The Caterpillar or the Leaves

I've had just enough time...   to harvest a butterfly

The caterpillar hiding under a branch...

Two pots of ailing

Flowering plants

Nursed back to health.

New leaves from

Barren branches

Pleased me.

Shocked me

To see leaves of

One stripped bare.

The next day, the

Rest disappeared.

The culprit was found

Fat under a branch

Shyly hiding from

The sun, leaving me

To decide the fate of

The caterpillar

Or the leaves

My prosperity flowers whose leaves were devoured.
Can you see where the caterpillar is hiding?

I wanted the flowers

Of the plants nursed

To health, but strange

Are the fruits of the

Tree one sowed

I harvest a butterfly

Instead.

What would you choose?
The leaves or the caterpillar or...

The Grasshopper In My Room

I've had just enough time to...   encounter a grasshopper in my room

The grasshopper I encountered in the seventh floor of my hotel room in Kuching

I found a grasshopper

On the seventh floor of my hotel room

How did it get there? I do not know.

But it must have hopped there

All the way from where it came from

I said ‘hello’ but it hopped away

To a far corner of the room

I left to do what hotel occupants do

And when I returned, it was gone

I never saw it again but did I hear its song?

In the early morning

Before the breaking of the dawn

I was awaken by singing in my room

I don’t which is lonelier

The singing by my bed or

The early morning prayer

Enveloped by the yearning

And the longing

I fell into a strange dream

Of heaven and home…

Two days ago when I opened the door to my hotel room in Kuching, a tiny grasshopper sprang away from me. I followed it to the center of the room where it stopped and viewed me with cautious eyes as I snapped it. As I had to leave immediately, I left it undisturbed where it was. When I returned late that night, it was nowhere to be seen. The next morning when it was still dark, I was awaken by the shrill singing that after several moments of sleep deprived confusion, I concluded it must be from the grasshopper in my room though I am not sure what sound grasshopper make. At the same time, the early morning prayer from across the river wafted into my room. Surrounded by these two sounds, I fell asleep again to a strange dream…

How To Surprise A Zombie - Part I

I've had just enough time to...   be surprised not once but thrice

Taken of the new products that are launched on a very special day :)

June 11 2013, I have just returned from US the day before after 30 hours of plane rides and waiting in airports. I then had the longest sleep I had in years lying flat in bed for almost 12 hours. But I was not fully charged. Two weeks of traveling through multiple time zones have taken a toll on this old body. I knew I had to leave the office early and planned to leave sharp at 5.45 pm. At least that was the plan.

At 4.00 pm, a call came in that involved the future of a colleague and a long discussion ensued. I divided my time between two factories. At 4.22 pm, I received a call from the bakery requesting my presence. They said it was not urgent so I planned to go over before 5.00 pm. At 4.45 pm on the way down, I dropped over and have a ‘few words’ with a colleague that lasted an hour and a half.

In the bakery, the factory manager surprisingly ushered me upstairs instead of having the discussion in his room. By that time, I was feeling groggy, running on auto and reserves, and wishing there was a bed somewhere I could lay down to drift into blissful oblivion. In the meeting room, I was surprised to see all the Heads of Departments waiting for me. I was embarrassed that I’ve unwittingly kept them waiting for so long and apologized profusely. They seemed strangely cheerful in spite.

They showed me the new company products that they said will be launched tomorrow. I’m quite absent minded but they laughed that I will never have to ask any of them the launch date for these products because it was on my birthday! I was touched by the gesture. Before I could settle down and digest the feeling, a few of them that left the room earlier came in with a cake and a single lighted candle and the whole crowd burst into the birthday song. I good naturally protested that it was unfair to do it a day earlier to catch me by surprise but I was of course naturally pleased that they went through the trouble to surprise me. I was a zombie that day but they light a fire under the zombie to wake him up. That was just the first surprise…

Eden Is Between Ithaka and Home

I've had just enough time to...   look for Eden somewhere between Ithaka and home

Taken of a Himalayan valley from the edge of a mountain

Eden is between Ithaka and home

But they are in different directions!

Can you take your heart to Ithaka

And not think of home?

Can you stay in the comfort of your home

And not yearn for Ithaka?

