Sunday, November 19, 2006
Bakmi Orpa
Located at Jalan Tiang Bendera, Jakarta Pusat, Bakmi Orpa has been around for three generations. It runs as a very profitable family business. Its menu consisted almost exclusively of noodle soup. This is a picture of its Wonton Noodle Soup.
I have been to this place since I was a kid. It remains one of my favorite noodle places because of its tasty dishes and the nostalgic feeling. The most amazing thing is that many of the patrons are still the same as when I was a little child, which means that they are very, very loyal and maybe eat there almost every weekend. Some of the patrons are the "second generation patrons", which means that like myself, they have eaten there ever since they were children also.
Too bad it is very pricey for this kind of food (at least Rp. 30,000 for a bowl of noodle soup), so we can not come here very often.
I have been to this place since I was a kid. It remains one of my favorite noodle places because of its tasty dishes and the nostalgic feeling. The most amazing thing is that many of the patrons are still the same as when I was a little child, which means that they are very, very loyal and maybe eat there almost every weekend. Some of the patrons are the "second generation patrons", which means that like myself, they have eaten there ever since they were children also.
Too bad it is very pricey for this kind of food (at least Rp. 30,000 for a bowl of noodle soup), so we can not come here very often.
Labels: Food
Let Me Love Her the Way You Love Her
As promised, I am sharing some events from my family life, which has been the greatest blessing in my life so far :)
The message of Fr. Ignatius about living abundantly always echos in our minds. "Seek the best for others while expecting none." It really works. I admit that I had my moments of impatience. Everyone who knows me well has realized that I am inherently impatient. It is the "thorn inside my flesh".
The realization that I have this thorn worried me on the first week of our marriage. I talked about it honestly with Vira, my wife. She said she is worried about her own "thorns" as well.
We have "total honesty" policy in our relationship. It really works. By knowing each other's pasts, quirks, fears and happiness, we become stronger. The first month of our marriage has made me realized what a beautiful thing it is to have a partner. I don't know, maybe this is the feeling that Adam felt when he first met Eve.
I really hope that I can do better than Adam in relying on God when it comes to loving an protecting my family. To share the prayer I say every day: "God, let me love Vira the way she deserves to be loved as your child, let me love her the way you love her". I know with my own strength this will be impossible. For if I am relying on my own strength then I will be trying "to be as God", just as Adam and Eve did. However, with God, I know this marriage will work, no matter how fallible we are as humans.
Please friends, continue to pray for us. Thank you.
To Him be all glory forever and ever!
Adrianus Indra Setiadi
The message of Fr. Ignatius about living abundantly always echos in our minds. "Seek the best for others while expecting none." It really works. I admit that I had my moments of impatience. Everyone who knows me well has realized that I am inherently impatient. It is the "thorn inside my flesh".
The realization that I have this thorn worried me on the first week of our marriage. I talked about it honestly with Vira, my wife. She said she is worried about her own "thorns" as well.
We have "total honesty" policy in our relationship. It really works. By knowing each other's pasts, quirks, fears and happiness, we become stronger. The first month of our marriage has made me realized what a beautiful thing it is to have a partner. I don't know, maybe this is the feeling that Adam felt when he first met Eve.
I really hope that I can do better than Adam in relying on God when it comes to loving an protecting my family. To share the prayer I say every day: "God, let me love Vira the way she deserves to be loved as your child, let me love her the way you love her". I know with my own strength this will be impossible. For if I am relying on my own strength then I will be trying "to be as God", just as Adam and Eve did. However, with God, I know this marriage will work, no matter how fallible we are as humans.
Please friends, continue to pray for us. Thank you.
To Him be all glory forever and ever!
Adrianus Indra Setiadi
Saturday, November 11, 2006
When Sacrifice becomes Joy
"The essence of tenderness is found in the tendency to make one’s own the feelings and mental states of another person" - Karol Wojtyla "Love and Responsibility" (quoted in "Men, Women, and Tenderness" by Edward P. Sri)
What an insight by a wise person, and I totally agree that in a true loving relationships (I will take marital relationship as an example here), God will mold the will of two persons so that they beocome one. This is an invitation to live in tenderness.
I remembered that in 2004, I wrote:
Let me try to give an illustration: a married couple who continue to feel like they are making a huge sacrifice by marrying each other will be in trouble shortly. Bitterness will happen because each feels that he/she is making so much sacrifice trying to satisfy the other.
However, if they truly love each other, and love really works, their will soon will become one. What the husband wills, the wife wills it, too. Maybe not every time. However, each trust the other enough to know that when they have different wills, they are still looking out for the other's best interests. After all, becoming one body is what marriage is all about.
