Timo worked as a guide-interpreter for a British army battalion stationed near Serian Town during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation from 1963 to 1966. In 1963, I was in Primary 4 at our village’s mission school, and by 1966, I was a Form 1 student boarding at Serian Government Secondary School. During
“Diligence is the mother of good fortune.“ Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was a prominent British politician, writer, and statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, first in 1868 and then from 1874 to 1880. WHEN I was a child growing up in our remote rural village from
Father’s words cut through the room like a knife. “No rice? Seriously?” His disbelief mirrored the worry etched on all our faces. “Go check it out for yourself!” Mother’s response was a mix of resignation and determination. Father flung open our rice jar, the last hope in the grim situation,
When asked by a friend why he wanted to get married, a young man gave a simple answer. “Two is better than one,” he said. Lijah (sometimes shortened to Ijah) felt incomplete on his own. To him, having a partner, particularly a spouse, made a lot of sense. “I’ve got
HIS name was Niba Gibap. It wasn’t his real name, just a nickname his friends gave him that stuck for life. Niba loved school. Back in the early 1950s, he was called Raham, short for Abraham. Unfortunately, his parents were too poor to afford notebooks and pencils. One of his
‘The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882); an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet whose writings explored themes of individualism,
‘Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same.’ – Helen Keller (1880-1968); an American author, lecturer, and activist. She was deaf and blind at the age of 19 months due to an illness, yet
In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1861). He was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. DURING my childhood, I knew a man who
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.“ Nelson Mandela (1918-2013). He was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist. I remember two brothers who were close to my family in the late 1950s. This was around the time
