- 1 -
This year's Ash Wednesday coincided with the eve of Chinese New Year. It's a big thing in Singapore, while in Indonesia my family's celebration is not so big as my family is mixed already (my dad is half-Indonesian Chinese).
- 2 -
I slept a lot last week to compensate last week's roses-business sleepless nights. Here's my reflection on roses and the little things!
- 3 -
Packing to go back to Indonesia and choosing good clothes to wear for Chinese New Year makes me think again about challenges in practising modesty. I have not been a good example in the past and sometimes now too, but I think it's good to encourage each other and keep trying to dress well.
- 4 -
I've been wondering on how I can encourage my friends to go for spiritual formation. I always use the Indonesian phrase "tak kenal maka tak sayang" ((if you) don't know (then you) don't love), we need to know the person well to be able to love the person. Isn't that true? Recently I've noticed that even though my boyfriend and I meet almost every day, there are always things that we don't know about each other. We do need to 'learn' more about each other. I believe that this is the same with the relationship with God. How do we know if the God that I know is the God who wants me to be active in ministry or church activities a to z without spending time in prayer? How do we know that God is happy with us 'just' by going to church on Sunday and a few minutes before going to bed?
And these questions woke me up again. Sometimes even if I think I pray, or even if I think I attend spiritual formation, I may be trapped in a just-do-it mentality. At the end of the day, the main struggle is really to love God more, through prayer, through the commitment for spiritual formation, through my nine-to-six-thirty job. It is a challenge to bring it to consciousness that this is for God, I do this for God as a sign of love.
- 5 -
Money and financial problem is a real problem.
Well, I that, but I don't think I ever feel the pinch of balancing between 'dream job' and money or (future) family and money as how I felt a few days ago. I remember once my Indonesian friends did the calculation of salary & housing down payment. I did that recently and the figure is (still) shocking. Thank God my mom told me to pay my loan little but save a bit of money since I started working. Initially I was thinking to pay my loan as fast as I can. Apparently I do need the money (and it's not enough).
I guess one thing I will share with my future children is to save money wisely. It's so easy to go for frequent budget travel each year, but now I realize that 'do things that I want to do when I am still single' won't work. I mean...when you finally find your Mr or Mrs. Right, the money won't come directly and immediately from the sky!!
- 6 -
Have you ever felt how beautiful it is when you talk to your friends about deeper things?
I feel very grateful that I have a few close friends who can share about values, family, relationships, spiritual life, even since we were in university. Sometimes I may take them for granted :( Apparently it's not so easy to find friends like these.
- 7 -
Update about my reading:
I finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird =) As for spiritual reading, "Testimony of Hope" was really a glimpse of hope for me. Hahaha. This book contains the spiritual exercises of Pope John Paul II given by Archbishop Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan who was imprisoned by Vietnamese government for thirteen years! What I like from the book is even though there are things in my current situation that I feel unbearable, the 13 years imprisonment that the archbishop experienced was not even a reason to give up. This book really reminded me on things that really matter in my life!
I'm waiting for my boyfriend to find his Hobbit. that's my next reading.
As we are in the middle of Lent, I'm very happy to start reading "Does suffering make sense?" by Russel Shaw.
More quick takes at here.
Have a fruitful Lent! =)
