I've been feeling very blessed lately. Everything (well, almost) works out well and that plays a significant role in keeping my mood and happiness level high. So I'm thinking to have this 365 grateful days project, where I should write down (or type down) here what makes me happy or blessed today.

From the various 365 days projects that people do, be it photography, handycrafts, etc. I see that people find significant progress within themselves or their skills. Me, I just don't trust myself to be able to be that discipline. My interests keep fluctuating and it's very hard sometimes to just focus on one thing for a few hours, leave alone the whole year. But I'm willing to try. Though my first try wouldn't be on photography since it can easily turn me down just to think that I have to transfer the photos from the camera to the computer every day, fuss and get confused where I put the card reader the last time, then do a slight editing to the photo I'm going to post. So I'll just stick to the simple one line grateful project. I figure by the end of the project, I can be more discipline and used to post a blog every day and most importantly, be more positive in seeing things in life. Even in the darkest days, there should be one good thing to be grateful about. And this one good thing is often missed and clouded by the unfortunate event we might be dealing with. If only we can just see it and be grateful about it, pretty sure the day won't feel that heavy.

So my first grateful day is:

"I'm grateful that I find a way to make me realise that I should be grateful of my life every day."

365 grateful days project inspirational

7:54 am

Have you ever got to the point that you thought you were helpless and had no power at all about something?

I'm feeling that at the moment.

A friend, a family, a brother is very, very sick somewhere else but here in this world. He is alone with no friends and family around. Literally. He's all but positivity. He wants to go back here but he can't. He wishes he could turn back the time and fix things right, but it's impossible. No matter how many times I told him in multiple emails that he was not alone, that I was always here whenever he needed me, he couldn't stop thinking negative - as most of sick people do - and stayed thinking that nothing could be done anymore to make things better.

I'm not there to hug him. I'm not there physically to lift up his spirit and to encourage him that nothing is impossible. I'm not there in real to tell him that if he can't cheat death, he can still be friends with it and negotiate the length of time he can spend more in this world.

Friends, if you ever encounter this kind of thing in your life, don't stop trying. Every little thing you do matters. May be not for us, but for others who need it more.

It was his birthday a few days ago. He wrote me an email that he was so truly sad that he was sick and alone on that day. And it hurt me as I read it because it was not true. Because he's still got me.

So even though I am normally overtired when I have both work and French class in a day, at that time I was psyched. As soon as I got home, I took out my cake recipe book, prepared the ingredients for his favourite chocolate cake, and baked it.

I also made a small flag from a scrap paper and cotton bud stick and wrote on the paper "Happy Birthday, Brother."

Being satisfied with the cake and the flag, I took pictures of it in various angles, sent them to him that very night and put a little note in the email:

You're lucky this time you're wrong. You're not alone.

Being so weak even to check emails, he just sent me a reply last night saying that he couldn't stop crying even at the time he was writing the electronic mail. He was touched and happy and no longer felt that he was alone and pathetic and sick and sinful. I can't count how many phrases of terima kasih (thank you) that he wrote but I know that he knows now that he is not alone. That I'm here to help bear his pain, even for the smallest amount.

I may not be a super doctor that can cure him. I may not be rich enough to fly to him and reach him in my embrace. But I'm a friend to him as he is to me.

Baking a chocolate cake may not be a bombastic gesture. But it is more than enough gesture to get your message across to your loved one that he is loved.

family friends inspirational

6:27 am

I know a few of very strong people who got down on their knees and cried after they watched this video. It's very inspirational especially to those who experienced or did not experience this kind of love from their father. And I hope there are fathers out there who can see this video and be moved to do more for their children.

inspirational

2:51 pm

I stole it from a friend who posted this quote on her facebook status, which says:

"If you want to do something wrong, do it right."

I absolutely agree with it since it relates to my other all-time quote: "Don't do things by halves."
So basically if you wanna be evil, just be 100% it. Think of it smartly. Plan it carefully. Try to get as minimum effect (on yourself) as possible.

You'll be called sinful anyway, no matter how big or small your being evil is.

Cheers, mate!

funny stuff inspirational

4:16 pm

I have not read a lot for a while. But I did read the last book of Harry Potter, cookbooks (OK, might not be one of those heavy literature - ok, ok, it's not literature at all but they are what I most often read!) and now I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. I also read my friends' blogs quite regularly. And at moments when I have absolutely nothing to do, I normally strengthen my social networking power in facebook. Hahaha....

Obviously I have nothing too important to do right now. There is a writing to do but it is not a case of life and death yet. So as I mentioned above, I was facebooking.

A friend posted a link that took me to a very interesting blog named Babu Ngeblog. As some of you may know, babu is the Javanese term for domestic helper/maid, which is most of the time apprehended as carrying a sort-of negative connotation. People prefer to use the word "pembantu" [maid/domestic helper] to babu for the sake of politeness. Ngeblog is the chic kind-of word for blogging. So yes, it means a blogging maid.

I am not sure what the perception of this profession is in the developed countries. But in Indonesia, it's sort of ranked as one of the lowest profile jobs and people tend to underestimate and look down on those having this job. Domestic helpers that go overseas for the similar profession take a slightly more pride than those who choose to stay in the country. Though I perceive they are still ranked the lowest in the country they work in. Negative presumptive adjectives like uneducated, stupid, having no common sense, lazy, etc, etc. are commonly adopted by the employers.

Rie Rie, the one of a kind migrant worker maid who works in Hong Kong, proves herself to be different. With her capacious ability in putting her thoughts into writing, supported with an excellent use of both EYD Bahasa Indonesia and English language, she represents the good and the bad of a life of a maid overseas.

If you speak Indonesian, you may get these impressions that I have got from reading Rie Rie's blog:

• She is not ashamed of using the word babu to describe herself.
  How many of you are reluctant of stating what you do to people you just meet ('you' here doesn't refer to people having the agreed concept of a good job)? Say you work in the canteen of a prestigious company, would you state the name of the company first or would you state the type of job you're having?
• She takes her daily chores and happenings with a light heart and learns from each of them.
  How many of us would just go upset with our work and rant about how annoying and selfish our bosses were or how crooked a system in our company over the phone conversation with our close friend for hours? Hmm, maybe almost all of us. Okay, well, she rants too in her blog. But she doesn't take it on and on like most of us do until we decide to finally file a resignation. Instead, she shares it in her blog and takes a lesson (or revenge) from it. Here is a funny example of it.
  
• With her pervasive knowledge, she voices her thoughts and those in the same profession to fight for the migrant workers' rights.
  Some people would just wait until things change by themselves. Guess what, miracles don't happen today if you don't work on making them happen. She may not go to the embassy or human rights office or whatever institution to fight for her rights. But she does it in the best way she can do it - writing it. One can only hope that this blog gets more notice, and maybe one of us is ticked to help her and the others in promoting a better life for them.

This blog is the best read so far. Harry Potter is entertaining. The Tipping Point is smart. But Rie Rie's modest blog is everything Harry Potter and The Tipping Point have, with an additional adjective to describe it - INSPIRATIONAL.

Go read it. I am pretty sure you'll RSS it.

inspirational read review

6:45 am