Sustainable Happiness

I never expect my whole life would be running totally fine, excellent always. I know that life is just a life, with all melodramatic episodes inside. It’s not a book filled of dreamy pages. Although I can always dream or wishes upon my own living, but some dreams just stay as dream, stick on my database and kept long lasting as a remembrance on my mind.

I know and truly aware that life is not always full of laughs and smiles.
Life covers a series of ups and downs. There’re many evolutions and rotations in cycle of life.
Well, those two last statements are maybe the most current definitions what at least I can say to you about my own life. Born and now living as a girl, female, and woman, is never been so that easy for me. Particularly for myself, who is so damn lucky becoming the one and the only baby girl in my family. In addition, I live in Indonesia and have Javanese blood, where traditions and traditional customs are still hold value in some parts of life.

There’s a time when someone, a friend of mine, asked me some questions. He said: “Karin, what would you say about life?” Well, “How you define the meaning of life?” he added.
Some seconds passed by, I was thinking then. Few minutes later, I was still thinking. Well, I didn’t want to look like a fool in front of him, since I know that he’s a smart guy (and cute too, ops!). Besides, I didn’t want to sound like a plastic girl by giving a sound-smart-though-bullshit answer to him.
Then, after a moment, I replied to him: “Life for me is a united process; a cycle of many constant and continued various processes that building me up into a much better and useful person for the sake of my own and for others. It’s not only the matter of being exist in this physical existence world, but also the matter of achieving a real existence to get sustainable happiness inside out of our true self.” Hearing my answers, he nodded and then smiled. I smiled too.

How can I define “Happy”? What does happy means? Is it a noun? Is it a verb? Is it an adjective? Or is it just a sound-nice-word?
What is the right definition of “Happiness”? Is it the situation when we feel happy? Is it a state of being happy? Or is it something that can make you, and I keep smiling and laughing, as live joyfully ever after?
There’re some moments of mine, in the past and in the present days, where I wish I could erase and remove them out of my life. Whish they were never happened. Why? What can I say, there’re some moments of mine that brought sadness and negativism in me. They made me cried, they made my disappointed, they made me turned out into yellow and blue, they just made me unhappy. Sometimes, I’m so tired and then denial them and tried to abandon them. But that was long ago before I realized the true meaning of life. Very long time ago before I met my friend that asked me about the meaning of life. Now, I do not want to erase anything that ever happened to me, in my life.
As I said before, life is a process. Moreover, it is a united process that covers many cycles of constant and continued various processes that occur for more many good reasons.

It’s not about the pursuit of happiness. Moreover, it’s about to achieve the sustainable happiness that really matters.

Does GOD really wink?

Wink
wink [wingk]
v (past winked, past participle winked, present participle wink•ing, 3rd person present singular winks)
1. vti gesture by closing one eye briefly: to close one eye briefly, usually either as a friendly greeting or to show that something just done or said is a joke or a secret


Co•in•ci•dence
co•in•ci•dence [kō ínsidənss]
n (plural co•in•ci•dences)
1. Chance happening: something that happens by chance in a surprising or remarkable way
2. Happening without planning: the fact of happening by chance
3. Having identical features: the fact or condition of happening at the same time or place or being identical (formal)


Tidak ada yang namanya kebetulan.
Dan apa yang tampak oleh kita sebagai sekadar kebetulan
Sebenarnya muncul dari sumber takdir yang terdalam
Johann von Schiller

Rumusan kata kebetulan diuraikan dalam American Heritage Dictionary sebagai “Suatu urutan peristiwa yang meskipun terjadi tanpa disengaja tetapi sepertinya sudah direncanakan atau diatur”. Rumusan ini tentu saja memunculkan pertanyaan, “Direncanakan atau diatur oleh siapa?”

Sebagian besar orang akan mejawab, “Tentu saja oleh Tuhan.”
Terlepas dari apa pun sebutan yang kita gunakan untuk menyebut kekuatan hidup maha kreatif itu, sepertinya kekuatan itu bukan sekadar arsitek dari masa lampau, tetapi juga arsitek setiap menit dari kehidupan kita saat ini.

Jadi ada arsitek yang menciptakan hidup kita. Kalau begitu, apa peran kita di dalamnya?

Tentunya bukan sekadar duduk di tepian dan menonton kehidupan kita terkuak.


Nasib bukanlah soal kebetulan. Tetapi soal pilihan.
Nasib bukanlah sesuatu yang perlu ditunggu.
Tetapi sesuatu yang perlu dicapai.
William Jennings Bryan


Kita bisa mempengaruhi masa depan dan takdir kita, dan isyarat Tuhan (yang merupakan sebuah isyarat, petunjuk ataupun pesan pribadi, langsung dari suatu kekuatan yang lebih tinggi, yang biasanya, meskipun tidak selalu, dalam bentuk kebetulan) bisa membantu kita melihat apakah pilihan kita sudah tepat.
Ketika kita membuat pilihan, menjalani hidup dari hari ke hari, dan belajar dari masa lalu, isyarat-isyarat yang kita terima adalah tepukan di punggung dari alam semesta yang meneguhkan kita untuk terus berjalan, meyakinkan kita untuk terus berpengharapan, dan membuat kita tetap hidup.

Kita hanya perlu menerima bahwa meskipun hidup seringkali merupakan misteri,
Kita --masing-masing individu—mempunyai peran di dalam semesta misteri itu terungkap.
Kita perlu bertindak untuk impian kita dan hadir untuk penampakan ilahi dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Itulah takdir kita.

Mulai dari sekarang, manakala peristiwa kebetulan muncul, terutama di saat-saat penting dalam hidup kita, mudah-mudahan kita akan berkata, “Aaahhh, mungkinkah itu Isyarat Tuhan?”
Kemungkinan besar itu memang Isyarat Tuhan.

Segala sesuatu akan tampak berbeda bila kita mampu dan mau melihatnya dari sudut pandang yang lebih tinggi 


(Adapted from “When God Winks -- How the Power of Coincidence Guides Your Life”, SQuire Rushnell, 2002)