Live in Love

Catholic is shaken by reports of sexual abuse, but priest in Detroit keep delivering items for the needy even though their church is gone

Christian is said to be harsh and aggresive to homosexual and other religion, but my Christian foster father only spoke of love and acceptance no matter how lewd i seem to be

Hindus in India/Pakistan is responsible for viscious attack to the moslem, but my priests and books taught me only kindness and understanding the universe

Jewish is loathed by probably half of the world due to the fight for the "promised land", but they do not hesitate to back and bring justice for a little girl that being harrassed by a small group within themselves

Moslem has been pictured as "the bad dudes" and militant thanks to a small group people who thinks terrorizing will earn them respect, but an Arab helps a group of Jewish to escape Nazi while knowing fully well the horrible risk of his action.

Those are but a glimpse of how religion is portrayed and how it actually works in reality. It was never about the religion, it was always about the people.

Generalizing people based on their religion is not only stupid, but also discriminative. Saying that all Jewish are crooks, all Moslems are terrorists, all Christians are bigots is like saying all blacks are violent, all asians are stupid, all westerners are immoral. None of it true. You cant accuse a group sharing the same (unpleasant) trait just because a few member of the group act indecent. Would you like to be accused a rapist just because one of the people in your family/circle of friends is a rapist? I assume not.

These facts sound irrelevant, unimportant, can be brushed aside. But I beg to differ. The world is in crisis, and the only way to ride through the storm is to face it together. Answer truthfully: does it matter if a Moslem or a Jewish is your cashier at the supermarket? Does burger made by a devout Christian at your local fast food joint taste better? Assuming you dont know what their religion is, the answer would be NO. The reason is simple: religion is one's business with God, not with people. Except when they forced their religion during what should've been professional work, I see no reason to complain or discriminate.

Take a deep breath and try to digest this: religion is one's own business with God, it's not other people's business. Let it go. Have faith in human. All religion taught love and compassion, and all human (even the atheist) are born with it. Love one another, see through religion, skin color, or whatever difference that you can creatively find. All living things are unique and different, cherish it :)

My Best Friend's Wedding

My best friend was married last week. And I’m so happy forher. I envy her too, but that’s another story.

We went to the same college and attend almost the same classas well, but it takes us 3-4 years to get acquainted with each other. I thinkshe’s a vicious “It Girl” that uses her looks to manipulate people; she thinksI’m the thoughtless beast that stamps on people for my pleasure. How wrong we bothare. Over the days and months to follow, our “acquaintance” turns into a much closerrelationships. Secrets are being told, sleepovers become a regular, and laughterand tears comes on daily basis. It doesn’t take long to realize how dependent Iam to her, how delightful it is to have her near me.

Due to her quiet nature, countless of times I wonder whethershe really cares about me. But on times where I need her most, she was alwaysthere for me. She wasn’t the one to calm you up or run to the rescue, in factonce when I was crying over my boyfriend she began to cry too and said shehates to see me broke down like that, that I’m a much better person than that.I stop crying instantly. A selfish girl? Not at all, that’s how she shows heraffection to me. No unnecessary kind words which we don’t believe, no falsehope that we both loath, we speak with each other with utter bluntness, and werejoice in that.

If you see her, you would think she’s an innocent littlegirl, dying to be rescued and protected. She’s not. To me she is always thelittle girl, though crying bitterly with her every step along the harsh andtreacherous road she needs  to gothrough, still walks along that damned road and will eventually get there tothe end. And it takes strength to do all that. Me? I’ll simply run through thatdamn road, better bled to death quickly than enduring a slow agonizing ordealsuch that. That’s why even though both our college life is hellish and both ourlove relationship is somewhat “tragedy-certified”, she’s the only one of usthat become both a doctor and a Mrs. to somebody she loved dearly. I couldn’tbe more proud of her.

I envy her for her strength to endure such ordeal, for thefeat that she accomplished. That is why I sincerely grateful that to news of herwedding come to me at such a perfect time, when I was all flushed out withexcitement after a surprise rafting trip. If I receive it on the peak of myboredom and utter worries of being single and almost 30, no doubt I’d be a morethan little suicidal. But that’s her life, that’s her feat, and I’m so happyfor her. Though long and difficult the road winds, I believe she will make it.She’s living the life that I wish years ago, a picture of happily marrieddoctor, a life that I will never have. What’s left for me is living the best ofthe life that she’ll never had: a carefree and adventurous life, with allpossible pleasure life gets to offer. We both gonna make it really good. Congratulationsdearest, I love you J. 

Thanks, Love to Have You as My Client!

One of our clients has recently post photos of their wedding on her Facebook, and diligently put our company's name in all the caption. It's not an easy task, mind you, as she post more than 100 pictures that we took on her wedding. And I can't thank her enough for that.

Though it may look simple (a caption of our company's name in their photos/videos; a short post about us in Twitter/Facebook/any social media/forum that they could think of), their acknowledgement matters. In the era where it is easier to write bad reviews and/or comments than writing some short but nice comments (when did the last time you write a nice note for your hairdresser? Besides, harsh reviews gets more attention, right?), in the time period where you were expected to be treated nicely (and why not, you pay loads for it!), we sometimes forget that a simple thanks means a lot.



What does the "thanks" and "kind words" means to me? It means I'm doing a good job, it means I did not work for nothing. Sure, I got paid for what I did. But knowing my work has not gone unnoticed give me even more satisfaction and pleasure. It gives me a reason to live and enjoy my (work) life to the fullest. But the snowball does not stops there.

In our little company we are expected to work and think as a team. This means when a client acknowledge our work, they also acknowledge the sales that assist them, the crew that give their service on the wedding day, the production department that assembled products that they order, even the driver that deliver their final products promptly. So what you may think as a simple note of thanks, a meager or unimportant mention of our work, it actually means a whole lot more as it affect so many people.

Of course, some might think our work is indeed mediocre (or plain lame) and choose not to give comments at all. It's completely their choice. But for those of you that have acknowledge our work (or anybody's work: your supermarket cashier, your taxi driver, all the people you met and assist you - I believe "thanks" should be universal), be it through written or verbal means, through countless recommendation or just a simple mentioning, this article is written. Thank you for letting us know our work is not done in vain, thank you for giving us reason to work harder and be proud of what we do. Thank you for acknowledging us.