Saint Gregory dari Nyssa: Sebuah paparan Edward Hallinan

Paparan ini pertama kali saya dengar ketika dibacakan oleh penulisnya, Edward Hallinan, saat saya mengikuti program enam bulan pertama di Beshara School, Skotlandia. Dari awal dibacakan hingga akhir, saya luruh.

Edward membawakan paparan tersebut layaknya seorang pecinta yang tengah membacakan surat cinta tentang dan untuk sang kekasih, dengan segala keberadaan dan kerinduan yang teramat sangat.

Hingga sekarang pun, setiap saya merindu untuk bisa ‘mendengar’, saya memutar ulang rekaman paparan tersebut.

Sekitar satu minggu yang lalu, saya tergerak untuk menerjemahkan paparan yang demikian indah ini. Entah kenapa dan entah dari mana ide tersebut muncul. Mungkin bukan saat dan tempatnya bagi saya bertanya kenapa. Rasanya ada pesan yang ingin, perlu, dan mendesak untuk didengar — oleh saya; oleh kita semua.

Tentu, apa yang saya tulis ini masih bisa terus disempurnakan.

Semoga dapat didengar dan dinikmati sebagaimana mestinya.

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Menyadari makna kehidupan

[English version]

Setidaknya sekali dalam hidup, kita pernah mengajukan pertanyaan-pertanyaan luhur kepada diri, seperti “Apa makna dari kehidupan?” atau “Kenapa saya ada di dunia?”

Kesemua pertanyaan ini sahih. Bahkan mereka dapat membantu mengarahkan hidup dan mendekatkan ke pusat keberadaan diri.

Beragam kitab suci serta ucapan dari kaum Bijak berulang kali mengindikasikan jawaban terhadap pertanyaan tersebut, kerap secara terang-terangan. Namun kita bersikeras mengajukan pertanyaan dan menuntut jawaban. Kita butuh jawaban yang khusus diramu untuk pribadi kita. Kita merindukan tidak sekedar mendapatkan jawaban, namun juga merasakan atau bahkan mengalami jawaban tersebut.

Pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini demikian memikat sehingga kita terkadang larut. Bisa jadi kita memiliki gambaran yang terlalu romantis akan potensi serta peran kita di dunia.

Finding life’s purpose

[Versi Bahasa Indonesia]

At least once in our life, we ask ourselves the big questions, like “What is the purpose of life?” or “Why am I here on earth?”

They are good questions, ones that may help us orient our life and move closer to the center of our being.

Sacred scriptures and words from the Wise have pointed to the answers on numerous occasions and often rather explicitly. Yet we keep asking the questions and demanding answers. We need our personalized answers. We yearn to experience the answers.

The questions are so sexy and appealing that sometimes we go too far with them. We can have a romanticized vision of what we may become and our role in the society.

Article: Pursuit of Happiness

An article from a recent interview. Interesting headline. I wonder whether that’s what is about — a pursuit of happiness. The writer might have a good point there. Thank you, The Jakarta Post.

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Do you hear me, or do you only hear you?

She sat before me in silence, fully present to what I was about to say. I told her what had been going on and how I was. Minutes after, she was still sitting there, soundless, with occasional nods.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I asked curiously.

“I am still listening,” she said.

Happy Valentine’s, me!

“Imagine yourself as a little kid. Wouldn’t you just want to pick that kid up and hug it and love it and tell it how incredible it is? Well that kid is you, so do it now, it’s not too late!” – Elizabeth Peru

I know, not all of us celebrate Valentine’s Day. I, for one, actually, do not. Having said that, any reminder of love or loving is a good reminder. So, today, let me express my love to someone who is so important in my life and is often forgotten: Me.

The Knowledge of the feet

Have you ever looked back in life and been in awe of how you’ve gotten to where you are? Isn’t it amazing how life turns out to be how it is? We wonder how we can meet so and so, arrive at certain places, and end up doing such and such.

We call it by numerous names: Luck, intuition, gifts, chances, blessings, serendipities, coincidences, etc. But I’d like to think that life is what it is meant to be. There is something that has purposefully led us to be where we are.

Recently, I was told, it is our feet.

Let’s talk strength

Most of us are familiar with the term SWOT, which stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat. It is an assessment technique to gauge our situation, mostly in an organization or business.

More often than not, we tend to dwell on our weaknesses and threats. This is true on a professional or personal level. We highlight things we don’t have or have too little of.

At that auction, humanity won

A passing invitation came to me the other day from a friend to attend a fundraising musical drama “Music for Rema” at Salihara cultural center in South Jakarta. The event was to support patients of rheumatoid arthritis. It turned out to be a very heartwarming occasion shared with kind and light-hearted people.

What makes you angry?

In our quest to find our calling in life, we are often invited to look at what moves us. What makes us happy? What do we enjoy most doing? What do we love most being? What do we feel at home with? To pay attention to what ticks us – the intense ‘positive’ feelings that may indicate where our passion lies.

As with any other things in life, there is the flip side of such intense feelings. Feelings such as anger, frustration and sadness, are in truth just as intense and can be just as indicative of our passion.

Take anger for instance.