THE LADY SITTING ON THE BALCONY

I am old. I was bold. But that was years back to the past. I am going to be 90 this June. My bedroom and the balcony are the only two places in which I spend days, hours and seconds of my life. I sleep most of the time, and if not I sit on the balcony for hours, watching the family come and go. They are all occupied, go to work, do some sport, go to the uni or simply go to school. They come back home late and could probably care less of my existence in the balcony. They do not even see their future in me, sitting here in the balcony, sometimes with the maids and sometimes with some rats that go back and forth.
I realize that I cant catch up with the language of today, and my memory could not accomodate more than a few sentences for a few minutes. I will ask the same question again and again until I notice some of them get impatience and slowly but definitely they leave me there on the balcony. There are times my other grandchildren call me and talk to me. I hear beautiful words flowing, asking about my health and telling me that they love me. Do they really? I dont know for I feel like a forlorn and forgotten old lady. I feel like I am just another burden to the family. If you really love me that much, dont you think you will visit me and accompany me in my old days? Sorry for asking too much. I just want some attention. Make me feel that I exist, talk to me and sit next to me.
When they are home, they are all tired or they have another subject to deal with. Again they ignore me. I used to be there, I used to be in their place. I used to feed the family. With these two hands, I brought into alive all my children. One by one they went away from my life. I faced two of my five children gone away to heaven. I watched the three of them facing the battle of life, each in their own ways. I am happy if you are happy. I am sad if you are sad. They come to me when they are sad, they walk away when they are happy. I will go away and I know you will all cry. Love is not about crying on the curb of my corpse, but love is about showing that you really love me. Talk to me, listen to my repetitive sentences.
I am just an old lady, sitting on this balcony, sleeping when my head is heavy. The balcony is gonna be your place in the future, replacing me when I'm gone. A place where you will shed your tears. Thinking how you wish I will have been there for you, in your sadness and in your madness.

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT BETTER

Cold sweat ran through my forehead, running down to the sides of my cheeks before it finally landed on my neck. My entire neck was wet. I felt empty and dizzy. It's back again, whipping my nerves and body even harder than before. The pain was unbearable!
I asked Him again, what else do you want from me God? I begin to change, I try to be a better me. I am trying to do all my best to be yours. This is my temptation, this is my cross. I take it God and
I thank you Lord for all your blessings. If she is one of the blessings, I thank you Lord. I dont ask you to take this cross away from me, but pls give me strength to face it properly. I love her Lord, no matter how bad she is. Show me how to love her Your way, not my way.
Are you lonely my princess? Are you hurt? Do you miss your dad? Am I not good enough for you? Do you want me to accept him? Give me strength to understand her Lord. Save her from all the temptations, talk to her God, help me make her understand You better.

PLAN IT THE WAY YOU WANT!

It's been 9 years since I first wrote this blog. Many pieces were written down for my children. In fact I compiled some that had been written down for my eldest on her 17th birthday. I read them again and again this morning. I laughed while the crystal cried slowly rolling down on my cheeks.
I painted a life of honey and roses for my daughter, yet she chooses a different kind of life. I do understand that she has her own will, but I just feel sorry for everything. She seemed like running slopping down the hill. I watch her from a distance. She is miles away....
She quit her studies for the third time. She dated the wrong guy. She changes the nature and worked at nite and slept at daytime. She kept on lying, one after another and I let her go on... She hang out with people that heaven knows how.
My plan for her is not her plan. Her plan lies in the mind of her own. I let you go my princess... I let you lead your way. I believe that God will be around you.... while I am wathing you from the distance.

ANOTHER B.S

Let me ask you to sit nicely next to me and tell you that you can not get out of your habit. You BS again, and it's getting even worse.

1. My friend went to Puncak last night and they asked me to go with them and they wanted to call you. I told them, not to for it's impossible that they would let me go. (I dont know how much you guys earn, but all of you must be stinkin' filthy. Every week end, it's either going to Puncak, to Bandung, clubbing or...heaven knows....where)

2. My friends are still asleep <-- that's the following morning at 7 am. (I wonder what they did in Puncak, left at midnite and at 7am the following morning they were fast asleep. It takes a genius to deal with your mathematics.

