Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The broken pieces

We are all wonderful, beautiful wrecks. That's what connects us--that we're all broken, all beautifully imperfect.
Emilio Estevez


I woke up in the morning and found this beautiful drawing made by my daughter Devina Gunawan. Beautiful face came from many piece of paper, but it has all the detail that the face should have.

I think that is really the reflection of us. We all come from many pieces; it could be our education background, family or ethnicity. Those made us beautifully imperfect but we look ourselves in the mirror with the perfect reflection of our face.

We actually dont need to be perfect in this life, we dont need to compare with others and think they have a perfect life. No one has a perfect life.

Life is perfect when you think everything is about right, everything is okay with you and within you. And we cannot see our perfection without a reflection of mirror. That is why we need others to see the beauty of our imperfection. We need others to see the perfection in each of our pieces.

We are all coming from the broken pieces but we are beautiful creation. We just need to love every piece in us and we reflect to others.


**Lina Kartasasmita** Jakarta August 6, 2015 at 9.11AM

Sunday, July 19, 2015

The hourglass

The picture represents a quote from Buddha, The trouble is, you think you have time

Devina drew it with a strong understanding that in life we are always busy to plan something about our life, we want so many things to have in this life, but we forget that our time is limited. While we are busy planning our future, we miss a moment in the present, we cannot enjoy what we should enjoy or we dont have any awareness about the present time because our mind tries to capture everything.

We run from day to day to collect everything we need to be happy while happiness is simply in us. We are looking for something that we think we do need in life while we ignore all the blessings we already have in life.

I thought I did those mistakes too in my life, I was busy going back and forth between the past and the future, I tried to fix any mistakes I made in the past and I also tried harder not to repeat the same mistakes in the future by making many good plans. Travelling between past and future, my minds were full and tired to make everything went right. I really forgot that I could only make everything better at the present moment, so that would fix the mistakes that I had done before and I would be a different person for the future.

This drawing reminds me to take a break and I learn to enjoy what I have today.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. - Buddha

**Lina Kartasasmita** Jakarta July 19, 2015 at 5.26PM





Friday, July 17, 2015

“Never give up on each other”

I have been waiting to have this time to sit and to write a note for my 24th wedding anniversary. This quote came into my mind

A perfect marriage is just two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other

That was actually what we had been through at the first five years of our marriage. Both of us totally imperfect people who thought we were perfectly glued by the love we have. When two people promised to share their life together, it was never easy to do. We started the adjustment by daily basis, from the simple actions such as where to put the towel or the taste of the food we had.  It could create the problems from simple one to the most complicated one. It created a burden in my heart, so I told my husband,
Maybe it is better for you to find someone who is perfect for you
He said, I dont want to give up on you, I tried to manage our long distance relationship for 7 years and we did, I can find someone else to be with, but there is no guarantee I will not have problem. I might not have the same problem that I have with you, but for sure I will have different problem with that person. I still believe you are the right person for me, so I dont want to give up

I was glad he never gave up on our relationship. It took a lot of sacrifices to understand each other, to accept the good and bad of our personality, and to adjust our expectation to the reality of marriage. Love is one of the elements to glue our marriage, but on the top of that is the strong commitment and the vision we have to build the happy family.  Our commitment is not to give up on each other.


Love is not a feeling, nor an emotion; but it is a commitment. Anniversaries remind you the day that you commit yourself many days and years ago. Jazzian Ortega

Happy 24th wedding anniversary to my husband and my best friend, thank you that we never give up on each other.


**Lina Kartasasmita** Jakarta, July 17, 2015 at 9.39PM

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Kirk Tinsley' s writing

I would like to share in my blogs, one of my students writing in Indonesian language. He wrote it by himself and I am so proud of him. 

Through his writing I can see the beauty of diving in Indonesia, which I probably never do it by myself. Thank you for Mr. Tinsley for giving me the  permission to publish his writing in my blog. 

