Warning Signs

...and the signs said "Anybody caught trespassing will be shot on sight."
Recalling the travelling tales on Southern Europe - end of December 2007.

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A Little Wonder - Let it Go, Let it Slide… .

Let’s say, you meet a circumstance. It is everything you ever wanted. You really fall in affection for it. You get to know each other, and guess what? It has a thing about you too! Sparks are flying, and there’s magic in the air. You get along great, and as time goes by you realize how much you really have fallen for it. It seems nothing could go wrong, you and you’re situation so in love with each other, you share everything together, in every sense of the word.

Then it happened. Suddenly, you feel like it’s just not the same anymore. The circumstance is no longer delightful, and kind. It turned from being the most lovable thing to practically a migraine-causing stranger. You wonder what you’ve done to cause such a change. You labor over endless assumptions and analysis just to explain why things aren’t working the way they were between you and the circumstance. You wonder, does it still mine? You pluck up the courage to ask to all people you think may help, but they just shrug and avoid giving you a definite answer. You feel more frustrated than ever. And yet, their actions are loud and clear, even though they are not saying it to your face. The affection feeling of it once had for you is no longer there.

You try to deny it. You hope. That somehow, maybe… you’re wrong. That perhaps, it can be changed and there’s a perfectly good explanation for the way the situation’s acting. You desperately want to believe that things will get better. But you know you’re not happy anymore. You cry yourself to sleep every night, trying to think of ways to keep it into a good condition. Trying to revive a feeling that was once there but has died a natural death, trying to mend something that you know is broken beyond repair. But then you wake up, and the truth is staring you hard in the face, it’s OVER. No matter how much you try to deny it, part of the chapter in your life has come to an end.

So now comes the painful process of letting go. You know in your heart that you have to, that it’s the right thing to do, but you just can’t! You have been affected. You need that circumstance back. So the natural tendency is to hold on. You tell yourself to just hold on… even though you know it doesn’t belong to you anymore. You come to a point where you blame yourself for what’s happening. But it’s not your fault. You need to understand that there are certain things in life that you can’t control. They need to happen because Allah allows them to happen.

It’s hard letting go of something that we have prepared for so long. It’s painful to watch the thing we have prepared with full of effort, walk away from us. But if they want to go, we need to let them go! It’s easier said than done, but then again life is never easy. Sometimes it hurts like crazy, and it hurts so bad that we feel like we’re about to bleed from so much pain. No one can truly explain how painful it is, without having experienced it themselves. It’s not easy, and it will take time. But know this and trust in this, IT WILL GET BETTER. The age old cliché, “Time heals all wounds“, may sound boring and repetitive, but it’s true. Letting go allows you to become the people you were meant to be. You can’t control it. You can’t force that-such-a-thing to stay with you, if you know they’re not meant for you. What you can do is move on. Believe that there’s something out there has been prepared for you with everything that they have and in the way you deserve to be… .

Letting go doesn’t mean we need to GIVE UP, it just means we need to GIVE IN… give in to the TRUTH, and learn to accept the fact that we may have lost it, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to find it again. Maybe we just needed to be in the wrong circumstance first, before we finally get the right one. And when we finally meet the one that’s meant for us, we will know, because nothing and no one can ever take that away from us. Understand this. Only then will we be able to see the beauty of the situation for what it really is, and appreciate the twist and turns of this journey we call LIFE.

Sometimes knowing the truth is painful and freaking hurts, but it is up to us whether you want to keep suffering it or simply ignore it and move on.

[QS. 16: 40] To anything which We have Willed, We but say to it ‘Be’ and it is (kun fayakun)

Yaa Rabb, berikan aku cintaMu dan cinta orang-orang yang mencintaiMu, dan jadikan amalanku sebagai jalan untuk sampai pada cintaMu" Aamiin ya Rabbal 'Aalamiin

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What Will Be Will Be... .

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Help Your Health

Have you ever considered that you might need to take a multivitamin supplement? If you are not sure, take this short quiz to help verify if you are a candidate for a supplement.