3. We want to buy dresses for the girls in our next event in Tanah Abang. Can I borrow your car? I said no, because I want to go to Bogor. (Later on she said, her friends were still asleep at 4pm, and when I told her that Tanah Abang is closed by 5pm, she said oh...we wanted to go to Cililitan <-- you must be talking to your friends in their dreams for they were still asleep. Btw, I hope that your events work well, Cililitan, the traditional grocery and fruit market, sells a lot of nice dresses.)

4. When we talked on the phone, I asked her about her friends trip to Puncak and she switched the topic right away. (Uncomfortable ?).

I dont want to say much except for a small comment: BS never die!!!!

ANNIVERSARY

I made stuffed grilled mashed potates. She ordered it the day before. She asked me: " how much are you gonna charge me?"

I said:" It's free!"

Then she responded merrily : "Thanks I consider it as the joy and happiness that you share with me for today is my wedding anniversary."

I put a smiling emoticon and said:" Well you got my message dont you? Happy Anniversary! May God always be with you and your entire family, lead a life full of blessing. My regards to your husband and kids, tell them I'm happy for them."

She thanked me sincerely and I quit off the conversation. My heart sunk deep into the wild ocean. My lips were sealed. I wanted to tell her that that day was also my anniversary, but things worked differently with me. My hubby was so far away in his own world. He has been in his own world for long and I was in the office earning my pennies. I didn't mind though for I have been leading this life for more than 12 years. It's just that my friends' happiness was bothering me. Her looking so much forward to celebrating made me feel small and jealousy occupied my heart. You might say I was romanticizing this life. I will say, I was. I tried to control my emotions with my ratio and yes it worked. I didnt tell anyone about it and tried very hard to pump it out from my heart. I didn't complain to anybody except for this frozen monitor in front of me.

At nite I went home and found my second daughter in her room. My other daughter wanted to go to Puncak with her friends. I was torn in between. I wanted to say, stay with mama. I need my children. Instead I told her that I used to spoon feed you with happiness but now it's your time to define your own happiness. If you wish to go just go. (hah.. I deserve a gold medal for this heroic action... hahahaha). My son, my precious, he's in grandpa's place. He needs friends. I starred at my monitor and hoped she would say I would stay. She didn't, so I told her to be careful. I went to my room and the maid followed me into my room. She wanted to do late night groceries shopping . My husband was still somewhere out there and he would pick her in the traditional market later on. I sat again in front of the monitors. I held my phones in my hand. I was hoping that God in heaven would greet me and said: Happy Anniversary! Sounds emotional, like I said I was being emotional. Yes and what is so wrong with that? I had every right to be dominated by my emotions.

Happy anniversary my hubby. We had been married for 26 years. We had passed the critical time and we sunk into the most unbearable time of our marriage. Find your freedom... I will let you go....I'm tired of everything. I entered my frozen escapades. A bubble I created myself to ease my pain.

THE FINAL MOMENTS

I began to feel the fear, the angst of what's coming. I have to take into my consideration that today will probably my last day. I hate this feeling, but it's there and I cant escape from it. I begin to adjust myself, to see everything from a distance. To perceive me from a diffent perspective than the I perspective. The strange me from the perspective of I.

The nature speaks the language of the final. Careerwise I'm almost done. Although I wont give up and never will. I plan to build another cycle of life. In the beginning I was very much enthousiatic about it. But lately I have been asking myself, is this what I really want, or is this just a self defense mechanism. Resistance resides in the beginning phase of change. Should it be part of the natural phenomena then it wont last long. It will diminish gradually swipe by the waves of change.

The family life speaks the language of the final. Except for my son, the family life seems to lead their own rythm. I'm outside of it. Maybe I am the one who remains inside of the rythm, but the rest change, they choose their own rythm. I try to grab what's left. My second daughter and my son. Deep down I know that I can only keep my son. For the rest I exist because of the pennies that I earn. Without it they will never treat me well. I have lost the best part in life, my sister. The one that I can trust, the one that really cares for me. I could compare our sisterhood with my mother daughter relationship. My mom has given me the best. God took my sister and trust me you have had the best part of life and you stopped right at the moment when they were about to vanish.

I scribbled down again my resolution for the year 2012. The unknown future that lies beyond my horizon.

