LOST, FOR A BETTER LIFE

Mocca, the nice shihtzu

Mocca, our dog, likes to take a walk. Yet, it's not our routine to take him for a walk. On the other side, Mocca likes to escape from our house, since he like to go outside. He went outside by silently passing the gate when the front door was opened several times. Of course, we got into a panic finding our door opened and Mocca disappeared. We immediately ran for him and searched him around. Luckily, we found him. The farthest distance of his walk was about 500 meters from our house.

That evening, My wife, my daughter and I were having a chat in the bedroom. After a while, I went out of the bedroom and found the front door opened. I shouted, "The door is opened. Mocca escaped." And...we went around and around for about two hours to find him. We didn't find him. We shared the information to the people around our house, hoping that someone saw him and informed us where he was.

The next days we continued going around to find him. We made posters, shared them to people or sellers, and stuck them at some places. We asked an animal communicator to help us trace where Mocca had gone. The animal communicator said that Mocca had been taken by a man. Another animal communicator said that the man loved Mocca, so he took him home. We were guided to find the house that had some plants that looked like chili plants. The animal communicator also said that the man had two other dogs. We tried to find the house as described, we found the area but we couldn't find the house. A neighbour told us that her husband saw Mocca walking with a man twice in the afternoon, but we never met the man with Mocca.

For me, at first, I thought we had lost Mocca. I felt so sad, and afraid of how Mocca could survive. Was he safe? Was he ok? Did he find a place to sleep? How did he find his food  and drink? 😢😢

But now, after three weeks, I have different view. I start to think that God had moved Mocca to a better place and he got a better treatment. God knows who can treat Mocca better at the moment. The time for Mocca to live with us is over. He has given enough happiness to us. It's enough. Now, Mocca has a new mission to bring happiness to another family. The animal communicator said that the man who found Mocca was sad or in bad condition, and Mocca could bring him joy.

There is time to live with your family, your partner, or another that you loved. There is also time for God to take them from you. At first you feel you lost someone, but believe that God promises you a better life, for you and for the one He has taken.

Till we meet again, Mocca....🐶

Stranger in the Street

"What's wrong with you, Adyl? Come on...don't stop. We must go on." I talked to my motorcycle when I went home from work.

My motorcycle ran more and more slowly...and finally stopped. Uh...it was a silly mistake not to check the fuel before you went out by motorcycle. My motorcycle ran out of gasoline. The sun shone so brightly in the middle of the day, and I had to walk and push my motorcycle.

Suddenly, a young man on his motorcycle came closer from behind. Seeing what he was bringing on his motorcycle, I guessed he worked as a delivery man. I thought I never had a friend with that job. I didn't know who he was.

"Do you run out of gas? Where will you go? Still far from here?" he asked me.

"Umm...yes. I wanna go home. Not too far," I replied.

"Let me help you push your motorcycle," he said.

"Oh...thanks," I didn't have time to think further.

Then he pushed my motorcycle by his foot while he was riding his.

After about a kilometer, at the T-junction we turned right, and after we turned right we found a mini gas station. If I walked, I could reach it in about fifteen minutes with much sweat, while with that stranger pushing my motorcycle, we could reach it in only one minute.

"Just stop here. I can buy the gas here. You can leave me," I told him.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Ok, I'm going," he said.

"Thank you so much," I said.

Then he turned around and went to the other direction, and I realized that he turned right just for helping me.

Who was he? He was really stranger whom I had never known before. He was mysterious.

Nooo...he wasn't a stranger! It was God's work.
He was the angel that God sent to help me. 

Help me to reach the gas station easily? No!

God didn't send His angel to help me when I got trouble, but He sent him to remind me to help others...even strangers.

Sometimes we prefer choosing whom we want to help, but God always reminds us to help those who need help.

Morinda citrifolia

I used to go to work at six in the morning and go home at 5 p.m. I never knew what happened in and around my house during that time. 

When we have holiday at home, we usually open all doors and windows in the morning, so we have fresh air going through the house. We can also smell everything around my house. Sometimes we have good smell of our neighbours frying or roasting some food. Hmmm...yummy...I imagine it and it makes me hungry.

Now I have to work from home,  so I know what happens in my house very well for 24 hours. I also know the smell of food in our neighbourhood...huahahaha....

