A Journey

At the moment, I am listening to "Flashlight" by Jessie J. The lyrics tells what I feel now: Flashlight  by: Jessie J When tomorrow comes,  I'll be on my own. Feeling frightened of,  The things that I don't know.  When tomorrow comes,  tomorrow comes,  tomorrow comes. And though the road is long I look up to the sky. And in the dark I found, lost hope I won't fly. And I sing along, I sing along, and I sing a long. I got all I need when I got you and I  I look around me and see a sweet life. I am stuck in the dark, but you're my flashlight. You're getting me, getting me through the night. Kick start my heart when you shine it in my eyes. Can't lie, it's a sweet life. stuck in the dark, but you're my flashlight. You're getting me, getting me through the night. Video:  Flashlight When I listen to this song, I remembered my dad. I was closed to him when he was alive. He was my light that guided me through the darkness. He was my ...

Everyday we face a decision. We have to decide things since we open the eyes in the morning. Since the first thing in the morning, we have to decide whether we want to stay at the bed or go up. We have to decide whether we want to take a bath first or brush our teeth. We have to decide whether we want to eat breakfast or skip it. And the list go longer and longer until we go back to our bed. There are a lot of decisions that we should make. We have to make either it is a direct or indirect decisions. We have to make the urgent or planned decisions. We have to make tons of decisions which some will affect others or our surrounding. It is easy to make a decision for ourselves. However, making a decision that will affect many people is not easy. We should think about others too. There are some steps in making decisions: 1. Define the problems Sometimes we tend to jump into action instead of doing a thorough observation to define our problems. We sometimes tend to take a bias decisio...

I got this insight from the morning devotion at school. The morning devotion at school talked about the poor vs rich mentally. I hope this will be a blessing for others. There's a verse: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."                                I Timothy 6: 10  - KJV  What does that verse mean? Does it mean that we should be poor instead of be rich ones? Should a person of God work for money to get on living? What is the meaning of being poor and rich?? Here is some insights. It is true that money makes life easier. We can get the better education, better environment and better living. Yet, money is not everything in life. Even the person who has millions dollar in his account may have poor mentality. So, what is the poor mentality? 1. Poor mental...

At the moment, I am sitting in the class with the module "Leading the change." I am learning and contemplating the things happened lately.   I love being a teacher. Being a teacher teaches me many things. Being a teacher is a privilege to touch others' lives. As others' lives touch my life, I change and grow up.  As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another . - Proverbs 27:17 (NIV) Believe or not, sometimes students that you have got are mostly the same type with you. As a result, teacher-students relationship is sharpening one another. Sometimes, the weaknesses of your students are your weaknesses too. But somehow, by solving your students' problems and weaknesses, you solve your own problems and weaknesses.  But...... all this are easier to talk than to do. Each of us has a blind side that we cannot see. We sometimes haven't realized it until some things comes up. However, as long as we have the humility to admit our mistakes and fix t...

A Blue Star A blue star emerges in the west lighten the darkest night A heart lost in quest Losing the battle without fight The star's beam reflects on ice Shiny shines like a dime It seems like rolling a dice To melt the mountain of ice It seems impossible No one could be able To hole the mountain part To get into his heart Yet the ice only reflects the star The presence itself is very far Never I could catch the star Nor get into his heart If I am a lonesome little bird Try to get the star high I fly high away above the earth But I could only sigh The star is so far Yet the flying is a mar I only could sit on a bar Admiring the blue shiny star If he is a blue star I only see his remain Shining on blue icy mountain While his existence is very far

Rainbow Droplets  poured the earth, Sun shines through many facets, Biased the sun rays.

