go off their dream to be walked on by others. That’s why I always want to live my life with true dedication as not everyone has the opportunity to live this long.

For those living chasing dreams, you can!

For those leaving with some dreams behind, your dreams are cherished by your beloved!

Rest in love, dear boy.

Salam.

my life is a chain of ordinary acts, rare sprinkles of drama and magical coincidences — unexplainable except that I am blessed with all the problems and solutions 💕

Next Flight

Learning, Poetic
I wish to meet you
And greet each other sweetly
Where sun looks red round.

——

sometimes I imagine I meet a long lost friend in one busy airport and we greet each other —- “long time no see, let’s have some tea!”

(Changi Airport picture – Rain Vortex)

Upside Down

Learning, Poetic
Sometimes it feels dizzy
To look things as presented
Then I flip upside down
Things are weird
You become so within reach.

Once the twig cracked and broke,
I fell down
And you were nowhere to find
Before talking
Without goodbye.

——

i’m a fool

Pearls on The Cheeks

Learning, love, Poetic
Pearls sliding down
The slope of this face
End in a clear lake
Reflecting a tiny shadow
Of my singing heart

About this journey
About the weak
About the unprotected
About the underprivileged
About those
Who are turned to a line of batteries
To charge a machine
Called
Greed.

Wet my cheeks,
Flood my heart,
Keep me clear
So I can see what is.

——

choosing to spread smiles and to silently recite unchained melody of peace and love to those 💕 the least I can do

my praying heart goes to those civilians especially those underprivileged, weak, unprotected, betrayed anywhere they are on Mother Earth

May all beings be happy. Free from suffering.

🙏🏼

(picture from Pinterest)

Life Is Prancing In A Rainy Day

Learning
Life is prancing in a rainy day.
Arrows of raindrops race sprinkling down.
Splashes of mud jump up to the boots.
Raincoat waves to the wind.
Rucksack, a pendulum on the back.
I don’t want to pretend.
It is cold.
It is dirty.
It is wet.
Yet I wave with my hair,
I celebrate with my head,
I dance with my body,
I prance in the weather.

Life is rain
Fertilising grass on this path,
Cooling down a hot day,
Washing off fear,
Disguising tears.

There is nothing like a rainy day
With which I prance all the way.

——

it takes 48 years for me to finally realise that life has blessed me all the way

(picture from Pinterest)

Hidden

Learning
What’s hidden’s beauty
Admiring silently.
Reciprocity—

——

getting off from bus #857, i saw something silently looking at me as saying “hey, sweet heart how was your day?”

it’s this beauty!

Carrickfergus (song)

Learning
I wish I was in carrickfergus
Where the castle looks out to sea.
I would swim over the deepest ocean
For my love to be with me.
But the sea is wide
And I can not swim over
Nor have I the wings to fly
I wish I had a handsome boatman,
To ferry me over, my love and I.

(part of the lyrics)

——

Carrickfergus is a song that has charmed me with just some words in it and the flow of its music. Some words sound very old yet familiar to me, waking up something ancient in me that feels home.

Carrickfergus itself is a place in Ireland allegedly one of the oldest towns there. I’ve never wanted to visit the place although it is quite well known.

i have the cassette in which this song is in — yes, cassette that I bought back in 2002 😃

Happy Birthday, Ibu

Learning, love, Poetic
Everything is centred.
My mother.
Everything is meaningful.
My mother.
Everything is wisdom.
My mother.

——

she was meeting her doctor for medical review on her birthday today — she said her health and children are the best gift forever 💕

Ibu and me in Jabal Rahmah (Mount of Love), 2016 — wishing our love spread to everyone around us

a tumpeng by me for my mother, sent via WhatsApp 🙂

Soaked

Learning
Soak the self in love.
Treat the life with all blessings.
Every breath counts hope.

——

these ingredients will be soaked in water for two days before applied to hair after shampoo

this time: rice + ginger + rosemary + pomelo rind

Flipped

Learning, Poetic, This Person
I flipped this body down
To see the world upside down
My first effort brought frown
Still I decided to go on

I’m hanging my satchel
I’m hanging my pole
I’m taking all as it is
From behind the scroll

——

this is my favourite photo of mine although I don’t look good at all: I’m simply upside down with fun as how I see the world outside my work, trying to relax by seeing things from different perspectives and understanding others’ esp those disagreeing with me —

to me most of the time caption is more important than picture and I always like to tease my friends with my caption and some usually cannot stop commenting although irrelevantly 😀

Relative Paradox Is Time

Learning
Time is
Paradoxical.
Luxury for those knowing how short it is,
Ordinary as everyone is given.

Time is 
Relative.
Those transacting in life say
Time is money.
Those knowing its sharpness say
Time is like sword.
Those valuing milestones say
Let’s race with time.
Those mismanaging things say
I have no time.
Those loving you say
I have all time.
Those knowing your struggle say
Please take your time.
Those having super speed say
Don’t waste your time.

