COLORS OF LIFE

While the earth is crying and suffering, we're struggling to see the bright side of life. I've experienced sadness and confusions throughout the year while at the same time, hearing typical stories from others as well. 

However, when one seeks, one finds. Seek for love and you'll find it. Seek for happiness and you'll find it. Seek for abundance and you'll find it.

While swimming in the sea of sadness and pain that covers the world, I've seen candles that illuminate along the way. No matter how simple their stories are, they made my days.

THE BEAUTY OF LOVE

My dad was just retired from a company he's been working on for approximately 20 years, and now my family is struggling with financial problems as both of my parents have to sacrifice a lot of money for their new businesses while having to pay for taxes and me and my brother's schools. Feeling the urge to work for my own pocket money so I don't have to ask my parents for it, I began a small business of selling painted jars since weeks ago, and thankfully it goes pretty well and it attracts many people, mostly teachers in my school.

What's interesting from this activity I've been working on is that most of the painting requests I got from teachers are paintings of their children, paintings of themselves, and paintings of other teachers who's been working with them. Whenever they describe their requests, their faces would go bright after a long tiring day. They unconsciously show bright expressions on their exhausted face. 

From what I've seen, I can obviously tell how much my teachers love their children and co-workers, and of course, themselves. Besides feeling proud that I can independently work for myself without putting burdens on my parents, I'm happy that my small business can help my teachers express their affection. 

Pretty much a simple thing, but this makes me think about this: if my family did not experience this kind of struggle, I would not learn the importance of being independent, and the most important thing of all, I would not see that simple view from my teachers that eventually made my day. 

DROPS OF HAPPINESS

In all my life I've met people from all kinds of backgrounds. I met the very wealthy people, I met the middle-class people like myself, I met people under the middle-class group, and I also met the poor. 

However, from the conclusion of my own experience, the most excited and happy people are those who came from the middle class and below. While struggling with money for living in reality, they show no burdens at all! They do their job cheerfully while approach others into a light and enjoyable conversations. 

One of the example I can see every time is my grandmother's housekeeper who's been helping my family for over than 30 years. She's actually older than grandmother herself but she refused to go home and chose to stay with our family instead. She cannot do much due to her age, but she always does what she can wholeheartedly. 

 Despite having to deal with many health problems, she refuses to take a long rest, and she does her job with patience and a smile on her face. Since she's been working with us for a very long time, she knows everyone in my family, so she always asks about everyone, even the ones she hasn't seen for years. And even if my cousins can sometimes be annoying to her, she always responds by serving us her iced tea (our family favorite). :)

Although she only earns less than a million rupiah each month (a standard earnings for housekeepers in here), she seems happy with her life, and she does her job with passion. She does not care about how much she gets and she seldom thinks about herself. 

"Money can't buy happiness (and love)." An old statement, but very true, indeed! :)

Namaste!~