孟姜女 (Lady Meng Jiang)

This is a Chinese folk love story, China is a romantic country with more than 5000 years of civilizations. Many stories and legends live with Chinese people from generation to generation. The following is a Lady Meng Jiang story, she was a legendary character during the Qin Dinasty who went to the Great Wall in search of her husband, a conscripted laborer of the Wall. She learned that he had died of hunger and exhaustion while building the Wall.

Lady Meng Jiang is also known as Meng Jiang Nu.
In the Qin Dinasty, there was a good-hearted and beautiful girl named Meng Jiang Nu.
One day, when she was doing her housework in her courtyard, suddenly she was discovered a man was hiding under the grape rack. She was very scared and she wanted to shout aloud, but the young man waved his hands and asked for help. ''Don't yell please, and save me. My name is Fan Xiliang. I am here to seek refuge.''

''At that time.....
Qin Shi Huang Emperor was building the Great Wall. He deployed troops to catch civilian young men to help to complete the gigantic project. Many workers were tired or starved to death.''

Meng Jiang Nu agreed to save him. She knew that he was a handsome and well-learnt gentleman. She had the feeling of adoration of him and he loved the girl too. So in love and they asked for their parent's consent, they were to be married.

On the day of weddings, red lanterns and beautiful decorations were in their family. Happy guest crowded in the dining hall. When the darkness came, all the guests returned home. Suddenly the ferocious soldiers entered their house. They didn't say anything, they just arrested Fan in locks.

Fan Xiliang was transferred to the Great Wall construction site to do harsh labor works. Heartbreaking sadness was fully filled the heart of Meng Jiang Nu. She missed her husband very much. She thought that instead of staying at home to waits the news of him, she would like to search him in the construction site.

She tidied up her baggage and set out to the Great Wall. On the road, she weathered many hardships because of dangerous landscape and harsh climate, but she didn't cry and feel pain. The spirit of love had supported her physically and psychologically.

She reached the construction site, but she had still to find him in every small site. For a long time she couldn't find him. At last, she asked a migrant worker,''Is Fan Xiliang here?''
''Yes, he is here and he is a newcomer, but he is dead and his corpse is buried under the foot of the wall,'' the migrant worker answered.

It was like a big thunder in the sky. Meng Jiang didn't see anything, but darkness. She suddenly burst into tears, she cried mournfully for three whole days and nights. The Heaven was moved by her tears. The sky turned dark and the wind grew strong. A part of the Great Wall was collapsed and the body of Fan Xiliang appeared. The tears of Meng Jiang Nu dropped in the distorted face of her beloved husband. Meng had finally seen Fan Xiliang but he didn't see her, because he was killed by Emperor Qin Shi Huang. She then buried her husband and jumped into the sea out of grief.

The Great Wall of China

Mood Swings

It is one of those days I felt lonely and bored. The day is dark at this time, and the heavy rain flushed the city. It is another my rainy days. Gently I rolled my blanket, and I ready to get up. Lazy morning!!!
I woke up and get my coffee after I washed my face and brushed my shiny teeth, he he he
I always took a special care of my teeth, so they look so shiny and I'm pride of it. Well, I won't to talk about my teeth furthermore.

I looked over the window, and I found the heavy rain falls still singing, tik tak tik tak...on top my attic roof. I always felt miserable when the day getting dark yet the rain falls accompanies the dark ambiance. Chinese people said, when a person has a mood swing when the weather turned dark, so that person might affected by 抑鬱症 ( Yi Yu Zheng) = disorder depression. It's just like a melancholy feeling. The person felt so sad and wistful without reason, so do I at this moment. I believe 100% about what they said (I mean Chinese people), if the mood swings caused disorder depression. In the other case, mood swings may be caused from premenstrual syndrome, menopause, pregnancy, stress and depression (it's only for women).

I thought I was losing my mind, I got irritability, mood swings, bored and on top of all that I felt have no energy. I don't know why and what is the reason. Might be mood swings and irritability has an emotional aspect as well.

My Chinese traditional medicine doctor told me that I'm fatigued. I must take enough rest and relax in my daily habit. It's common in Taiwan and other Chinese countries to go to traditional doctors for some kind of diseases. I've done what the doctor said, but I still miserable when day turned dark and rainy. I only know that a mood swing is defined as a mood that changes erratically, often going from one extreme to another. The other doctor (not traditional) I've visited suggested that I might use hormone replacement therapy. He said this is most suitable for me, but I thought I got a mood swing not because I have premenstrual. It caused another reason.