One morning, when I opened doors and windows, I smelt something burnt inside my house. It disturbed me much. I didn't like this smell. I thought someone was burning trash. It came from our surroundings "Hhhh...who's burning trash early in the morning? Why do people still burn trash while there is a truck picking up the household waste twice a week?"

The next day, we had the same smell. It happened again and again everyday, until I was accustomed to such smell.

This morning I cut some branches of my noni (Morinda citrifolia) tree in our backyard. The leaves and fruits fell out to the ground of the house next to ours, so I need to cut the branches. I climbed the ladder to reach the branches that I wanted to cut. Reaching the top end of the ladder, I could see the backyard of my neighbour's. 

Ooohh! I was shocked! 

I saw what I never thought before. The smell that I thought it was someone burning trash, in fact, it was my neighbour boiling water by wood stove. I thought that he, with 3 children without wife and any regular job, didn't have enough money to buy gas for cooking on gas stove, so he used wood to cook. 

Sometimes we quickly think negatively about something we don't like without knowing what stands behind it.

Sometimes we feel comfortable and don't look around, so we don't know - and don't care - that some people around us have to struggle to keep living.

Thank you, my Morinda citrifolia for showing me another side of life.

HOLDIN' ON

Aaahh...again and again...try-out and try-out again....

That girl was ready in the computer room. Yes, she was ready to have some try-out. She and her schoolmates were ready to take an online try-out. 

As ninth grade students, exams are our daily meals. To prepare for the exams, several try-outs are our breakfast.

Today they are taking Bahasa Indonesia Try-Out. As usual, they've got 120 minutes to do the test. For these students, they can finish the test on non-counting subject, such as Civics, Bahasa Indonesia and English, in much less than 120 minutes. And I can see it now, some students have finished their Bahasa Indonesia test before the 70th minute. Unfortunately, they cannot go out of the room before the time ends. This is the problem they have to face: boredom.

The students have to wait silently, or doing silent activities to kill their boredom. The most enjoyable activity is going to the toilet...maybe because it makes them refresh as they can go out of the examination room. Yet, sometimes they are unlucky, because the teacher in their examination room doesn't allow them to go to the toilet, so that they can only do anything -useful or useless - at their table. 

This is the real exam: waiting patiently. 
You must defeat your boredom. Don't let the boredom defeat you.

In my view, you have practiced facing this situation when your teacher doesn't allow you to go out from the exam room when you have finished your test...and you have to hold on inside the room.
Sometimes when your surroundings cannot comfort you, and the situation becomes boring, you'll defeat this situation...and you won't escape easily....
Or when your boyfriend or girlfriend doesn't act as you expect, and the situation becomes uncomfortable, you won't leave him/her...you will hold on.

I'm always trying to answer my own question: Why does the teacher allow the students to go to the toilet during the exam? 
My answer ( I hope it's true): Because the teacher allows himself/herself to go out of the room, he/she cannot give example how to stay in the exam room when he/she feels bored. Maybe the teacher doesn't know if there is a hidden lesson in such situation.

Hold on...don't escape easily...but wait patiently....

FRIED RICE

That afternoon, Kat was stressed. Her son told her that he had to bring fried rice for potluck. She had two days to prepare. It was a big problem and she thought so hard how to solve it. She felt that she couldn't make delicious fried rice well. She didn't feel confident to serve her fried rice to other people. To buy it in a restaurant in the morning before school started was impossible. Finally she asked her friend to make it for her son, and she gave her friend some money.

Kat made fried rice only for her family - her children, husband and herself. Her husband always compared her fried rice to his grandma's. He always commented that Kat's fried rice didn't taste as his grandma's. This made her lose her confidence to serve fried rice. It happened for several years. Every time she made fried rice, her husband always said that it was so delicious, but not like his grandma's fried rice. 

One day, Kat and her husband laughed together. They finally got an idea - not a solution. When Kat couldn't make fried rice which tasted as grandma's, it was not a problem, so that it didn't need any solution. Kat's husband always said that her fried rice was so delicious...so what's the problem? They just needed to accept the fact that Kat's fried rice was so delicious instead of expecting grandma's fried rice that they would never eat anymore. It was silly to think much about some fried rice that they would never eat. Grandma had passed away 30 years ago.
So...focus on the things that can make you happy and ignore the unnecessary ones.

