a guardian angel

My Guardian angel



A mother’s prayer for her child, for her children
for healing, for grace for the pain she carries
to be lifted from her weary shoulders to breath free, without weight
hanging, pulling her down to see a change, a renewal
a mending of the tears, the frayed edges of existence
of the interrupted aspects, the missing pieces of her life
after disruptions and displacement rebuke, and distance
A change of course, in the offing in the near future, hopeful still
in the God who has listened, heeded her call before
( A mother’s prayer by Raymond A. Foss)

The Indonesian traditional adage says,’’ heaven is under mother's feet, some people said mother is an angel that sent by God. All the statement above is decent to describe how great a mother.  For me mother is Mother is the most beautiful gift in my life. I have to reflect on how far the struggle my mother for my life. All the time and power she has sacrificed, the prays and wisdom that she has thought me. Upon I opened my eyes for the first time, my mother had given her beauty smile and I seem to see the face of an angel. She was the first woman that I knew. I tried to describe how great my mother is.
My mother is a great educator, how not since I first learned to speak the first thing she taught is to pray. The first thing he thought was how to speak, how to pray to God and how attitude when praying. The thing that be my habitual that I bring until today is the time when praying before sleeping. I always do that because it is always guided and taught by mom. And even now if you have not had time to pray, there seems to be a strange. Not up there, the most memorable think that he had taught me was how to wash the dishes. Even though it women work, my mother didn’t make the distinguish between the boy and the girl job. In her eyes it was equal; it is not how to teach the rule but how to form a personality. I remembered clearly how he taught me. With tenderness and patience he taught me to wash the dishes were clean. As I grown up, I thought, why my mother taught me how to wash the dishes. A child is not taught like me though so surely he knows wash dishes. When I was growing up I found the answer. It has simple mean, he taught me to work with heart and seriously even it simple thing. Grateful I was taught by my mother from the simple things that bring me to the great things.

She is smart to divide the time. Which time to cooking, take care me and to take care the family. She has a lot of time to spending the time with me. Night was the time when the lullaby and the stories of the bible always accompany me in the silent of night. My mother always did that until I slumbered. Until I open my eyes in the morning, she has ready to reach the day.  She is the housewife that stronger than anything.
Kitchen is the part of home which identically with my mother job’s. The kitchen is the place where I could fell with diligence and with compassion my mother makes some breakfast and dinner to us. Kitchen is the best place to visit when we are hungry. Among the children in our small family, I am who always accompany my mother when he cooking. With all the trouble that I did in the kitchen, did not reduce her busy in cooking. Even, one time she picked me up and hugged. Although my mother is not god chef, but the dishes of mother made me miss home. She always reminded us to spend all our food as a form of gratitude for the food that is given by God. She always reminded this every day. She never gives up reminding us.
When being away from home who'd always be strength for me is the prayer of the mother. All the protection and affection always with a prayer that delivered by mothers. The embrace of mom is given warmth when I cried or lost my faith. The problem will be solving if motivated by mother. Mom is everything for me. I have realized there so many mistake that I’ve been doing.  It is not be encumbrance to mom as long I tried to fix it. His face implied that he did not want to shed tears of failure because of the success I had but he cried.
I would like to thank for mom for the time that teach me from simple thing to great thing, for helping me when I am falling, teach me to pray before sleep, and have a lot a time to  picked me up and hugged me. I say thanks too for the lullaby song that you sang before I sleep. I am lucky can fell your dishes that always make me miss home. I’m sorry if I could not wipe your tears. But I promise it was worth it. I will always miss home as I miss you.


Writing class….
June 2012

The art of rice

The scene of paddy.The valley among the hills.

Rice is most popular cereal in the world in terms of human consumption. When consume it in every  single meal : breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, supper, even dessert, it remains me of Shizou Tsuji, an author of the classic Japanese cooking said,” Rice is a beautiful when it grows ,precision rows of sparkling green stalk shooting up to reach the hot summer sun. It is beautiful when harvested, autumn gold  sheaves piled on diked, patchwork paddies. It is a beautiful when , once threshed, it enters granary bins like a ( flood ) of tiny seed-pearls. It is beautiful when cooked by a practiced hand ,pure white and sweetly fragrant”. What Shizou Tsuji said is representation of what he felling when rice is being part of agriculture life in Asia. Not only the taste of rice remains me of the precious food for Indonesians people, but also the art of rice make it more precious than a diamond.

Spending summer time in a village is the great experience. Back to the nature life,  is a moment that can I capture in that village. It is small provincial town of NTT, Indonesia. Located two  hours from Ende region, Detusoko is home to around 15,000 people , the majority of whom are involved in production of rice. While some farm rice on larger scale, many just convert their field into a rice paddy for sustenance. There are more than 1,000 varieties grown across the world, but the most cultivated is the family of Oryza Sativa L. I’m very curious about this village affair love the rice.

To Understand why rice is so important for Detusoko peoples, I need look out the culture of  people. According to belief of people, The existence of paddy  was  sacrifice by “ Ine Pare “ who give her  blood and bones to the people. So they love paddy as their own life. Ine Pare had given a life for them, as the present from God. Every single field is consist of one stone that use as the symbols of the sacrifice of Ine Pare”.

Growing rice is one of the most labour-intensive  forms agriculture. It’s need  90 to 120 days to harvest the crop from seedling to maturity. It has instruction  when planting the rice. It’s simple, don’t walk on any of  seedlings, take a couple of seedling from your bundle and plant them so they are standing upright in the muddy soil and the last leave a space between each seedling, roughly the size of a palm print. It’s seems like  an easy job, but it need energy. I have respect for farmer cultivating rice. My body is  worse for make this job, while some of them still has powerful  energy. Starting in one corner , we move horizontally and zigzag like a snake until the job is done. One hectare of land can produce  about  40 kg of rice. Two corps are cultivated each year , with the main crop grown in the rainy season in order to increase yields. The dry season is used to grow vegetables.

Although, the breaking work and poor pay, the people working with the fields are some of the happiest. As I look out across the paddies and see the farmers work with their heart, I think life is perfect. And it all comes down to the art of rice.