Home is where the heart is.

At the beginning of my latest sketchbook that I am currently working with I had written a short line, " Wherever you are, be at Home. the is where the Heart is." While having my coffee at at the restaurant where I have been hanging out for the over ten years now and where most of the water colors and sketching were being done, I tried to explain to one of the young man who was browsing through the sketchbook what this statement meant. I had to translate the lines for him as he was not well versed in English. I shared with him what it meant to me when i wrote it as it came to my mind as a realization. I told him that in my life, home had always been on the road, where ever I was and has been and is at today, that's my home. My family are those that are around me at the time and I treat others like they are my brothers and sisters or my loved ones and that includes all, young and old and those who are strangers to me, meeting for the first time.It does not matter whether they are Black, White or Blue in color. I greet them like they are my family, the rich, the poor, the educated or the drug addicts.

His eyes lit up and he nodded his head at me like he had just had an awakening, "Yes! it is true!" This is why I told him further that I can walk into this place at three in the morning and not feel intimidated or afraid even though this is a 'Red Zone Area' for drug trafficking, gambling and so forth and that it is forever under police surveillance and narcotic raids. I have never been confronted or attacked as a matter of fact not even a harsh word had ever been uttered in my face here, only respect. The taste of the black coffee in my mouth made me want a cigarette, which I had stopped buying to cut down on smoking, but the yearn for it was too strong that i told him to find me one and he immediately went off to find me one. After about fifteen minutes later another friend came by and asked me if i like the local Indonesian cigarette, and handed me an unopened pack which he had got for free. I looked at my young friend and asked him if he now understands what I had written and he smiled wide and nodded his head. I told him had i been patient enough for another fifteen minutes i would not have to asked for a cigarette, I would have been offered a whole pack instead; this is being at home.

When you open your heart to the rest of the world, it opens its heart to you and anything you ask for is given as the world watches over you and your needs. I always like to look good or at least presentable wherever i go, and my friends would would often comment of this and I would tell them, I may not have a dime in my pocket but that does not mean I have to look it. It is not meant to show off that i wear a Tissot watch worth a couple of thousand dollars, a gift from my son and stopped working when the battery ran out, or the Adidas sneakers, or the American Eagle jeans, all of which were given to me  i still wear simply because they gives me a sense of character. They call me 'the Professor', as a term of endearment here or the Artist but they treat me like I am their grandfather, most of the young adults who hang around to buy or sell drugs. I learned earlier on in life. that in respecting your self, your manners and appearance, the chances are you would be treated with respect and in treating others with an open heart and mind you will be treated the same. This is when you, "Ask and it shall be given." In giving your self unconditionally, the world gives back to you likewise; if you have doubts about this, put it to the test. Like try being a Dick and see how you will be responded.

"True life is not about what you have but who you are." - Mooji.