Monday, April 25, 2011

Bercanda Dengan Alam

Tepatnya minggu lalu, saya baru saja mengalami sebuah pengalaman istimewa. Pengalaman yang mengingatkan saya kembali akan hal-hal yang saya sukai saat SMA. Pengalaman yang membuat saya menyadari apa yang saya cari dan saya inginkan di dunia ini.

TanaKita, Sukabumi. Sebenarnya, saya melakukan trip ini murni untuk menjalankan tugas liputan yang diberikan oleh atasan. Bahkan, awalnya, saya agak malas ikut. Soalnya, camping. Dan saya kurang suka camping. Kebayang harus tidur di tengah udara dingin, di atas tanah yang juga dingin hanya dengan tikar dan sleeping bag, seperti masa-masa Persami. Yup, harus diakui, Persami yang dilakukan saat SD dan SMP dulu tidak membekaskan memori yang indah. Bahkan, menjadi sebuah momok yang tidak ingin diulangi lagi.

Tapi ternyata, camping yang satu ini berbeda. Kita tidak perlu capek-capek mendirikan tenda, karena semua sudah disiapkan. Bahkan, bagian dalam tenda pun sedikit ditinggikan, sehingga kasur yang tersedia di dalamnya tidak langsung rata tanah. Dan di atas kasur, sudah ada bantal dan sleeping bag. Kamar mandinya juga bagus. Kalau hotel ada bintang lima, maka tempat camping yang satu ini saya sebut sebagai camping bintang lima. Belum lagi makanannya yang enak-enak, dari mulai sarapan, makan siang, makan malam, hingga kambing guling dan jagung bakar saat api unggun.

Tapi, yang paling seru, tentu saja games-gamesnya. Di hari pertama tiba, para media yang ikut langsung dibagi menjadi beberapa kelompok. Ini juga menjadi kesempatan kita untuk saling kenalan (baca: memperluas koneksi). Rintangan demi rintangan games dilalui dengan fun, termasuk saat hiking. (Note: jangan pake sepatu lama, otherwise, solnya bisa lepas... seperti yang terjadi pada saya. Yup, I don't know why, tapi sepertinya kesialan selalu saja terjadi setiap kali saya bepergian).

Tapi, tak ada yang bisa menandingi kebahagiaan saya selain kegiatan yang dilakukan di hari kedua. Inilah kegiatan yang saya bilang mengingatkan saya akan masa-masa SMA dulu. Sebuah kegiatan yang seakan menyiram otak saya, dan membuat hati saya berteriak, "This is who I am!". Kegiatan itu bernama TUBING.

Tubing adalah sebuah permainan di mana kita berbaring di atas ban, dan biarkan ban itu mengalir mengikuti arus sungai. Tepatnya, sungai Cigunung (foto di atas). Jadi, bayangkan saja seperti berbaring di atas ban di dalam kolam arus, tapi ini a real-life kolam arus... dengan jeram di sana-sini, yang membuat kita mengalir turun dan turun... dan kalau jeramnya kuat, bisa-bisa terjungkal kebalik.

Bisa dibilang, ini seperti arung jeram mini. Kalau arung jeram kita naik boat beramai-ramai, ini satu orang satu ban. Jadi, kalau orang yang udah duluan turun di depan kita nggak tiba-tiba nyangkut di batu (airnya dangkal, jadi ban sering nyangkut), dan orang di belakang kita belum kelihatan batang hidungnya, we are literally alone in the middle of the river. Sendirian, mengikuti arus sungai yang unpredictable derasnya.

Ngeri? Nggak juga. Justru di saat sendirian itulah saya merasakan sebuah perasaan yang lama hilang. Saat itulah hati saya berteriak, "This is who I am! This is what I love!". Sendiri, hanya dikelilingi oleh alam... sungai yang mengalir, bebatuan di kanan-kiri, dan pepohonan di tepinya... Mungkin gila, tapi saya merasa saat itu alam sedang mengajak saya bermain. Saya pun memasrahkan nasib saya (baca: pasrah jika nyangkut di batu atau terbalik karena jeram yang deras) kepada alam. Saya merasa mereka tersenyum kepada saya, senang 'menemukan teman bermain'. Air yang dingin pun dalam sekejap menjadi sahabat. Dinginnya tak terlalu menusuk seperti saat pertama kali menceburkan kaki ke dalam sungai.