(Making Sacrifices for God - August 4, 2004)
I haven't been married then, but I remembered contemplating that if I claim to love God but yet, continually saying that I am making sacrifices for the sake of loving him, then maybe I would survive only for a short moment. For if I continually feel that I am making sacrifices, I will soon be burned out and what is left will be a sense of bitterness because of the thoughts of things that I was not able to do because I love God.
However, this is not what true love is all about. Now I can actually say it in marriage context (because I am actually married now.. hahaha).
One of the goals (or tenets) of marriage is to become one. This is not an easy task to do. That is why we need the grace and miracle from God. Some couples are fighting hard to make their marriage work, but maybe what they are lacking is prayer and reliance in God. I feel that it takes two saints to make a Godly marriage. It is against wordly instinct to actually trying not only to empathize with other's feelings and mental states, but actually also making them your own and taking responsibilitis for it. In other words, it takes an altruistic love.
Who can guide us toward loving altruistically but God himself who is the source of this perfect love. We certainly cannot do it ourselves! When we rely on God then, our "sacrifices" suddenly becomes our joy because we suddenly have the ability, or passion, to make the other's feelings and mental states ours. Maybe it will not require any effort at all.. just as how the Spirit often works! We suddenly just will the same thing...
This is even more amazing in terms of our relationship with God. Saint Paul has testified that
"No longer I, but it is Christ who lives in me" Galatia 2:20
My take in this is that God also wants us to have this loving relationship with him. God does not want us to continue where we are, that is, we keep feeling that we have to make sacrifices in order to be close to him.
When we truly love someone, the sacrifices suddenly becomes joy, because by making this sacrifices in humility, we also being taught of the others' frame of thought, wills, desires, and mental states. God wants us to lead us into this state both in relationship with him and in relationship with others, especially our spouse.
I will give you some sharings from my marital life soon after this. I think this blog is too long already :)
To him be all glory and honor forever and ever!
Adrianus Indra Setiadi
What an insight by a wise person, and I totally agree that in a true loving relationships (I will take marital relationship as an example here), God will mold the will of two persons so that they beocome one. This is an invitation to live in tenderness.
I remembered that in 2004, I wrote:
Let me try to give an illustration: a married couple who continue to feel like they are making a huge sacrifice by marrying each other will be in trouble shortly. Bitterness will happen because each feels that he/she is making so much sacrifice trying to satisfy the other.
However, if they truly love each other, and love really works, their will soon will become one. What the husband wills, the wife wills it, too. Maybe not every time. However, each trust the other enough to know that when they have different wills, they are still looking out for the other's best interests. After all, becoming one body is what marriage is all about.
(Making Sacrifices for God - August 4, 2004)
I haven't been married then, but I remembered contemplating that if I claim to love God but yet, continually saying that I am making sacrifices for the sake of loving him, then maybe I would survive only for a short moment. For if I continually feel that I am making sacrifices, I will soon be burned out and what is left will be a sense of bitterness because of the thoughts of things that I was not able to do because I love God.
However, this is not what true love is all about. Now I can actually say it in marriage context (because I am actually married now.. hahaha).
One of the goals (or tenets) of marriage is to become one. This is not an easy task to do. That is why we need the grace and miracle from God. Some couples are fighting hard to make their marriage work, but maybe what they are lacking is prayer and reliance in God. I feel that it takes two saints to make a Godly marriage. It is against wordly instinct to actually trying not only to empathize with other's feelings and mental states, but actually also making them your own and taking responsibilitis for it. In other words, it takes an altruistic love.
Who can guide us toward loving altruistically but God himself who is the source of this perfect love. We certainly cannot do it ourselves! When we rely on God then, our "sacrifices" suddenly becomes our joy because we suddenly have the ability, or passion, to make the other's feelings and mental states ours. Maybe it will not require any effort at all.. just as how the Spirit often works! We suddenly just will the same thing...
This is even more amazing in terms of our relationship with God. Saint Paul has testified that
"No longer I, but it is Christ who lives in me" Galatia 2:20
My take in this is that God also wants us to have this loving relationship with him. God does not want us to continue where we are, that is, we keep feeling that we have to make sacrifices in order to be close to him.
When we truly love someone, the sacrifices suddenly becomes joy, because by making this sacrifices in humility, we also being taught of the others' frame of thought, wills, desires, and mental states. God wants us to lead us into this state both in relationship with him and in relationship with others, especially our spouse.
I will give you some sharings from my marital life soon after this. I think this blog is too long already :)
To him be all glory and honor forever and ever!
Adrianus Indra Setiadi