Empat Minggu di Sumatra

Tujuh minggu lalu saya bekerja di Pekanbaru Sumatra. Saya kerja di sana untuk empat minggu. Saya tinggal di Sumatra, tapi saya terbang pulang pada hari Sabtu dan Minggu.
Penerbangan dari Jakarta ke Pekanbaru adalah lebih baik karena saya bisa upgrade ke Kelas Bisnis. Saya menemukan rencana “EMD Jam Penerbangan” yang boleh upgrade untuk Rp 330.000,- (~US $25). Saya mencoba untuk penerbangan dari Pekanbaru ke Jakarta tapi orang Garuda tidak tahu tentang itu.
Waktu di Sumatra, saya melihat banyak monyet. Ada tiga jenis monyet satu kecil coklat, satu kecil hitam, dan satu lebih besar. Tapi monyet besar tidak kelihatan karena pemalu.

Setiap pagi saya mendengar suara monyet besar. Saya rekam suara monyet besar di iPhone saya.
Di Sumatra punya rumah tamu seperti hotel nama Wisma Bukit. Saya tinggal di sana selama dua minggu. Kemudian saya pindah ke rumah tamu lain nama Lantana. Orang-orang Indonesia percaya rumah tamu Lantana berhantu. Mereka percaya berhantu karena dekat hutan.
Saya tidak percaya hantu tetapi malam terakhir saya tinggal di ruang tamu Lantana, saya sendirian. Itu sedikit menakutkan.
Untuk makan siang pelayan di rumah membawakan makanan dari Mess Hall. Makanan baik tapi saya tidak suka ikan. Saya suka ayam dan sapi.
Satu malam saya pergi dengan rekan-rekan untuk makan malam. Kami pergi ke rumah makan baru “Sushi Tei”. Itu sangat bagus dan sama separti Sushi Tei di Jakarta.
Itu sulit berada jauh dari keluarga saya untuk empat minggu. Tapi saya bisa belajar banyak tentang Sumatra.

Cerita dari Kirk Tinsley
Senior OE Advisor
Chevron Indonesia Co


 Menyelam di Bali
Untuk liburan (R&R) saya pergi ke Bali dengan istri dan putri saya. Dua teman sekolah putri saya pergi dengan kami. Banyak murid lainnya dari JIS pergi ke Bali juga.
Di Bali, putri saya dan saya menyelam di Nusa Penida. Kami melihat banyak binatang laut.
Kami melihat “Manta Ray”. Mereka terlihat seperti burung saat mereka berenang.

Kami melihat “Moray Eel” juga. Mereka punya gigi yang tajam dan suka menggigit.
Kami melihat “Lion Fish” juga. Lion Fish cantik tapi punya punggung yang beracun.
Kami lewati ikan “Parrot”. Ini ikan Parrot sangat penasaran. Dia berenang tepat di kamera.
Empat foto di atas berasal dari video yang diambil dengan GoPro saya. Saya membeli filter merah untuk GoPro saya dan itu membuat warna yang lebih indah.
Putri saya dan saya melihat ikan hiu. Beberapa orang takut ikan hiu. Putri saya takut sedikit ikan hiu. Saya tidak takut, karena saya pikir mereka anggun.

Foto ikan hiu diambil dengan kamera putri saya. Kameranya memiliki pengaturan untuk mengatur warna di bawah air. Tapi warna dari kamera tidak sejelas warna dari GoPro dengan filter merah.
Kami melihat lainnya binatang laut tidak biasa. Satu binatang laut itu sangat kecil tapi itu sangat cantik. Namanya adalah “Nudibranch”.
Kami juga melihat tempat pembersihan ikan. Ikan besar datang ke sana untuk membiarkan ikan kecil membersihkan mereka.


Saya mengerti sekarang dikatakan  menyelam terbaik di dunia adalah di Indonesia.
Cerita dari Kirk Tinsley
Senior OE Advisor
Chevron Indonesia Co