Benar-benar sebuah pengalaman istimewa. Dan harus dicoba oleh orang-orang yang senang berdekatan dengan alam.

Memori indah dari tempat ini bukan hanya permainannya yang fun, tapi juga pemandangannya yang... Wow... Bahkan, ketika mata baru saja melek dari tidur, jangan bermalas-malasan keluar dari tenda, karena pagi kita akan langsung disambut oleh...


Nice, huh? Kalau tertarik, mungkin bisa langsung aja klik di http://www.rakataadventure.com/tanakita.html
I was lucky karena saya bisa ke sini gratis (itulah salah satu keuntungan media.. hahahaa)... Tapi untuk yang mau menyisihkan uang demi mendapatkan kesegaran alam... TanaKita is worth the experience... :)

Selamat mencoba!


Regards,
Risty

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Why Me? ((try to) stop this question)

It's been a while since my last post.. Well, I was catching up some deadlines... And then I was sick because I was too tired working. Not to mention I had to go camping in Sukabumi with a runny nose. But it was a great trip, anyway. I'll talk about it later.

But for now, I wanna share about something. Well, first, let me ask you a question. How many of you are getting tired with whatever you are facing in your life right now? And how many times do you ask to God, 'why me' or 'why is this happening to me'?

To be honest, those questions are swimming in my mind every now and then... But everytime they cross my mind, somewhere in the back of my... I don't know, conscience, maybe... I can hear a voice of a lady, saying things that - she may not realized this - light up my spirit.

This lady is actually one of the people I interviewed. I'm not gonna say her real name. Let's just say her name is Lily.

That day, I was actually going to interview her daughter. But when I arrived, her daughter wasn't home yet. So, I got to talk with Lily... and she told me everything..... literally evvverything about what's been happening in her family...

Long story short, her husband was having an affair while her daughter was in jail. She walked me through the whole story, with tears coming down her cheek. Even I wanted to cry too, but I knew it wasn't professional...

Listening to all the ups and downs she's gone through, I knew I would think 'Why is this happening to me?' if I were in her shoes. And I asked her that very question. "Have you ever asked God, why me? Why is this happening to me?" I said, bluntly.

To my surprise, she shaked her head...

"Who am I to say that kind of question?" she said, her watery eyes looking right into my eyes. And her following explanation made me feel even more like a fool for asking her that question. She's a Catholic, and so she said (she actually gave me a long explanation, but I'm just going to share her point),

"Jesus has gone a lot more suffering than I did... than we all did. And I'm nobody in front of God. I'm no one. I'm just His one tiny creature. So, if God gives me a hard time, does it mean I have the right to ask Him why? NO. I don't even dare to think about it, because I'm just an ordinary person. What I have gone through is NOTHING to compare with what Jesus has gone through. So really. God just gives me a little bit of a hard time, and I'm asking Him why He gave me all this? No, I have no right to ask that question."

I was stunned. And as a moslem, I adapted her analogy with my belief, Nabi Muhammad SAW. Even the messenger of Allah SWT, the one who was 'pointed' to spread His messages to the world, has gone through a lot of hard time in his life... Most of his life, to be precised...

So, I think Lily was right. If we are going through a difficult time in our lives, try not to ask God, 'why is this happening to me?' I know it's hard, because we are just ordinary people with a lot of (negative) thoughts... But at least, we can try... Everytime that particular question cross your mind, try to remember this piece I wrote. Try to remember what Lily told me, we are just tiny creatures, and we have no right to ask the Almighty that question. That even His messengers' lives weren't all heaven on earth.

I hope this writing would be useful for you... And believe me, this article goes for myself too... :)

Good luck!! :)