Lost in the stillness of time

The moment froze when I saw you
Caught in the stillness of time
Where everything is evaporated
Only me and my beating heart
And you with your starry eyes
Caught in the stillness of time
Melted when everything else is frozen
Here when everyone else is away
Caught in the stillness of time
Lost in the stillness of time

Tokyo through the lens of a pocket camera

Most of the time, when we travel somewhere, maybe out of the country, we see a lot of beautiful sceneries. Wonderful piece of art crafted and painted in the way only nature can create. Sometimes we are so amazed and we wish that we can memorize those moments forever.

We captured those sceneries and moments through the lens of our digital camera. Store it into the database of our hard drive and revive it occasionally in the LCD of our PC. It might not be that dramatic though.

During my trip to Tokyo, I tried to capture some sceneries and moments through a different lens. Not through the lens of my digital camera. But through the lens of my Holga, my pocket camera. It gave me different experience and huge curiosity, since I won't be able to know the result just yet. And here is the result. It's not outstanding though, but it is different. And sometimes it is differences that made our life interesting. Enjoy.

Nature, beauty...can it stay gold?

It's been a long time since my last post. It's been a long time since I write for the sake of my personal needs. Not for my job. Not for others. But for myself.

These passed months, I thought I have lost my mood to lose my way with words. So this night, I decided that I need to write, to share something to this world even though it is insignificant.

So tonight I will share about the beauty of my homeland. Indonesia. A beautiful country yet forgotten by its own people.

This picture I took during my trip to Bromo Mountain (we called it Gunung Bromo) in East Java.










The trip made me so amazed of the beauty and the nature that this world have. And I sincerely hope that more and more people, now and in the future, can still see and feel the beauty of our Mother Nature. Let me share you a poem written by Robert Frost.

"Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down today.
Nothing gold can stay."

As the poem said, nothing gold can stay indeed. But it is up to us whether you will keep the golden side of you or not. It might not be a 24 karat gold. But it doesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter...

This is my december, how's yours?

The end of December is approaching
The end of the year is just few hours ahead
The new year is soon will be present

But what is the meaning of the month of December for you?
Has it a meaning at all?

For some, December means Christmas
But then, what is Christmas means to you?
A celebration of hopes that comes to live?
A joyful day when finally salvation arrived?
A day when you gives presents to the one you love? As a symbol of affection
Or continuing the spirit of Christ? To give, to embrace and to love
The spirit that has shown by Larry Stewart, the Secret Santa...
The same spirit that has shown long time back by Santa Clause
Or now we distort the spirit to give just to earn more profit, to corrupt children's mind?

For some, December means the end of their yearly plan
When target has to be achieved, performance has to be reviewed, plan has to be evaluated, profit has to be earned in a larger scale

For some, December means the deadline to see whether your resolution has been achieved or not
Whether you has become better, skinnier, smarter, cleaner, richer or not

For me, December is the perfect time for personal reflection
The time when you look back and see how the road you take makes you person you are now
You may be satisfied or maybe not
But it doesn't matter
What matters is that you take decision to grow and to learn
What matters is for us to reflect and to learn from those great person before us
What matters is for us to learn how to give more than take more

And why December?
It's just for a sentimental reasons
Nothing more...

Don't fall. Rise in love...

Today is Sunday.
The mood is content.
The topic is love.
Or rather, fall in love...

If the question is: have you fallen in love? Some people will say yes. Some will say not yet. And some will say that it happens everyday.

Another question would be: why fall in love?
Why fall?
Is it because when you love someone it always happens accidentally, just as if you fell? Unexpectedly. Unnoticed. Got you there just like that.
It might hurt.
It might not.

Most people agrees with the term "fall in love". Or take it for granted just the way it is. Yet, the word fall itself means inability, downfall, or weakness.

I might say differently. I might start with the reaction which we made after we fell.
We rise.
We ascend.
We get up.

I reckoned that it is what we should do when we fall in love. We rise. We ascend. And start build our love.
Do not just fall and stay there silently.
Obediently.
It will make us weak.
Unable.