How do you say about
Your time?
You decide.
One to remember
There is no referee in life
To whom you can shout
“Timeout!”

Time flows.
Time flies.
Time walks.
Time runs.
Time swims.
Time dives.
You may want to stop it,
Yes you can
Only if you stop everything
At the same time for
Every body
Everywhere.
Can you?

——-

time is short when you smile and forever when you pout

Useful link about Time

Luxury Redefined (haiku cluster)

Learning, Poetic
Luxury, my love
What makes one feel fortunate,
Feel responsible.

Luxury, my love
Not brand, not price tag. It’s mind
Bursting new spirits.

Luxury, my love
You can bluff but you can’t trade
With a true spirit.

Luxury, my love
What you’ve failed, what you’ve too learnt
About the deep wounds.

——

not the Aman Jiwo Hotel making it luxurious, it is Borobudur temple, Menoreh Hill and all the Javanese villages and tradition conserved as surrounding is the real luxury

Weathered

Learning, Poetic
This life’s well weathered
‘Tween hot and cold, calm and rushed.
There’s home to shelter.

——

Indonesia Mosque in Bangkok — joining a short prayer

i went to a mosque then to a small shrine today before flight — feeling the humbleness of human beings begging for help from the One indescribable unseen unexplainable, the hope tiptoeing behind fear, the weakness of human beings facing our own nature

these folded lotus flowers are floating to weather after their duty as envelopes with which prayers are sent up above through billowing smoke of incense

now i have to pack to fly back home soon to see my mother hospitalised — certain days are just under the weather

wishing all my silent chants can be medicine for the woman who loves me to the moon and back

see very soon, Ibu

may all beings be happy

💕

Reflection

Learning, love
Mirror,
Mirror
On the wall!
Show me clearly
Afterall
What’s been
Lingering
In this fall.

Whether massive darkness
Or just shadow
That crawls.

——

only selfie when feeling good and truly willing to see what’s reflected by the mirror

Once My Master Said

Learning

Once my master said
“Be kind,
Yet don’t let evil take the wheel.
You know where to go
And no one but you
Is to drive your fate.”

Once my master said
“Be generous,
Yet don’t get misled.
You know how to count
And no one but you
Is to solve the equation.”

Once my master said
“Be careful,
Yet don’t forget to have fun.
You know how to celebrate
And no one but you
Is to throw the party.”

Once my master said
Nothing.
It was time for me to go
To trace my own path
And no one but me
Is to walk the talk.

And here I am,
One heart,
One word,
One journey.

Just
One.

——

to me this is just one cup of tea, to the helper it is all her kindness, pride and maybe survival in one act — thank you, Ma’am for your sincere smile and the tea 💕 you are the master of service 🙏🏼 I bow to the divine in you 💕

Turning Point

Bob, Learning, life, love, Poetic, Those People
Fragrance of sambac
Ferries the wish to the love
Reborn with new scents.

——

The death of my beloved nephew at young age (22 yo) is one extreme turning point in how I see life and what is in it.

I am not sad anymore and not considering it a loss anymore. Just drying tears and grateful smiles so — remembering how good his life was. How someone with so big mental wound could survive life by serving others in such a fun witty ways. 🥰 We now know how much we loved him and how tremendously he loved us.

Yet….

reborn

not interested in talking in group except for work;

prefer seeing life more lightly yet deeply at the same time;

choose to seclude myself by doing what I can do genuinely; if not, I will stay away;

respond to human interaction differently and it might have hurt people in outer rings; it doesn’t matter

still the same human being yet not the same anymore;

so amazed how losing loved ones can change someone so significantly. And the reality shows me whom are real and unreal, true and untrue…. 💚

Life is mysteriously beautiful.

Thank You so very much!

Alfatihah.

my younger brother’s 1st son was a newborn death; my older brother’s sons: one died at 10, the other at 22 — wishing them to be reborn with love, prosperity and luck 💕😊 you’re (always) in my heart and (sometimes) at my left wrist, boys! 💕💕😊

Ayutthaya

Learning, Poetic
Ayutthaya greets
A heart that sings a love song.
A wat witnesses.

——

from 2010 to 2012 Thailand was my playground esp in the area of food processing , from 2013 up to now is for electronic mostly in Ayutthaya — Sala Ayutthaya is always my favourite here, thank you…. 😘

A Star Not

Learning, Poetic
You are not a star.
Never.
A star brightly rises.
A star magnificently sets.
You might be upset
As a star is what is adored
By many.
Don’t be a star,
It is born,
It dies.
A seen star is thousands years of its history—
Illusion.

You are the earth.
Always.
Who lets the sun rise
And lets the sun set
Sincerely.
The earth is loved
By many.
When I see the earth
I see a present moment
Of everything about it.
I am grounded to earth.
It is where I live, love and laugh

Sincerely.

You are 
A star not.

——

a star is a dream; the earth is where I live, love and laugh sincerely

Note: picture is from Pinterest; I wanted a Java island on the earth with stars above yet could not find any 🙂

Rose Tea

Learning
I am home
Welcomed
By a space
Waiting for its soul
To fill the gap
With emptiness.