2011 and 2012

Christmast has just passed. New Year is coming. What have I done throughout the year of 2011 and what I am gonna do in the year of 2012? 2011 will soon be over and I will call it the past. The past is not there for nothing, but the past is an experiential learning. A journey through the time and space. Unique and has its own story to tell.
I might say that 2011 have taught me a real painful lesson. This year I learn the hard fact of reality, I am a diabetic patient. Within the last 3 months I have been consuming diabetic pills. In the beginning I cant believe that this could happen to me, but as time goes by I began to get used to it and try my best to live with it. The next question that come across my mind is: How long do you give me time to live God?
The next curse that knock at my door is the fact that I have to release those people that I love to lead their own life and ways. Loneliness began to bite my skin. No more family time and I have only my son to look after. I try to adjust myself to this reality, not easy but then I have to face it. My mother is probably the best mirror of the future. I might end up my life like here, sitting on the sofa waiting for people to pay attention to me and spend their precious time to talk to me. Yeah... it's scary but I will soon land in that part of life.
I get transformed from the job that have always been my passion into a strange world that doesnt even cross my mind to touch. Imagine, from an extreme people oriented job into an extreme system oriented job. Worst of all, I dont have the right to say what I think of it, I didnt even get a response when I wanted to find out the purpose. Again I have to place a very huge excuse into my heart and brain as not to hurt myself more.
Another battle that luckily ended up like a fairy tale is my son (allow me to say end for I dont have the capacity to think more than just today). The sentenced was announced by the doctor that he suffers from ADD. But he'll grow out of it.... I know that God would never let me carry things that are too heavy for me.
Above all the sad things that happen to my life, God gave me sweets in between. Christmast which had lately been unbearable began to appear with a friendly face. It was not my typical childhood christmast but it made me happy. I gathered with my big family and felt the spirit of christmast running in my vein before it finally stays there in my heart. Thanks God....for the happy moment.
In response to all these things, I wrote down my resolution for 2012. I am going to set up my own business. Small in the beginning but very much altruistic. In the end of 2012, my product will be in the market.

PASSWORD

One of the most frequent use security system is password. Everytime you log on to the system you need to provide your password. Once you did it, the system is open and we are inside or part of the system.

Lately I have been thinking about family life. I was wondering what make the family system turn fragile. Is fragility part of the rythm of a dynamic system or is it part of the threat that has access to the system. I believe both work, fragility due to the threat is a manifestation of a dynamic system. I then arrived to the conclusion that you can not escape from the dynamic rythm. Follow them but then you have to lead the process, you dont just follow and be led by it, but you have to lead.

How do I lead? If the stone get drilled by the drop of water, I need to find the drop of water that drilled the frozen heart. The only thing that could do this is the power of love. Love manifested itself in various forms. As to my case I decided to use a passwrod. I might be good in arriving to a conclusion and formulating the solution but Im terriblly bad at implementing it. So that password are just password that remains in the corner of my mind, occupying a space I called the secret hiding place.

I wrote it down here in this blog, and I wrote it down in my secret password. I sang the lullaby of love to you in my heart every night. I think of you when I swallow any food and wondering if I can save a bite or two. I let my finger chant the love song and gently touch your picture with it. They are all voiceless but they are all genuine. They are my love to you. My password to bind the family, the bond that has been torn apart. The song that remains unheard, for your ears, your eyes, your brain and your heart are all occupied by that bastard. I pray to you Lord, to use your love to solve my love, to save my family.

PROGRESS

My son is making a tremendous progress. His cognition, affection as well as psychomotoric progresses are amazing. Within this one week, he's been doing his homework on his own. I encourage him to do it regularly so that it becomes a habit. He is more independent now.

He gets better grades in all areas. Arithmatic, language, phonic are progressing. Chinese is a bit behind yet he is showing progress. I bought him a bike last week and he's very happy. He can play with his bike after he's done with his homework.

My next step is to encourage him to study tomorow's lesson independently. If you can pass this one, we are almost done for the rest depends on you.

ps. happy birthday to my long lost child. Hope God protect you and be with you always.