If so, then you need to decide it properly. When choosing a multivitamin, do you buy whatever is on sale that month? Do you take the same one as your boy/girlfriend, fiancé, or housemate? Else, do you buy the one the person at the health food store says is in style? There are numerous multivitamins on the market that finding a good quality one can be confusing. Should you pay extra for natural or is synthetic also acceptable? Get your multivitamin bottle and take this another short quiz to see how your multivitamin measures up.

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Mudah-mudahan Bukan Sebuah Bencana

Prihatin melihat pemberitaan luar negeri mengenai banjir di Jakarta, ibukota Indonesia, kota yang sering kita banggakan. Lebih miris lagi ketika ada komentar ahli terkait yang menganggap fenomena ini sebagai sesuatu hal yang biasa sebagaimana terjadi pada ribuan warga kota yang kini homeless akibat banjir. Lebih sedih lagi jika ada beberapa pihak memang terbiasa menikmati proyek bencana banjir seolah "hidup dari bencana", mungkin kalimat hidup diatas penderitaan orang lain seakan lebih tepat.

Saya bingung, lagi-lagi tak habis pikir, bangsa kita ini lebih bodoh dari pada keledai atau lebih dungu; atau saya saja yang sedang kesal di antara berjuta rakyat lainnya. Konon, seekor keledai tak akan pernah terperosok jatuh di lubang yang sama, sedangkan kita bukan tidak pernah, tetapi seringkali terperosok (atau dengan sengaja memerosokkan diri) justru di lubang yang sama. Sungguh kejadian yang sangat ironis bukan? Dengan bahasa yang lebih halus, kita tak pernah mau belajar dari pengalaman, kecuali harus mengalami lebih dahulu, meskipun itu pahit; Parahnya, itu pun belum tentu cukup menjadi pelajaran bahkan setelah beberapa kali mengalaminya.

Mengapa kita harus belajar dari A padahal A sampai Z bisa kita pelajari dari pengalaman orang lain, sehingga kita bisa memulai dari titik E, N atu Y? Keledai pun bisa menghindar dari lubang yang sama. Banyak sekali pengambil kebijakan kita berkesan tak bisa belajar dari pengalaman masa lalu (atau tidak mau belajar?) Dalam mengatasi akibat bencana, kita selalu seperti tergagap-gagap, seperti baru pertama kali mengalaminya, seperti salah tingkah, dan yang paling "istimewa" adalah hampir selalu saling melemparkan tanggung jawab kepada pihak lain, bahkan sering kepada "alam semesta" yang tak kuasa membela dengan kata.

Alam marah karena kita memanfaatkannya tanpa "cinta". Ruang hijau 'diperkosa' oleh bangunan beton, situ/rawa dianggap tak ekonomis lantas ditimbun menjadi daratan yang laku jual dan laris, bantaran sungai "diserbu" menjadi permukiman, sungai menjadi ciut dan dangkal; permukaan resapan air di perkotaan nyaris habis dilanda kepentingan bisnis (FYI, pusat perbelanjaan di Jakarta meningkat 20 kali lipat semenjak mantan Gubernur DKI Sutiyoso berkuasa, dibandingkan dengan periode kepemimpinan Gubernur DKI sebelumnya - source: urbanpoor.co.id)

Seperti yang kita tahu, lagi-lagi masyarakat dibawah kita yang tetap merasakan ketidakadilan bencana tahunan ini. Karena banjir, banyak jiwa harus mengungsi, penderitaan semakin lengkap karena penyakit mulai dari diare, flu, batuk, radang sendi, ISPA, gatal-gatal, demam berdarah dan leptospirosis menjadi 'subyek pelengkap penderita'.

Kalau mau beranalogi, air itu itu biasa dipakai saat mandi untuk membersihkan badan, banjir yang melanda jakarta pun demikian, selain untuk membersihkan Jakarta dari sampah-sampah yang berserakan di jalan, juga berguna untuk membersihkan sampah-sampah masyarakat.

Sudahlah, saya tidak ingin menularkan energi negatif lebih jauh lepas subuh hari ini, masih banyak hal lain yang harus dipikirkan. Dalam hati tetap tidak bisa mengakui, bangsa kita bukan bangsa keledai.

[QS. 30:21] ...Sesungguhnya pada yang demikian itu benar-benar terdapat tanda-tanda bagi kaum yang berpikir.

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