bahagia-bahagia yang sederhana

Very little is needed to make a happy life.

Itu adalah hal yang saya sadari ketika mengunjungi salah satu sisi utara dari Kalimantan beberapa waktu lalu. Menjejakkan kaki di sebuah pulau kecil yang berada di pucuk Kalimantan, menarik diri sejenak dari hiruk pikuk ibu kota, rasanya membuat saya sedikit banyak tertampar. Tidak banyak hal yang dapat dinikmati dari kota kecil yang saya kunjungi, tidak ada kafe, tidak ada mall, tidak ada bioskop, bahkan tidak banyak tempat yang dapat dijadikan objek wisata. Mungkin sebagian besar orang yang terbiasa dengan hingar-bingar ibu kota akan merasa bosan menghabiskan waktu di sana.

“Tapi bahagia kami di sini sederhana,” begitu kata seorang teman yang menjadi ‘pemandu’ saya selama 5 hari 4 malam di sana. Dan setelah mengamati geliat kota tersebut selama berhari-hari melalui kaca mobil pick-up, saya rasanya dapat mengerti ucapan teman saya ini. Bahwa bahagia ternyata bukan melulu tentang sesuatu yang besar yang dapat membuat semua orang melirik iri kepada kita, melain sesuatu yang sederhana, dapat diraih, dan berada di depan mata. Bahwa bahagia tidak selalu tercipta dengan makan malam romantis di lantai teratas sebuah restoran mewah, melainkan sesederhana bergandengan tangan menyusuri jalanan berdebu menuju rumah. Bahwa bahagia tidak melulu hadir saat kita nongkrong di kafe paling hits versi Instagram, melainkan cukup dengan berkumpul di sebuah angkringan yang sama setiap minggu bersama teman-teman.

Sulit sekali mendapatkan sinyal di sana, kalau provider-mu bagus mungkin kamu bisa membuka Instagram atau Path dengan waktu loading yang cukup lama, tapi kalau tidak, bisa membuka LINE saja rasanya sudah cukup beruntung. Jangan harap Snapchat atau Instagram story-mu dapat berhasil dengan sekali coba. Tapi toh, anak-anak muda di sana masih tetap berbahagia, tanpa sinyal, tanpa wi-fi, dan bahkan kadang dengan listrik yang mati berjam-jam. “Bahagia mereka sederhana,” lagi-lagi teman saya berujar. Bahagia tidak selalu tercipta ketika kamu berhasil mendapatkan foto yang instagram-able, meng-uploadnya, dan mendapat ratusan likes, melainkan cukup dengan berdiri di pinggir pantai bersama sahabat, tertawa, dan menikmati matahari yang membakar kulit. Sesederhana itu, menikmati momen tanpa membaginya ke dunia luar—hanya kepada orang yang sedang berada di sebelahmu, tanpa check-in, tanpa diedit, tanpa hashtag, tanpa quotes indah yang dipikirkan atau dicari selama berjam-jam.

Temukan bahagiamu!

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savor the simplest

It is a small way in delivering the love that makes a huge difference.

I can’t remember when the last time my dad do the ‘fixing-things’ at home. Do the plumbing, change the lamp, repair a leaky roof—I can’t picture him doing those things, may be when I was little—may be the memories of him did those kind of works are buried at the back of my mind.

But tonight was quite different. My dad brought home a new door lock. My bathroom’s door lock was broken for quite a while, actually I pretty used to it by now. So tonight, when I was busy watching the latest episode of my favorite Korean drama, he fixed my bathroom’s lock. I didn’t realize at first, but after some time and some ‘click’ and ‘clack’, I realized that my dad was doing something in my bathroom. Later, when I went to the bathroom, I realize there was this brand new lock attached on my door.

It was simple. It wasn’t a grand gesture. Or even a heroic one.

It’s just a lock.

My dad was just fixing a lock. Something that any handyman can do.

But here is the thing that makes it quite different: He didn’t ask someone to fix it. He did it himself. For me.