FOOT BALL

Lately my son is so much addicted to football. He plays football e.v.e.r.y.d.a.y with his school mates at the school yard. This news is good news to me. But then there is always the bad news that goes along with the good news.

Lately he has problem with keeping himself awake when it's time for him to study. In the beginning I thought it was more driven by his laziness. In the second place, I thought he was too tired because he has to spend so many hours for his extra lessons after school. But then if I traced the past, he had never had this problem before. So what is it then???

As a short cut solution, I let him sleep till ten o clock, woke him up and studied until 12 midnight before he went back to sleep. There were times I had been too tired to stay awake, so I let him sleep till 4 am before he had to sit with me and study. However, this doesnt seem to last for my body began to ache.

As I was striving to find a way out, I then realized that I was trying to give respond to an unknown question. Was it really the hectic schedule or was it because he's lazy? Suddenly I remember all those stories about playing football after school hours. The story of desperate drivers and nannies who have to strive very hard to drag the children home. The stories of the change in his eating habit, the story of extra shirt to school and so many other stories that goes around foot ball.

Aha.. this is the bottom line of the story. Now I know that football is the main cause why he could hardly stay awake to study. Knowing the problem doesnt mean it's easier to find the way out. I dont know how to find a solution for this situation. My son loves football and period. Btw, my husband is a football player and that explains.

PATIENCE

Patience where are you? In the office, at home and even inside of me, I was trying to locate patience. It's nowhere to be found. I am packed with so many unsettled matters and that make me end up with nothing to settle.

Throughout the entire week end, I did not go anywhere but focusing myself on the entire progress of my son. Still, we don't have enough time to do all the things. He's got 2 homework from school, lots of homework from his math class, homework from his mandarin teacher and a pile of notes to be transferred into his note books.

He's been working on part of his notes since Saturday and started to work on part of his homework. This is Sunday, he started to work from morning till afternoon. Then he began to worked on them and had not even finished until this hour. I know that my son is having problems with focusing but then I believe that there is something wrong with this educational system. A child of 7 with that much homework? It doesn't guarantee that you will create genius out of them and most of all you are creating nothing but an unhappy child tortured by schoolwork.

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS

It was Saturday. It was time to see the doctor for the latest result of the medication. I left my house with a pessimistic view. My son is not doing any progress. In fact it's getting a bit worse. I didn't do any efforts to check my cellphones for this is week end.

I arrived at the doctor just in time. We dont have to wait long before the doctor invited us to get in. I knew the typical questions that he was going to ask, but I was in such a doubt to tell the truth, affraid of him prescribing a higher dossage for my son. So when he bombarded me with questions, I responded with lots of uncertainty. He asked me if the teacher is seeing any progress in my son. I said I dont know for I had not been communicating with the teacher. He asked me how my son was with his sisters. I said he still is the same, teasing his sister around. He didn't seem satisfy with my responses, so he asked me to go out of the room for he wanted to check the progress himself.

While sitting outside, I tried to contact my son's teacher. As expected, she complained a lot. I told her how sorry I am and make promises that I'm not sure I can keep. As the doctor asked me to come into his room, he showed me the result of his observation. My son is making progress. I then told him my conversation with the teacher. He retorted sharply, I didnt promise to make your child a genius, but I can help to  him focus. As with his lessons, you have to deal with it yourself. The medication that I prescribed is not meant to make them make the quizzes correctly.  Let's give him another two weeks to go before we decide what to do with the medication!

We went out of town on the same day. I took all his books, over reaction things as always. At night, we sat together on the dining table as the cool temperature rushed in through the windows. My son would have a quiz on phonics and he had to study more than 50 pages. I was surprised, for he could manage to do it quickly and happily. He focused and burried his face deeply into his books. Before dinner, he managed to finish almost half. My enthousiasm is augmenting. Thanks God for helping me out!

As I sat in front of the television I took my cell phone and saw a message from my son's teacher. She wanted me to come over to school on Monday. I know what it means and my heart sank deep into the ocean of uncertainty. As with my son, merrier and he's happy and handles his lessons better.

 

THE REALITY

It's been a week since the doctor increase the dossage for my son. I dont see any progress. The literature said that it takes at least 6 months to see the effectivity. The doctor told me that it took only two weeks to see the medication work.