I did some reflection on things happened, especially about the politics, law and judgment in my country.  So, I wrote this poem "Justice" in the form of Haiku 5-7-5 syllables. It's about justice in 6 verses. Each verse has its haiku form of 5-7-5. Justice  "Make us prosperous" Justice sounds its voice on street Greed tainted good deed. "Rich, poor care I not" Justice brought her sword to judge Guilt was weighed fairly "Lay a solid rock" Justice steps on pedestal Peacefulness is goal "Fair is not enough" Justice spoke to her children Yet they ignored her. "Don't destroy the land" Justice's plea echoes loudly Yet they become deaf. "Losing eyes and sense" A nation will be blinded It silently sinks.

"Bangsa yang besar adalah bangsa yang menghormati jasa pahlawannya" - Soekarno's speech on November 10, 1961.  (The great nation is the nation that appreciates the heroes' dedication) How true is that statement! And how we tend to forget the history. Somehow, history has been the most boring subject for students. No wonder, that youngsters now start to lose their identity as Indonesians. Couple years ago, I taught history and ethic classes for grade 7. When I asked my students to recite ' Pancasila ' - Indonesia's National Ideology- they failed to do it! Only 2 students could recite it perfectly. When I asked them why couldn't they recite 'Pancasila', their first respond was.. Is it necessary to know 'Pancasila'? Sadly, they could recite the latest songs of Lady Gaga or Korean Girl/ Boy bands, but they failed to recite the national ideology because they thought that it's not important.  It is true that prefect recitat...

An Utopia A Dream of A Child             Reading Totto-chan: The Little Girl at The Window is like peeking into the utopian school life of a child. While I was reading the book, I couldn’t help myself to compare Totto’s life at Tomoe school with my own experience as a young learner. I was being raised by the conventional standard that told me to sit down most of time while I was at class. I was dictated to follow the general standard that my teachers have said. I was one among the multitude. So, knowing that there was a school that really free kids to explore is really an enlightenment. Somehow, I’ve envied Totto’s luck to be educated by unconventional standard. I’ve imagined if I was her classmate, that would be a lot of fun to explore and to learn through playing or enjoying nature. However, there are three insights that I have learned through reading the book.          ...

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows. The measure done, I’ll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.  (Romeo and Juliet, Scene 1, Act V) Scene I, Act V- was the scene when Romeo met Juliet the first time. He fell in love with Juliet as he landed his eyes to her. He attracted to Juliet because of her beauty. I wonder, if Juliet was not as beautiful as she was,would Romeo be attracted to her? If she had pimples, crooked teeth and nose, or even big body would he still be attracted to her? Hm... maybe not! And we won't have the bittersweet love tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.  In the society that adores beauty and perfection,...

There is a time  for everything,   and a season for every activity under the heavens - Ecclesiastes 3:1- A couple days ago, I watched a movie with the title "In Time". It's a 2011 American dystopian sci-fi thriller film which tells about a future society where people stopped aging at 25 ( I bet the anti-aging cream factory will be closed down) and each people will have a clock in their hands that show how long they can live ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time ). In the story, when some people become immortal because they have all time in the world; some have numbered days. Time becomes very valuable commodity more than gold, more than anything.  The wisest man who ever lived on earth, King Solomon, summarized his thoughts about time in Ecclesiastes. He stated that there's a time for everything on earth. There's a time to be born, there's a time to die. There's a time to weep and there's a time to laugh. There's a time to love, there'...

I had to read a book EQM: Emotional Quotient Management (by Antony Dio Martin) - the book is in Indonesian language by the way - and made a paper for passing 'Managing People and Organization' class. I had been tempted to skip reading through the pages of the book. However, I was really glad to say that I could finish reading all pages.So I got the whole pictures of emotional quotient management  and got very interesting insights about myself and others. One of the insights are about the masks that human wear daily. How often we use masks to disguise ourselves. We mask ourselves for the fear of rejection, pride, or simply we don't know our true identity. Our true identity is not just our names, or ID card, or where we are from, family, background; but true identity also about how comfortable we present ourselves to others without any pretension. Sound simple, but it's hard because sometimes we wear the masks without realizing it. We need to be honest to ourselves and...