T-Shirt and Friends

Home sweet home. It's nice to be home after a day work. Time to relax. A cup of hot tea will be good to drink in the back garden. Some fried banana or fried tempe will make this all perfect.

This afternoon is so hot. 26.5⁰C. Before enjoying them all, of course I need to change my working clothes into the comfortable ones. I open my wardrobe and pick shorts and a t-shirt. No...not this one. This t-shirt isn't comfortable to wear on this hot day.
Finally, I took my old shirt. The black one, but it's not really black anymore. It has turned into browny black. It's tattered, there are some holes on it. Some parts are almost torn as it becomes much thinner than it was. The writing on it almost disappears and it's not easy to read. Yet above those facts, it's comfortable to wear. This t-shirt can cool my body. I feel getting good air circulation through it's very thin fabric.

A few weeks ago, during a holiday, we were cleaning the house. One of the activities was cleaning the wardrobe, sorting the clothes...which ones were still worn and the ones that should have been out off the wardrobe. When I found my old, thin browny black t-shirt, I put it back into the wardrobe. It's really hard to get rid of it. I love it. I love to wear it.

Friends are like my old, thin, browny black t-shirt. The longer you have them, although you get to know more bad things about them, it's harder to let them go out of your life. You will always keep your friends in the wardrobe of your heart. You've loved them.  3000 or 90 to 600?

Turn it Off

It was 7 a.m., the first day I entered the classroom in this academic year. I met the students who attended my class the previous year. There was nothing to be introduced as we had known one another. The classroom and its decoration did not change, only the wall had been repainted. We were all ready to start all academic and non-academic activities.

That morning felt hotter than usual. I thought of the air conditioner, maybe it needed a maintenance, or we needed to set the temperature or other settings so that it felt colder. I asked a volunteer to set the temperature. All students replied that we had to turn it off in the first and second periods. We could just open the windows.

We could turn it on at 8.30. Oops...sorry...I didn't know well about this new policy. Finally I found that this policy was made to support an environment-friendly school program.

This condition happens everyday. So far, for about three weeks the students have tried to adapt themselves to this condition. To my surprise, this morning when we were discussing about turning off the air conditioners, a student asked me. She asked,"How about the air conditioners in the teachers' room? Do you turn them off, too?" Oops! I never thought about it...about the air conditioners in the teachers' room, in the administration room, and maybe in the principal's room. As I know, The air conditioners in the teachers' room had been turned on in the morning before the teachers come. The office boys usually come earlier and turn them on.

Dear students, I'm so sorry about this. Tomorrow I will remind my colleagues to look back at this policy.
Dear teachers, let's teach with heart. When our hearts don't want to do it, why we ask our children to do it? Let's do it first with all our hearts, then our children will follow. Hmmm...it leads me to a saying 'monkey see monkey do'...huahahaha....

Taken but Uneaten

To celebrate Independence Day, we usually have a special flag ceremony. It is special...because we don't hold it in our own unit only, but four units from kindergarten to high schools attend the ceremony. In the last four years, our school has been in charge of being the flag raisers. This year is different. We are in charge of being the choir to accompany the ceremony. 

Since the ceremony would be held in the football court, I think about the bigger choir...not only 20 to 30 singers...but I have also set the limit...not more than 60. For a week, I opened the registration for those who wanted to join the choir. Some students who were the flag raisers before asked me if they could join the choir..and I said yes. After reaching 60 students joining the choir, I closed the registration although there were still some students who wanted to. 

My team and I had planned the schedule of the rehearsal. We had only 7 times rehearsal...and we had to leave the classes for it. At the first day of the rehearsal, a group of students quitted the choir. They told me they couldn't attend the rehearsals. I explained to them that they had taken the seats and left them while other students who wanted to get the seats had lost them. Finally, after seeing the value that I explained, some of them took the responsibility to join the choir, but the ones who had joined the flag raisers before went on quitting. 

Now the choir has less singers than it should be. No problem...when the singers are all responsible for what they have chosen. 
Don't ever take the food and leave it uneaten while others hunger for it.