I know if I tell the doctor that the medication doesnt show any impact, he will increase the dossage again. This is what im scared of, for the medication will have a hallucinative impact on my son. I watch my son on a day to day basis: he still tries to be in the opposite direction to my words. He would do it my way but then he had to rebel against me. He still played trick on his sister and that made them fight. He still have difficulties to focus and need to be assisted all the time, or else he wouldnt be able to finish his school work.

I dont know whether I should tell the doctor the truth or take my own decision and lie so that the medication will show its effectivity after six month? Lots of questions with no definite answer.

WHAT'S BEST ?

If you ask me what's best for my children? I might give you a weird look, for every parents directs all their efforts to give the best. On a second thought, I can not agree more for the question entails another question, who defines the meaning of best? Is it me or is it my children?

In one of the discussion I happened to get acquaintened with the concept of dwelling. A comfort zone similar to a home. A place where egology dwell. A place where we invite others to come inside and define them based on our categorization. The reality is a totality, the reality is similar for my spectacles are utilized to see and interpret things. They all occur under the name of having a good intention to others. I dont have the intention to dominate, yet I dominate. I subjectivate others with my spectacles.

The other is not less than me in every ways. They deserve a space in which they can express their faces. Through their faces, I make my acquintances with them and at the same time I appreciate God for they are the unique and infinite creation of God. I worship God through the face of the other and I have lost my right to kill the other for it has never been my right in the first place. God creates and God knows what to do with them. I am oblige to give them room to express their uniqueness and get to know them from their own dimension and perspective.

Children are no less different. I have learned a very good lesson these last couple of weeks. They are not mine and they want to be appreciate as what they are, through their own face and perspective. If their perspective is not good enough to me, then it's my problem. As with them they will learn what's best when they stumble against the stones of life. What they learn might not be the same as what I have learned.

Lord, let me open my mind and raise my child based on what's best in his view, not in my view.

IT FAILED TO WORK

Yesterday was Saturday. It's been two weeks since I last took my son to the doctor. So, I took my son again to the doctor yesterday. The main target of the visit was to find out if the given medication had worked.

As the doctor invited us to get inside his room, he asked me about my son's progress. I had asked my helper at home how my son behaved during the two week in which he was under the medication. She told me that he was doing better. As with me, I had not seen any significant progress. The progress that he gained so far was basically based on my program and had been on even before the medication was prescribed.

The doctor assumed that the medication had no impact to my son. So he was trying to find the reason. He asked me if I had continuously given the medication. I told him that last Saturday was the only day that he missed the medication. He arrived to the conclusion that the dosage needed to be increased. I began to ask him questions about the impact of the medication for I understand that it will create hallucinations and increase the suicidal tendency. He told me that it is still safe for he would increase the dosage from 10 to 15. 20 is the most that my son could bear.

The medication doesn't work be it for the dosage or any other reasons. The answer has to wait for another two week time. Hopefully this time it works. But then there is another question that need to be answered. If it works, will my son be dependent on the medication for his entire life?

ANGELS ARE EVERYWHERE

My son tends to be disorganized. Today they lost their books, tomorow they lost their pencils and so on and on. My son is not an exception. He looses his school diary and makes us busy with making phone calls to know the agenda for tomorow, or he looses his coloring pencils, or books etc.

Last week he went straight from school to his chinese class nearby my mom's house. So I told him to take a nap at my mom's place. He was wearing his PE uniform when he went to school and by the time he got home he has changed into another shirt and pants. I didn't pay too much attention to all those nitty grity.

Yesterday he had to go on a field trip to the museum. He was supposed to wear his PE uniform but I couldn't find it no where. I forgot the fact that he wore it last week to my mom's place. We were all busy searching for his uniform when a text entered my cellphone:

"Good morning! My daughter told me that your son had lost his PE uniform. I happened to buy two pairs of them last year and still had one that I can spare. If you dont mind, I'd like to give it to your son."

I almost felt into tears when I read the text. Thank you Lord for sending me your angel. They are everywhere.

THE FIRST TERM

One term is over and that lasted for three months, commencing as of July to October. It's time for his report card. My daughter went to school to pick up my son's report card. I knew that things were not as good as we expected them to be for my daughter did not call me right away. I couldn't control my curiosity and called home."Things are not that good compared to the previous term! He got F for Chinese, he got A+ for music, with three Bs, 4Cs, and 7Ds."

