Rejuvenated Soul, Ready to Rock

Though I tried to close my eyes as shut as possible, tears painted my cheeks as I chanted my prayers to all of my ancestors in the family graveyard in eastern part of Solo. Names beginning with R.Ng. which means His Highness, R.Ay which means the same thing for the female or R.Aj for younger females were written on the stones. They all look so grand while my grandparents' are made of simple stone painted in black. My mother's big brother escorted me back to the car after I finished wiping the tears with two sheets of tissue.

In his un-air conditioned old car on the way to his house, my uncle began a chat which started with how sad he is whenever he thinks about his grandmother (that would be my great grandmother). He said that she was very thrifty, a keen businesswoman, smart and was never seen angry in my uncle's entire life. She sold the dust from the wood sawed (the wood 'crumb') in her small workshop and collected the money to be given to her grandkids. I had the chance of meeting her and I remember how I used to dance on a newspaper-covered table for her. She wrapped some coins in a piece of paper like a small log and would give those to us, the great grandkids. I never asked how she got the coins. Probably from her savings or her efforts in the business. As a child, I just didn't pay much attention to that.

My uncle's chat reminded me of mom's short story about what my great grandmother said during the economic crisis when everything seemed so expensive. The core idea of her virtue is 'No matter how expensive things can be, if you can still buy them, don't complain.' How simple to say, how difficult to do since we all want to have things as cheap as possible. Hehehe.

That day, my uncle added one more, 'When you walk, don't hold your head up. When you fall, it'll hurt a lot. But if you walk with your head down, it won't hurt that much when you fall.' Being modest, that's all it's about. Though many of my friends may not disagree, laying low has its own advantages. Been there, experienced that, tried the opposite belief, seen the sample in others, watched the opposite and felt gutted. Oh yeah. I am so for this virtue.

From the trip this time, I didn't buy things or visited tourist attractions, search for traditional foods, buy handy crafts or hunt pics with my Nicky. It was intended for meeting people, family and long-time friends. I needed an escape. My soul was fatigue. And in that tight-budget-nearly-backpacker-type trip, I was rejuvenated.