What makes home a home—is it a feeling, a memory or a person? Are they separable or are they not? A feeling is something that’s attached tightly to memories, and memories involve people, so at the very end, a home is all three. But for me? For me, a home is a feeling. It’s when my child muttered our name in his sleep; when he jumps with delight at the very sight of us and the way he looks at us before drifting away to his sleep. A feeling so great that makes me whole and grounded, so good it invokes gratefulness in me, and so beautiful it sometimes brings tears to my eyes. Yes, the feeling is love—but it’s not just any love. It’s the kind of love that makes your chest swell with happiness; barely containable but desperately need-able. And about separability… No. I don’t think feelings, memories, and people are separable. Those three—they are the very essence of love. Because without people, you’ll have no feelings, thus no memories, right? The feelings are, of course, gained from ...
“Chickenary = where chicken equals self-resiliency.” Chicken = Resilient. Why? How? In this piece, the chicken sees itself in two different ways. One as a question mark and second as a statement. I am a bird but I can’t fly, why? why? why? I endured every food-processing process, yet I still emerge as a chicken—resiliently, deliciously & wonderfully. The first one leans heavily unto self doubt because of the so many whys (and the answer is really, up to our God’s above) and the second one is one strong statement filled with self pride. As mundane as you think a chicken is, it has been an irreplaceable food of choice on our table, right? The chicken might undergo a temperature so low it becomes frozen chicken and so high it becomes grilled chicken. Some chicken even has rendang paste mixed; then stirred for hours until it becomes rendang chicken. But my point being that they are still chicken, through and through from beginning till the end. Its resiliency persists toward anyth...