The rain turned more torrential, I'm afraid it would cause flooding again in my town and unfortunately my house is close to the river. By the way,I heard a roving greengrocer come closer and stopped right in front of my house. Soon after most my neighbors go out for shopping vegetables, these recent weather not allowed us to go to market. I took my umbrella and slowly I open the door and gathered with them to shop vegetable and I got my favorite tomato, lettuce and I also bought some eggs. I think I want to cook Egg Drop Soup (蛋花湯= Dan Hua Tang). It will be nice dishes for cold weather.

Well, maybe with cook some of my favorite dishes could swing my mood from bad mood to happy mood. But, I'm not sure. I still felt I would to cry, and yelling. I took my phone and called my friend, I hope she would be willing to hear my grievances. I wait for a few minutes, but nobody answered the phone, oh ghost! I completely lonely.

I pondered and listened to the sound of the rain. The melody is unchanged and aligned. I keep listening and I found myself a little bit better. Now I know, I need to calm down before I shout to at anyone. I don't want this anxiety holding me back, and I look like a person has multiple personalities. I thought meditation is one of those ways I would try soon.

I know that everyone has changes of heart and mood swings; that's actually a normal part of being human. So I didn't worry, not only I am who have such this feeling, but also many women even men could have a mood swing.

After a couple of hours later.
Now is three o'clock at noon, Taiwan time GMT+8. I finished my first meditation, I feel more calm and I can enjoy the melodious sound of the rain falls outside. I'd recommend if some day you get a mood swing, you really to make yourself calm down at first, and then listening to the melodious music or playing musical instruments. May also you could integrate relaxation therapies anything from meditation, yoga and deep breathing exercise. (From my personal experiences)

This is the music I was listening to.

The Girl Burying Flowers

This is a sad story in Chinese classical famous work '' A Dream of Red Mansions.''
A young girl was still weak after her illness. She walked out and strolled about. She came into a woods of pomegranate and found the flowers was falling everywhere on the ground.

She felt so sad for the flower, that caused her to remember of herself. She picked the falling flowers and collected them into a bag and prepared to bury them. When she was picking the flower, she treated the flower as her old friend and she said to them;

''At present you die then I collect and bury your body,
But what time is difficult to predict when I lose my life.
Now I bury the flower so people laugh at my foolish act.
Who do you know would bury me in another year?
Look at the spring now in its remnant and the flower is gradually to fall,
Is it the time that the young girl passes away?
One day as the spring passes completely, I will be old and lost my young appearance.
At that time if you fall again but I die.
Who will bury you again and who will bury me like I did for you?''

English Lyrics; The Girl Burying Flowers

Flawers fade and fall everywhere, who would sympathize with their withered rosiness?
The petals are blown over a pavilion, and the catkins are stuck in the curtain.
All the year round, the frosty cold comes around aggressively.
The enchanting beauty cannot last long and disappears once scattered away.

Flowers bloom in extravagance but fade in silent, and the girl burying the flowers is depressed.
Lonely and in silence she weeps, and the branches are stained with her blood.
Hopefully with wings to flutter, she would follow the flying petals to the end of the heaven.

At the end of the heaven, is there any resting place for the fragrance?
What is still left after the beauty has died?
The clean soil will cover the romance that has gone.
The chaste body remains clean in the earth, never should it fall into the dirt.

At present I collect your dead body and bury it, but it is hard to predict when I lose my life.
Now people laugh at me burying flowers, but who would bury me in a later year in return?

Spring is now in its remnant and the flowers are about to fall, it will be the time that the girl passed away.
Once the spring comes to the end, and she has lost her beauty, who will still care for the falling flowers and the dying girl?

Human Trafficking & Modern Day Slavery

Every year, these unfortunate victims are either lured, sold or forced against their will into a black-market of human trade known as human trafficking. Human trafficking is the fastest increasing criminal industry in todays, and I committed to fight against human trafficking. To fight human trafficking is not easy yet the fight has been hampered by the lack of common vocabulary and framework for discussing the problem.