Doormat

Early in the morning I woke up and I went to the toilet. Then after doing anything, I took a bath. Then before I went to work, I went to the toilet once again. That morning went as usual, I felt nothing wrong. I usually go to the bathroom at least three times in the morning before going out of my house.

I went home late that day. I parked my car and entered the house. As usual, I took off my shoes and socks, and went to the bathroom to wash my feet. I can't go to my room and lay down on my bed without washing my feet. It felt like I brought any dirt to my bed. 
Something strange happened when I wanted to go out of the bathroom. The doormat disappeared. Somebody must have taken or moved it. Consequently, I had to walk on the floor with my wet feet...uuuhh.... I didn't like that situation. It wasn't so important, but it was annoying.

Doormat. Its role is never recognised when it is there in the right place, but when it is taken away from its place, it's terrible. People will look for the doormat if it isn't at its place.
When doormat is in front of the bathroom, people will recognise the look of the door and its handle. When doormat is in front the house, people will admire the architecture of the house or pay attention to the paint or the material of the front door. Doormat is usually made in simple design...and people never recognise and admire it.

Are you a doormat in your community? 
Perhaps your role is unseen and no one realises that you are important.
When you do your job well...when you responsibly play your own role...then other people will really look for you in your absence.

Something Sweet

The final tests were over. The academic year would end soon. All students were curious to see the result. But they couldn't see the result of their work through the year so soon. The teachers were processing the scores of all tests and assignments.

As usual, after the final tests, before the students received the report card, they didn't have any class. They spent the days by doing non-academic activities, such as social activities and sports competition.

In this year-end, they almost forgot something. They remembered that they still kept some class-cash. They were confused how to spend the money because they only had two days left to meet their classmates. They discussed...they had arguments about what they will do with the money.
Finally, most of them agreed to buy some food or drink, and enjoy it together in a small party with their classmates.

That day I entered the teachers' room. I saw some nice boxes on the table in the corner of the room. What's this? Boxes of donuts! For me, donut was something sweet...so it led me to think that it must be a sweet gift. Eventually, I found that the donuts were from the students of 8A.... They spent their class-cash to buy donuts for the teachers...so wow!

When others thought about spending the class-cash for themselves, they thought about devoting it to their teachers. 
When others focus on themselves, you focus on sharing what you have to others. 
Thanks a lot...you're the winners...you've won our hearts. 
It's something sweet!

Fast Track

It was a nice Sunday in April. We - especially the children - had waited that Sunday for a few weeks. We were excited. We were going together...to the adventure theme park. Yes...we would have an adventure.

We set off from school and had about 2 hours travelling by bus until we arrived at the adventure theme park. We were really happy and curious about what rides we could enjoy. After we got the ticket, we entered the park. The children wanted to ride many kinds of rides. 

Yet, it was Sunday, there were so many people going there. As a result, to enjoy the Snake-Coaster the children had to queue up for about 30 minutes. Then we moved to Mega-Drop. There was a long queue at the gate. We tried to be patient. Suddenly, there were some children who went through a different gate. The park management called it 'Fast Track'. What happened there? Some children went through the Fast Track gate and they didn't need to queue up as long as the other visitors. They just waited for about 5 minutes and then they could enjoy the ride soon. After wondering for a while, we found that there was an additional ticket sold as Fast Track ticket, so that those who held the ticket could go without queuing up. We found Fast Track Gate in almost all rides. 
If you've got more money, you can buy Fast Track ticket...if you've got no more money, you queue up!

Is this a kind of bribery??
Teachers and parents, why don't you use this opportunity to teach your children how to fight and survive? 
I still believe that there are noble values in queuing up....

School Monsters

Monsters are everywhere. In the jungles, in the mountains, in the countries, in the cities...and even at the schools.

In the last six months, the students in this school have been talking about some monsters. They have been scared. They can't do anything when the monsters come. The monsters can do anything they want. Some of the students have even been so stressed for this horrible situation. 

The students had given up as they couldn't beat the monsters. They couldn't understand what the monsters wanted. Their marks drastically dropped. They couldn't change the monsters into kind and friendly creatures. They gave up. Eventually, they reported about the monsters to their parents...and then...the parents came to this school, seeing the principal and the homeroom teachers to report the fear that the monsters had caused. 

The 'principal' said, "A few years ago, those monsters came to this school. They applied to make a living here. Then we accepted some of them. We have trained them well. But the results are not exactly the same since they came from different habitats and backgrounds."