I packed my bags and sleep under the stars

Heading for Ithaka

When the journey gets too arduous

And my steps too weary

And home came in my sleep

I know it is time to return

Eden is not a place in some mystical land

Eden is between home and Ithaka

_______

Ithaca 

When you set out for Ithaka

ask that your way be long,

full of adventure, full of instruction.

The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,

angry Poseidon - do not fear them:

such as these you will never find

as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare

emotion touch your spirit and your body.

The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,

angry Poseidon - you will not meet them

unless you carry them in your soul,

unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.

At many a Summer dawn to enter

with what gratitude, what joy -

ports seen for the first time;

to stop at Phoenician trading centres,

and to buy good merchandise,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

and sensuous perfumes of every kind,

sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;

to visit many Egyptian cities,

to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.

Your arrival there is what you are destined for.

But don't in the least hurry the journey.

Better it last for years,

so that when you reach the island you are old,

rich with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.

Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.

Without her you would not have set out.

She hasn't anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.

So wise you have become, of such experience,

that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean. 

Constantine P. Cavafy

How Do You Love Your Flowers?

I've had just enough time to...   love my flowers

Taken of the orchids in my garden...

How a flower looks

Depends very much on where it appears.

Will you go near a flower

Blooming on a cow dung’s heap?

Will you tame a jungle

To get near a wild bloom?

and the dancing ladies doing a wild dance in the wind...

Do you appreciate the common petals

Grown in your own garden?

Or do you covet that

Grown in your neighbor’s yard?

Do you value a flower

Because of its rich surrounding?

And not give a second glance

To that flowering in a junk yard?

while the prosperity flowers welcome the God of Prosperity, still waiting...

Do you love flowers for it beauty?

Or do you love flowers for its virtues?

Or do you love flowers because they are flowers?

An Island of My Own.

I've had just enough time to...   wish to retire to an island of my own.

Taken of a private island not my own in Tanah Merah Lake, Perak, Malaysia.

Out there I know

An island waits patiently,

For me to come home.

Each day

Squeezing through the crowd,

I am an island of my own.

The clock ticks

And with each impatient minute,

I heard my island calling me home.

_______

No man is an island,

No man stands alone,

Each man's joy is joy to me,

Each man's grief is my own.

We need one another,

So I will defend,

Each man as my brother,

Each man as my friend.

- John Donne

The Rest (from Both Sides Now) – Part I

I've have had just enough time to...   see a body at rest and not wonder why.

Taken in one of the small street in Jakarta.

It has been a long day. Sixteen hours and my whole body is aching. I have not had a bath and have not seen my family but the extra money will come in handy. Boy will start his schooling soon. And Indah should see a doctor for her cough.

No point going home now. Will just rest here for while and start another shift. Just a short rest. Man, I am weary…

(Watch out for the conclusion Part II)

Before The Red Gate.

I've have had just enough time to...   pause at The Red Gate.

Taken of myself by myself wearing a T-shirt bought from Bangkok.

Before the Red Gate,

Only one choice to be made.

Enter or escape.

Have You Seen An Orang Utan Dreaming?

I've had just enough time...   to share an orang utan's grief.

Taken in the orang utan island, Bukit Merah.

High above my head,
High on top of a dead tree.
An Orang Utan hang motionlessly.
Was he staring at the sky
Or was he looking at the jungle green
Just beyond the electric fence?

I couldn’t tell.

But what was apparent to me was -
His longing,
His pining,
His dream.

I thought it a great idea. An island reserved specially for orang utan for them to roam free. I gladly paid the RM28 for the boat ride that I was told, helped to maintain their natural habitat. But what I saw shocked me. I saw a small strip of land by the shore barricaded from the jungle. I saw the angry faces of apes with vengeful eyes staring back at us from two layers of fences, one electrified. I saw an orang utan that gave me the same look that Caesar of the “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” did. I saw it throwing an empty coconut husk at us in frustration and anger. I saw baby orang utans in diapers. But the saddest sight and most tragic to me was high above us on top of a dead tree was an orang utan pining for his home. I couldn’t wait to get off the island and away from that cursed place. So if you heard about an island paradise for orang utan in West Malaysia, think twice about going there.