Huge numbers of unemployed people nowadays, caused lots of people step in such justifies any means. They will never care about others distress. They just want to make money that would enable to overcome their poverty.

Before I'm moving to Taiwan, I met a mother of two girls. Her older daughter went to Macau to earn money on purpose, and the younger one went to Singapore with the same goals with her sister. The older girl called Maria meanwhile her sister called Julia. They left their mother alone at home with a handful of goals and expectations. As the mother told me, her husband was dead several years ago caused he had a severe disease and have no money to go to the doctor. Sometimes poverty could lead somebody will live in pain even dead.

Both Maria and Julia enrolled themselves to a recruitment agency thru a broker. It's common in my place ask brokers for help when we need to go to work overseas. Sometimes the broker will give a promise a very nice job and high salary. Very tempting and seductive for who didn't have any experience work overseas. Maria and Julia themselves readily agreed with it touts bid.

On the appointed day, Maria and Julia take off and leave their mother and their beautiful calm town. Accompanied by their brokers, they went to the manpower training center.

It was almost three years ago, after they left their town and until now nobody knows where's them even their mother just lost both of them. A pity old woman only could put her expectations and with a hopefulness she trusts that her daughter will be back.

Nobody cares about her misery, she already asked the broker who taken her daughter, but the broker just told her nonsense. The town official themselves also couldn't give her certainty assurances after she gave them a report about her daughter vanished.

Such that incident is often happened not only in my place but how many times I've heard that happened in other countries. A Lin, a 17-year-old Chinese girl works as an artisan dishwasher at a small restaurant to increase her family's little income. Accidentally she met Ms. Wang, a 45-year-old woman who came to the restaurant where A Lin works.

Ms. Wang offered to A Lin a nice job as waiters in a big pub, and it will be better than she had now. Ms. Wang also tell A Lin that she will receive some tips from a guest and visitors. The tip itself sometime more than the salary. Seduced to earn a lot of money, A Lin agreed and she decided to go with Ms. Wang on the same day. Ms. Wang took A Lin to the pub as she have promised A Lin to work in.

After A Lin works a few days as a waiter, soon after that the servitude and extended to sex with customers in a back room of the pub. She threatened will be killed if she omitted. On the other hand, Ms. Wang acted as A Lin's controller or common it called a pimp and collected her income.

How many victims of human trafficking in every year around worldwide. Human trafficking deprives hundreds even thousands of people, men and women, kids even teenagers; of their human right, standard lives and freedom.

I AM TAKING A STAND, AGAINST SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING!!!!

So Grateful

''I finally realized that being grateful to my body was the key to giving more love to myself.''
~Oprah Winfrey~


''Dear God, I wanna take a minute not to ask for anything from you, but simply to say thank you for all I have.'' I almost everyday say that's words, when I woke up in the morning and I still found myself alive. Thank God, thanks for this beautiful and blessed life.

Last night I can barely even fall asleep, due yesterday I took a nap too long, also when I woke up I had a cup of coffee. It's almost middle night when I tried to lay down in bed, but my eyes still wide opened. I don't want to force myself to sleep as well, and then I woke up and start to write something.

I wrote my stuff carefully, I always made many mistakes but I don't care. I want to learn more and more so I didn't scare when I made mistakes. I can learn from my mistakes itself as well as experiences.

My body and mind felt very weak, then I glanced at my clock and it's nearly 2am. I decided to end my bustle and go to bed. The weather pretty chilly last night, my blanket is not warm enough to keep me from frigid. I indolent to go up stair and get another thicker blanket, as a result of my laziness I stayed up all night because I have coldness and I can't fall asleep anymore.

I felt like drunk in the morning. My head was pounding and my eyes watery. I fairly couldn't stand up, the earth was spinning too fast as I felt. I have laid my body down on a sofa in the living room. The rain still dripping outside, and I enjoyed the sound of the rain falls. Slowly I closed my eyes and soon after that I went to catch my dream.

Thank God for the beautiful morning. I am grateful for all Your Blessings!

Language Barrier

Taiwan oh Taiwan......! Although I lived here for years but my body physical still startled when the weather changed drastically. The winter hit me again, and I caught a cold. These days recent is rainy days, close a whole week the rain falls dripping. Taiwan has four seasons and it's quite different from my own country. In Indonesia we only have two season span the year, which are rainy season and dry season. Almost along the years we such have the same temperatures.