Then the 'principal' told he students, "You are lucky. You're in a good school now. At home, your parents spoil you. Every problem you face is solved by your parents. Now..here in this school...the monsters train you how to survive and be tough. The monsters have different characteristics. Some of them like to treat you as you wish...give you what you like. On the other side, you cannot drive other monsters as you want. They make you taste the difficulties in life. If you can't change the monsters, change yourself...change your manner...change your way of thinking about these monsters." 
The monsters won't kill you...and everything that makes you feel difficult but it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger.

Culicidae

It was hot that night. It was dry. We had no rain for a few months. I was working on my laptop. I had some work to do and I needed to focus on my work. The weather was not friendly to me. I felt like diving into the swimming pool was a need instead of working on the laptop.

Hot weather that night annoyed me perfectly because it was supported by a troop of mosquitoes (Culicidae). I didn't know when they came and started to bite any parts of my body. I had to wave my hands and move my body to prevent them biting me. They were all female. You know, only female mosquitoes bite us as the female ones require meals of blood in order to develop and lay eggs. They attacked me brutally and I had to defend. I couldn't do my work quickly because of the disturbers.

After working uncomfortably for a few minutes, I slowly focused more and more on my work than on the disturbers. And finally, I could finish my work more quickly than I thought since I had decided not to care too much about the hot weather and mosquitoes.

In life, we often care too much about the distractors. We often blame anything that disturbs our work or goal. And we forget our goal. But being annoyed or not is our choice. So choose. Being annoyed...or focus on our goal.

A Simple Surprise

Exams always make the students tired. Tired of preparing. In the last grade of the school, my 9th grade students had some series of exhausting exams. And they did it well. After the exams, they had no more classroom activities. They would come to school only for having the graduation rehearsal and having some photo session for the year book. So when they did not have to go to school, they just stayed at home or spending their leisure time with their friends.

That day, some students went to school to do a special action for their teachers. They had planned, they prepared what they should  bring and do. They asked some friends to join. Some joined but some refused because they would go to the amusement park with their friends. Some refused because they had another activities with their family. Some refused because they were not interested and chose to stay at home.

These students came to school in the morning. They arrived at the time they usually arrived to school. They brought some washing equipment. Yes...they came to wash the cars and motorcycles of their teachers. The teachers and school staff were surprised and gave positive response. They let the students wash their cars and motorcycles. Getting good response, the students were happy...and they did their job cheerfully.

That day was a special day for the teachers and staff. They felt being loved and respected. They were thankful to have such students who cared about them. The students said to me,"There's no present we could give. Only this...just to express that we thank the teachers for teaching us."

Simple thing...and cheap...and not prestigious, when it is done with great love, can please others.
Instead of pleasing themselves, they have chosen the more difficult choice...to please others.
Thank you so much...we're proud of you....

Eat Less, Share More

The students in our school were so enthusiastic. They were celebrating The World Food Day. 

In our school, The World Food Day is celebrated to heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world and strengthen the solidarity for the people who cannot have food as we have.

On that day, the students had a competition of arranging and decorating traditional food from Indonesia. Then they would have lunch together in their own class. Every class had to prepare a kind of traditional food to be eaten together. I walked around, from one class to another, and was glad to see the students preparing the food on the table. They had changed the studying tables into dining tables and they had arranged the food nicely. 

Five students of one class were doing the final preparation. They were arranging the Balinese food completed with certain ornaments about Bali. It was very nice. A few minutes later, they finished. Then, they invited their classmates to come into the classroom. No need to take a long time, they prayed together and started eating. Meanwhile, their homeroom teacher was outside the classroom, having a talk with another teacher. The students focused on their lunch and their togetherness. They didn't care about other people around them. After some time having a talk, the homeroom teacher went away, not coming into the classroom. 

On the way he was going, some students from another class offered him to have lunch with them.

Sometimes, some work and some fail. 

Some classes reached the goal, some classes failed. 

Some classes succeeded to strengthen the solidarity for people around them, while some classes failed.

Some classes remembered people around them when they had got food to eat, while some classes focus on the food for themselves.

For you who have succeeded, congratulations! Keep giving more, taking less. I'm proud of you.