Often love makes us unable and weak.
Irrational and mindless.
It is not the way we deal with love.
Love means happiness.
Happiness creates joy.
Joy creates power.
Power creates ability.
With ability you achieve your dreams.
Dreams makes you humble.
Humbleness creates compassion.
Compassion creates awareness.
Awareness to support people that you love.
Love makes you content.
Content makes you strong.

Don't fall. Rise in love...

In Memoirs of...

A lot of people believe of heaven and hell as place where we all go after we died. That is why, at least according to me, most people try to do good deeds while they are alive. Or at least, show to the world that they do good deeds. According to their religion, believe, or just a mere faith. For someday, when their lungs no longer breathing, they will see heaven.
But I believe that heaven and hell is here. In this world. Exists everyday in our lives through our deeds. Whether it is good or bad, noble or dishonor, sincere or hypocritical. You name it. And you decide what you want to create in this world. Heaven or hell...
Sometimes I see heaven in a baby's eyes, so innocent and flawless. Or in an old man's face that I saw in a train, beamed with joy as he bought a piece of mango. Or simply by breathe in and breathe out, and realize that life is priceless.
A lot of time I see hell around me. Experience it. Feel it as people seems to produce it in a large scale. Growing so fast.
This morning, as I lied awake in my hotel bed, I experienced both. Heaven and hell. My mom just got a call from home, saying that one of my dad's employee, our driver too, had an accident. A hit and run. They took them to hospital, but he did not get treatment for they did not have enough money. Then mom called my dad and her secretary to arrange someone to go there, bring enough cash, and get him a proper treatment. Dad went as fast as he could. But it was too late. The employee died from severe bleeding. It was hell. Both of them, the damn hospital and the car that hit him.
Ija, the employee, was a very good worker. Able to do a lot of work. Never complaints. But most of all, he was a good person. Probably better than those hospital management who didn't give him treatment only because of money. Probably better that the government people who lack in providing regulations for hospitals in handling such situations. But who am I to judge. I just know that heaven is existed in that man. A mere worker who maybe anyone didn't give a damn. A worker who do a fine job. A person who obey his believe.
It made me realize that there are still a lot of things that we should do in our lives. Let there be hell no more in our lives...

I feel this quote from Kahlil Gibran as a proper reminder for us. And I present this to him.
“Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”

A Good Movie - Rocky Balboa

As one of those people who love to watch movie, I love the way how good movie telling me their story. Good movie makes you laugh with them, cry with them, capture the emotion, and often makes you think. Think about lives in different perspective. Lives where you have never imagine its existence before. But it’s there. Exists. Delivered in various ways. Could be glamorous or just as simple as that. Could be monochrome or very colorful. Could be exaggerating or just as plain as the facts. Could be fairy tales or a mere real life.
In a good movie, you will find characters. Characters who will bring you into their emotions, their perspective, and maybe their live. Through these characters sometimes you will learn many things. Learn how to love, how to forgive, how to think differently, or how to keep moving forward even when the world against you.
A good movie will inspires you, encourage you, makes you smile, makes you sad, or even makes you feel miserable. But that’s how movie depicts life and its journey to you. Life, just like movie, is a journey after all.
About one month ago, I watched Rocky Balboa. Yes, right! That Rocky Balboa boxing saga! I did not expect anything from the movie except that I want to watch him back to the ring, fight, got beaten up, but ended up with winning the match. But I was wrong. The movie went quite slow, actually. Telling the other side of Rocky. Here you would see Rocky as a person. A person, who had experienced everything, from winning, loosing, and dealing with life. The best scene of the movie is when Rocky yelled to his son about life. This is what he said:
“The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows
It's a very mean and nasty place, and it don't care how tough you are...
It will beat you to your knees and leave you there permanently if you let it
You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life
But it ain't about how hard you hit
It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward
How much you can take and keep moving forward
That's how winning is done!”

And I think that is very true. That’s the real life. And that’s what makes this movie good, at least in my perspective.
I, as Rocky said, will keep moving forward no matter what is the challenge. And I reckoned that is something that we all should remember…