As a rainy day today, I can barely go out for neither jogging or do other exercise like I had done in every morning. As a result for all this rain, I just stay inside my lovely house. It's almost 9 o'clock, after I finished my breakfast I had watched TV. The sound of rain falls on the roof disturbed my auditory, I couldn't watch the TV seriously. Thereafter I'm spinning around my room like intoxicated, until involuntarily I compelled to open my room's window.

The rain still dripping, while from a distance I looked at a couple under the rain quarreling. Be careful I stared  them, they are my neighbor. His name is Chang Chao Bo but people only called him Chang according his surname. In Taiwan and other Chinese people always summoned their surname. Mr. Chang is married a Vietnamese girl, her name is Kim Cuc, they have been married for two years.

I've heard they always fighting due to misunderstanding. Two years is not enough for Kim Cuc to completely understand Chinese. Unfortunately, Mr. Chang is such impatient person, so that when they argued a small thing he always instantly furious, worse yet sometimes he beats his wife.

In the other hand, Kim Cuc also such a selfish woman even very cynic. When her husband got angry because he didn't understand what Kim Cuc talking about, she always went to her friend's house and ignored her husband instead. She has bad tempers.

Once a while, Mr. Chang ordered a tablespoon and she gave him some sugar instead. ''How can I eat my soup with sugar,'' Mr. Chang pitched fierce. ''You such a gig,'' answered Kim Cuc. Eagerly Kim Cuc put the sugar into her husband's soup. Wide eyes Mr. Chang looked what his wife had done. ''You are really insane, I will take you go to the psychosis doctor then,'' said Mr. Chang. ''I'm not mad, you are crazy not me,'' Kim Cuc yelled and left her husband alone.

I myself experienced, it's really difficult to distinguish Chinese accent words. Sugar in Chinese called 糖 (Tang) and tablespoon is 湯匙 (Tang Chi). If you didn't pay attention when Chinese people talk to you, maybe you will often misunderstand what they meant. One word has four different tones (First tones, Second tones, Third tones and Fourth tones). Like the pronunciation ''Tang'' it's also could be mean ''Lie Down'' (躺=Tang) and ''Hot'' (燙=Tang).

I thought it's a big problem among foreign brides in Taiwan, even though the government provided them a free Chinese language course but still some of them hard to can speak Chinese. By the way when we want to marry people from others countries, it's important to learn their language first to avoid misunderstandings. Don't let language barriers will alleviate the happiness in the family.
How about you? Are you ready to marry people who speak different languages?

The Miracle Of Love, True story!

~The use of miracles as spectacles to induce belief is a misunderstanding of their purpose~


Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling.

The new baby was going to be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sang to his sister in Mommy's tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her.

The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee, USA. In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was every five minutes, every three, every minute. But serious complications arose during delivery and Karen found herself in hours of labor.

Finally, after a long struggle, Michael's little sister was born, but she was in very serious condition. With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee.

The days inched by. The little girl got worse. The pediatrician had to tell the parents the was very little hope. Be prepared for the worst. Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their house for their new baby they found themselves having to plan a funeral.

Michael, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. ''I want to sing to her,'' he kept saying. Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over. Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids never allowed in Intensive Care.

Karen decided to take Michael whether they liked it or not. If he didn't see his sister right then, he may never see her alive. She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket. The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, ''Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed.''

The mother rose up strong in Karen and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse's eyes, her lips are firm line,''He is not leaving until he sings to his sister.'' Then Karen towed Michael to his sister's bedside. He gazed at at a tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment he began tossing. In the-pure hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sang;

''You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray.''

Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. The pulse rate began to calm down and became steady. ''Keep on singing, Michael,'' encourage Karen with tears in her eyes.

''You never know, dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away.''

As Michael sang to his sister, the baby's ragged, strained, breathing became as smooth as a kitten's purr. ''Keep on singing, sweetheart.''

''The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms.''

Micahel little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest, seemed to sweep over her. ''Keep singing, Michael.'' Teras had now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse. Karen glowed.

''You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don't take my sunshine away....''

The next day,...the very next day...the little girl was well enough to go home.
                                                                       

The story submitted by Cindy.