Coffee cups

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.Savour the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Taken from: http://www.izzonline.co.za/2007/07/coffee-cups-and-life.html

Power of love

As a medical physicist, I and my other colleagues are often get called by doctors when they are examining patients or evaluating patients' treatment to be asked advices in physics point of view. One day I got a call from my chief oncologist to see her in her practicing room downstair. So I went to her room and saw her evaluating her patient's CT images on a lightbox. I saw a little girl sitting on her mother's lap and her dad sitting beside them, in front of doctor's desk. The doctor let me look at the images and pointed out to me the location of the tumor that has been removed. It was located at the left orbital, and it seems that the left eye has been removed as well. I asked her to be sure, "has her left eye been removed?" "Yes, look at her!" And I saw her left eye area was covered by a bandage.

I just couldn't imagine how a cute little girl like her has lost one of her eyes in such her young age. Long-black haired, chubby and beautiful girl like her is supposed to have fun with her friends, go to school, learn new things. But now she has just lost half of her sight and her life must be affected terribly by this. Not to mention the threat of tumour recurrence or metastasis.

The doctor asked me whether is it possible to create the treatment plan based on the old CT-scan. Then she answered quickly to herself that we need the patient to have CT-planning for accuracy, and I agreed that. So she asked the parents reluctantly, "I'm afraid that she has to undergo a CT-planning, and it will cost more" "No problem doc, anything best for her!" said the dad.

I'm not sure whether the parents are from wealthy family or not, but their answer indicates how much they love her daughter, more than everything in heaven and earth. Suddenly I cried in heart, wondering if I were that poor little girl, my parents would definitely answer the same thing. And if I had a child suffering great illness, I might also try the best that I could to keep my child healthy. It doesn't matter if money, job, position have to be sacrificed, neck-choking loan has to be taken, they are all nothing compared to the loved ones.

Working in a hospital realizes you that love... is everywhere, is powerful.

how's it going on?

Fuh... it's been pretty long time not hanging out here. Some things change, other things don't. I've been working as a medical physicist for 8 months, nearly a year. I earn money for living...*which is not enough to 'wisata kuliner' every single day, haha...who does that anyway...* it's been a month since I got registered as a legitimate hospital employee, after around 6 months being an 'illegal worker'. I stayed for 3 weeks in Mumbai, India...it was quite memorable...and healthy weeks, I must say. A large number of people in India are vegetarians, therefore it makes the cafeteria in the hospital that I was trained in, serves vegetarian food. So, 6 days a week, 3 times a day, I never touch meat at all. There were all plants, grains, beans, curries, bread and curd which all tasted 'unexpected'. But I gotta say, those food effectively cleaned up my digestive system which had been exhausted digesting junk food. Hey, I had detox! :)

Well, things don't change. I'm still single...and available, by the way. Still take the commuter train to get me to work and bus to get me home. Still fat. It's really hard to lose weight now, especially when you have money in your hand. Once I looked at my brother's graduation pictures at 2003 and saw how thin I was in the pictures...I really miss that. Still trying to marry the girl that I love...and no comment for this.

And for sure, still trying for the best in all aspects of my life. See you!