As soon as I got home I traced his report card. He got 60 for Chinese which is F and Ds range from 65 to 74, Cs range from 75 t0 84, Bs from 85 to 93 and As from 94 to 100. My son is one level better than the lowest student in his class.

I do not pay that much attention to his grades but then the teacher does. For me his focus is the key to his success. Grade is just an indicator and it is important though not the most important part. He is below average with his grades, but he's progressing with the most important thing, his focus. Let's work it out together son.

TO WIN AND TO LOVE

Help my son. Ease his pain. Tell him that You love him God. He needs so much love that words can not explain. Why do people vote for those who need to win in a competition and why dont people vote forpeople who are in need of love ? Is winning more important than love?

...

Life has not been good within these last two days. Yesterday my son was supposed to take his first medication. It was not easy to find the medication prescribed by the new neurologist, but I managed to get it at Rumah Sakit Pondok Indah. The tablets has just been pusblished on the 2nd of October.

My son didn't want to swallow the medication no matter how hard you try to push him and no matter how persuasive you try to talk to him. The medication has to be taken in the morning. I did my best to persuade him and fail. My daughter helped me and we both failed. Finally my husband came and pushed him to swallow it. I almost fainted when I saw how he did it. Dear God, can't you help me with a better way of doing it?

My son got scars and bruises on his right chick. He has swollen fingers. and most of all he's so much hurt. The pain is nothing but the fact that his parents hurt him is more than the bruises. I went off the car and took my son. We both walked. I took him home and cuddled him. He told me that he didnt want to miss PE class. So I decided to take him back to school. I was late myself for work.

Lord, hurt me as much as you want to but dont hurt him. Put the cross on my shoulders and I won't complain but dont let my son carry the cross. He's only seven!

When I got home at 6.30, my son and I went into my bedroom and we studied arithmetic. He managed to finish one out of the two assignments within the time limit. I gave him a star. So far he's got almost 25 stars. Keep it up son, you need another 25 to get a bike.

DOUBT

I took my son to another doctor. This is the one that I got from Tempo. I went straight from the airport to the hospital which is located in the western part of Jakarta. I had waited for almost 30 minutes before my turn arrived. I went inside with my son and was quite amazed to find a gentleman in his forties, quite young, greeted me warmly. I told my son to go out of the room and poured out my problems. He seems to know all the doctors that I had been to. He then invited my son to come in and asked me to wait outside. This is where the problems begin. My son refused to be left alone inside the room. He insisted that I had to stay with him. The doctor began to judge me. He said:"Your parenting style is probably the reason." He's already seven and he's supposed to be independent. Does he always behave like this at school."

I responded and said:"I visited his school once in a month and most of those times he wouldnt let me go." Deep down in my heart I knew that my leaving him for a couple of days was the main reason why he didn't want to let me go. I tried to explain but the doctor did not take my excuses. He retorted rapidly, explaining the child development process: "A child has to be independent when he reached the age of 4. At this age, he's not supposed to have this kind attachment anymore. "

I am not in a good mood to explain so I let him rattle. I will prove that next time he will be independent. My child is in the process of stabilizing. I am not a doctor but I'm equipped with one thing which the doctor did not, a motherly instinct. There are times that he's independent but there are also times when he's insecure and stay attach to me. We all do!

The doctor gave him a series of toys and asked him ro arrange shapes by colors. In the meantime he videotaped my son. My son was focusing on the task but once in a while he turned his head around to see if I was still there. After he's done with the task, the doctor invited me to sit by his desk and asked my son to play in the corner of the room. He said bluntly:" Your son suffers from attention deficit disorder. And I need to prescribe some medication for him. There are two types of medication: the first one will impact his appetite and the second is a new medication and it is said that it doesn't have any impact. Basically it is dopamin. I leave it to you to decide."

I responded straight away:" Give me the prescription."

He wrote down the prescription and explained that I had to get the medication in another hospital located in the northern part of the city. That's the only hospital that sells the medication. I am still in a doubt. I didn't know if I wanted to give my son the medication.