There is a huge difference when you pay someone to deliver a bouquet of flower to your love instead of giving it to her yourself. There is a huge difference when you ask someone to drive your son to school instead of driving him yourself. There is a huge difference when you hire someone to teach your kids, instead of teaching them yourself.

Those differences in how you deliver your love affects how the others feel about it. And now whenever I look at my new door lock, I smile a little bit :)

Cheers for the love!

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Life in miniature

I was 12 when I experienced my first long-haul-flight to Australia. It was my first time realizing that the earth is so tiny up above. The houses got smaller, smaller, and vanished as scattered dots as my plane went higher. The green landscapes appeared in blocks, the rivers went in line, and seeing it from sky made me held by breath for a while. What a lovely miniature I’ve been living in.

Then it happened. The tsunami. I was at a hotel in Sydney when the local television broadcasted how the giant waves swiped up the west side of my country. It was a heartbreaking scene—seeing the spectacular miniature that I just saw on the plane swiped up just like a paper town.

The impact was huge. The lost stayed for a long time. The ache seemed could last forever.

And it struck me; we may live in a paper house, work in a plastic building, breath in a vulnerable earth. But still, the feelings we have, the love we share, the bond we make, they are all bigger than the world we live in. Stronger than the miniature we see everyday.

Deeper.

Tougher.

Incomparable.

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the art of living a life

I’ve been trying some baking lately, simple and quick one like cheesecakes, brownies, cookies, cupcakes—something easy and doesn’t require a lot of experiences and skills. I googled the recipes, then buy some ingredients according to them. At first, I thought it’s just about ‘read and do’.  I read the recipe, measured everything according to it, followed the steps, tried not to skip any details, and voila! There it was, the cake that I wanted it to be. But it’s not what happened.

The batter went stiff, the texture wasn’t crisp enough, the sponge wasn’t as light as I wanted it to be. Things like that happened, and I learnt a lot of things. Things like: ‘you can’t put the sugar all at once or the meringue won’t peak’, or ‘whipping cold eggs is harder work and you won't get as much lift’, or ‘the bottom oven rack is what you want to use to achieve lift.’

Details you won’t learn by reading the recipe. Tricks that you can only know by making the cake on your own. It is all about the experience. You can gather tens—hundreds, people; give them the same recipes and ingredients; buy them the exact utensils, but still, the cake won’t be the same for each of them. The slightest power of beating an egg makes a difference, the way you flip the meringue makes a different, every little gestures you make, make a difference.

And so it is with life. Two people with exact talents could end up differently. Give two people the exact money to run a business and it will turn out in a different results. There is no exact math to life. No exact rule about how to live a life. There is no answer to question like ‘Why I can’t be like her? I do what she’s done’, there is no exact explanation to why someone made it and the other failed. It is the art to live the life that makes the difference. Even the slightest whiffle counts.

But don't worry, the more you try, the better it will get. It's all about experiences.

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Details, details

When I was a kid I used to play this counting flags game with my sister. It was always on August when all of the Indonesian put out their flags in front of their house. Every weekend on August, when our parents took us out by car, we would sit near the window, counting every red and white flag we saw. The rule is simple, you can’t count the flag that already counted by your opponent, and when we arrived at our destination, whoever counted the most, win.

It was pretty fun back then, paying extra attention to every corner of the street we passed—trying to find a flag that our opponent wouldn’t notice. I don’t remember when it was ended, when my sister and I just stop counting the flags every year. When our focus shifted from the small corner of the road to the bigger picture itself—our destination. Pretty much just like our life I think. As we grow up, we might stop paying attention to every little details. As we grow bigger, the details seemed so much smaller, a little bit more unimportant, and we start to see the just the big picture.

There is nothing wrong with seeing the big picture, I believe. It is indeed important to see everything—anything, in as much as possible angle we can. But may us not forget that the details—undeniably, are important too. Because, there are tiny pixels that make a photograph seems stunning. Because, most of the time, it is the journey—not the destination, which makes a trip worthwhile.

Details, my friend, details :)

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