17 April 2012

It has been over three months since I left my flat in New Haven, but it felt like only yesterday. I could see that last few days very vividly in my mind: half-empty boxes around me, my two large suitcases flowing to the brim, and a big tug in my chest. I sorted through books, clothes, pictures, shoes, deciding what to bring and what to toss, what to ship and what to give away. All the while I was thinking of the one important thing that I had to leave behind: the people I wished I could bring along.

It had been a time of growth and reflection, and though I knew from the start when the journey would come to an end, nothing prepared me to discovering how deep the experience and the people I shared them with have touched my heart.

Change is often scary, even when we know they are not only good, but necessary. We often resist them by drawing virtual borders around us, or allowing others to define them for us. We froze, ignoring our own knowledge that not making a decision is a decision.

We should set ourselves free. Allow ourselves venture out and explore. Embrace whatever life throws at us.  As we grow as individuals some of us may grow apart, and this is part of the reality of evolving. Change requires making sacrifices we don’t like to make. Relearning things that have become habits, Letting -go old belief that we used to hold dear.  Believe that if we open our hearts, everything will fall into place eventually.

Pure Talent

Tough-minded men get mushy in their sleep
And break the by-laws any fool can keep;
It is not the convention but the fear
That has a tendency to disappear.

The worried efforts of the busy heap,
The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer
Produce a few samrt wisecracke every year;
Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap.

The clothes that are considered right to wear
Will not be either sensible or cheap,
So long as we consent to live like sheep
And never mention those who disappear.

Much can be said for social savior-faire,
Bu to rejoice when no one else is there
Is even harder than it is to weep;
No one is watching, but you have to leap.

A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep
Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear:
Although I love you, you will have to leap;
Our dream of safety has to disappear.

– W. H. Auden

Stunning natural beauty is part of Remarkable Indonesia.

Sri Mulyani Indrawati

Indonesia’s remarkable Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati led Indonesia’s response to the global financial crisis in 2008/9 and ensured that Indonesia weathered the crisis well, with growth reduced to the 4-5% range but without the economic disruption that occurred in other countries or in Indonesia during the crisis of the 90s.

Remarkable Indonesian in Bali