I am home
Welcomed
By rose tea
Waiting to be brewed
To wake up the heart
With memories.

I am home
Welcomed
By another day
Waiting to be celebrated
To highlight meaning
With what is.

——

I left 3 stems of red roses in the vase and arriving, I found them beautifully dried — a jug of rose tea is my first relaxing session

Sweet

Learning, Poetic
How sweet is your heart?
Warm as sun of the beach? Or
Cool as mountain breeze?

——

coconut ice cream 💕 as sweet as warm heart, as cold as ignorance — the stick is made of sugarcane

I Bow to The Divine in You

Learning, Poetic, This Person, Those People
The bow that launches
Is the arrow that is shot:
An exhibit by the
One
That honour is inevitably
Gorgeous
For that
Respecting
From that
Witnessing.

Salute to the bowstring.

——

I have learnt how to genuinely respect my teachers and other human beings even more after learning meditation in Bali Usada — I humbly thank you, Pak Merta Ada. I bow to the divine in you and all my fellow Tapa Brata participants 🙏🏼

it was a sunny day so Pak Merta Ada invited us all to end the Tapa Brata with 1-hour meditation under the blessed bodhi tree — hope health and calmness be granted to all of us ♥️

Pak Ishak giving his testimony about the noble silence, Ibu Lady his wife video shooting him — the oldest participants in this Tapa Brata 2 we all cordially respect

canang under a tree as a daily respect to it for being part of the environment protection

torch ginger is the most grown herb in Bali Usada meditation center — yummy and fragrant when cooked

💚


Three of us stayed in bungalow #4 for 12 days of which in 1st-11th we didn’t talk to each other. We just took turn of using bathroom, switching on/off light at 3:30am and 10:00pm, making sure towel racks were sunbathed, replenishing toilet tissue, cleaning bathroom. All were done in silence in between meditation sessions, physical exercises, meals and lectures. Only at the last night after Tapa Brata was officially summed up, we could not stop sharing about our life journey until 2:00am.

Tami is 32, Fitri is 33 and I am 48: I am the oldest but I am the baby in meditation — they meditated 1.5 hours without changing position, I did but could not stop “ngereog” in the last 5 to 10 minutes.

My age doesn’t mean anything with these 2 ladies of harmonious mind.

See you again, my little sisters! Anicca! 💕

ngereog literally means performing reog dance; Tami used the word to describe someone’s intense movement during meditation due to muscle stress 😂

Ibu Lady, Srimurni and I showered by the morning light right after morning meditation and no shower (yet) — Srimurni was one of those could not stop talking to me after the Tapa Brata 😄

pure friendship is such a magical bond 💕

Repeatedly Blessed

Learning, Poetic
Once again
Is a bonus
Becoming allowance
As it is
Again and again.

I wish another
After another
Again
And again
Until it is
Time to end.

——

‘M 48th tomorrow. ‘Ve never thought I would reach this age.

When I was 9, I almost died. When I was 24, I almost died. I thought I would die at 44. It’s been huge blessings to be given another year.

another door before another door, 48 means a door to victory

My wish is simpler this year. After all failures and broken hearts, I wish for a warm home and a good job. Those two mean happiness to me. With a warm home, I can host my family and good friends. With a good job, I can leverage my role to help others around me improve their well being.

Amen.

Thank you!

Calm Days

Learning, Poetic
A room that tells tale
Has hushed noise and busy mind.
Here comes the calm days.

——

Wibisana, a room that offers calmness — Balinese home is always my favourite getaway

there are two decorative pictures of Dewi Saraswati over the bed and two paintings of Balinese ladies among flowers on both walls — this Puri is where my mind does rest

💕

Who is Wibisana? A knight who flees his country to pay the cost of his partiality to the higher purpose of peace on earth

Fully Paid

Learning, love, Poetic
Journey becomes light
When promise is fully paid.
The breeze flows sweetly.

——

beautifully ready for melukat this morning to clean and clarify my life intension and for my dearest nephew ♥️ now his wish for melukat is fully paid — live happily in the other side, my dear 💕 and I have a good feeling that my life is on the right path with my heart losing no love

melukat in Tirtha Empul when it was still quiet this morning — no, I don’t like crowd 🙏🏼 don’t bring me to noisy parties!

Performance

Learning, Poetic
Life is a grand stage,
Performance is its main course,
I am dining out.

——

I am supposed to be in Ubud with my nephew who happened to pass away on Jul 30. So I do all the planned itinerary alone to keep my promise and to make him smile in heaven.

For you, Vito the fun witty kind artistic boy!

💕

a bridge over a lotus garden heading to Puri Saraswati Temple front yard where Janger Dance with Arjuna Tapa as part of performance is on every evening

lucky this evening I am sitting in a seat right in the middle of the front row — feeling lucky and blessed

start!

Arjuna in his meditation apparel (white)

buta, one of some seducers while Arjuna is meditating

the end