Can you do me a favor?

A friend who lives outside Indonesia asked me to do her a favor the other day. She asked me if I could arrange a place in Jakarta to use as studio for her artist friend in Yogya. I told her that I don’t think I could find a low-priced rent in Jakarta but might find one in Ubud. Later she told me that this guy is penniless and wouldn’t be possible to pay the rent and transportation from Yogya. It got me thinking. Nothing is free nowadays. I appreciate her good intention to help, but putting me in a situation to provide?

My neighbor friend is right about some people who feel free to lean on somebody else. Like him, I was so lenient about it in the past because I had and still have the sources (of many kinds). But let’s ponder further, we also have to realize that we could not keep supplying niceness meaning ‘feeding others’. We too are struggling in our lives. If we appear to have easier life, that actually doesn’t come as easy as it looks either. It's because we know how to work out this hard life we could appear easy. We all need to learn from the ups and downs of life (or business). An Australian businessman in Ubud once told me ‘don’t believe in luck, it’s all hard work’. It took me a few seconds before agreed. Nothing falls from the sky.

I’d been nice to many people in the past in the ‘lending-money department’. Not that I want to stop doing it but I also have to consider the concept of education in it. Giving the fish-line, not the fish. In the past I didn’t take time to ponder such aspect because all came easy for me but now I need to. This is the time where I swim in the fast current that I need the swimming skill. I have to learn how to help people without being drawn myself.

So the past days, as things start again, I remind myself to set up a border. Helping out is always nice and necessary but to know the limit and protect self from being carried away is also important. I don’t feel comfortable with this extra work in my mind that I have to work out how to help whoever without destructing the concept of ‘helping’. Grrr…

I went to check out my new shop this noon. It was so hot. It has shown significant progress but still I need the builder to do this and that. We also planned to make table and shelving. Hope it could finish in one week. I also need to start seeking the auspicious day to open a new business. I really hope the shop could open no later than early May. It’s a new challenge. I feel like starting from zero. Well starting any business, even small, it always feels new.

I contacted my neighbor friend to seek advice and he said that he’s still pampering self. Yea. It’s Saturday! He has inspired me to make the day salon day. I pampered myself in Ayu’s hands just now. Mbo Yan is coming in any minute.

What a beautiful Saturday late afternoon. I’m enjoying the best moment in the life in Bali: listening to Bali gamelan playing loudly in the back of my house. It’s practice session it seems. It’s been on since last week. The dynamic rhythm jiggles my spirit.

Photo of my shop today. More red, more black.