WONDERFULLY WORLD

What an ExtraOrdinary Boring!!!

2011-09-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know till when i must face this boredom. I have tried to throw away all that feeling and make an effort comforting myself, although deep inside my soul i feel so nausea and tired, but i always try to pretend that everything's ok.

Until when i must wait this storm stop roaring? until when i must wait to see the rainbow after the big rain? i always walk on my faith of God ( though sometimes it’s just a pretending. Pretending to be happy, pretending to be cheer, pretending to be enthusiasm when the reality is I feel so down and drop) and I believe God will give me the best at His time (that’s my favorite quote, and I always say that to my self, only to make me calm for a while, and just to console my self, when no one and no situation able to console me, I only hold this quote with me and try to convince my soul that I still have a wonderful God that have prepared everything for my best.)
BUT NOT FOR NOW. I think I’m at wit’s end. I’m so bored, God. I don’t know what to do anymore and I think I’m useless, I don’t have any valuable thing in my life that can make me happy and proud to my self. I don’t have a power to console my self anymore cause I feel so tired..tired..i wanna give up, God. Can i?

Give me a strenght

2011-07-07T01:40:00.000-07:00

Aku sering mengeluh. banyak sekali cobaan dan masalah yang datang beruntun dalam hidup ini. kadang aku merasa lega dan senang, karena aku ingat kalau aku punya Tuhan yang baik dan mengasihiku, yang tidak akan pernah meninggalkanku. tapi tak berapa lama kemudian, tiba-tiba aku bisa lupa akan hal itu, karena ada masalah yang muncul, aku langsung down dan merasa tidak berdaya, tidak berguna, dan tidak punya pengharapan. sering aku memaksakan diri utk mengingat kalau aku punya Tuhan yang baik, yang selalu menolongku, tapi tetap saja sulit. rasanya saat itu masalahku yang lebih besar daripada Tuhan. masalah yang melingkupi hidupku dan pikiranku, sehingga rasanya hidup ini terasa sangat memuakkan, sangat berat dan kadang rasanya ingin mati saja *lebay bgt ga sih*..entah itu karena masalah di kantor, di rumah ataupun masalah hati, dan masalah2 lain sebagainya yang membuatku kadang jadi malas, ga ada semangat, dan bahkan kadang jadi malas untuk berdoa, memuji Tuhan dan bersaat teduh...oh God, i'm sorry...rasanya berat banget, karena jika aq punya masalah bukannya semakin dekat dengan Tuhan, tapi malah semakin jauh dariNya..
and of course, masalah itu bukannya mereda, tapi malah semakin menjadi-jadi dan aku rasanya semakin lemah dan remuk..masalah yang satu belum selesai, timbul lagi masalah baru, dan baru lagi, lagi dan lagi...beruntun..BERUNTUN.....
pengen teriak rasanya.. "AKU GA SANGGUP!!!!" tp mau tereak sekencang2nya juga, tidak akan mempengaruhi keadaan yang ada. puluhan masalah itu tetap disitu, mengejarku..membuntutiku kemanapun aku pergi...aaaaarggghhhh....capek sekali hidupku ini...sangat melelahkan...untuk membuka mata di pagi hari saja rasanya kadang malas, karena pastinya aku akan menghadapi masalah yang sama setiap hari. benar-benar tidak ada semangat rasanya..benar-benar tidak mampu rasanya, tapi mampu -tidak mampu, ya tetap harus dihadapi, karena Life must goes on...hidup terus berjalan..
lalu suatu waktu saat aku sedang dalam masalah dan dalam keadaan yang benar-benar down, namun tetap memaksakan diriku untuk pergi ke gereja. saat itu rasanya aku menginjak gereja hanya melaksanakan kewajibanku sebagai orang kristen utk pergi ke gereja setiap hari minggu.
tapi pada saat sang pemimpin pujian mulai melantunkan sebuah lagu yang terdengar masih baru di telingaku, namun kata-katanya sangat indah dan membuat air mataku mengalir deras, seakan tak kunjung berhenti.

"Firman-Mu berkata Kau besertaku
Maka kuat roh dan jiwaku
Tangan-Mu Tuhan s’lalu kunantikan
Di setiap langkah kupercaya

Dengan sayap-Mu ’ku akan terbang tinggi
Di tengah badai hidup ’ku tak menyerah
Kau kekuatan dan penghiburan bagiku

Pertolonganku di tempat Maha Tinggi
Ku mengangkat tanganku aku berserah
Kau kunantikan
Kau yang kusembah Yesusku Rajaku"

saat aku mendengar dan ikut menyanyikan lagu itu, aku seperti mendapatkan sebuah kekuatan yg baru..sekaligus merasa menjadi orang yang bodoh selama ini, karena menempatkan masalahku di tempat teratas dalam hidupku, dan mengambil alih seluruh pikiranku untuk memikirkan masalah itu. sementara Tuhan aku cuekin dan aku lupakan. padahal hanya Dia satu-satunya penolongku. hanya Dia tempatku berharap dan jawabanku. dia pasti menolongku dan membawaku terbang tinggi. Lord, mampukan aku untuk terus merasa seperti ini, untuk terus menempatkan Engkau ditempat yang teratas dalam hidupku, untuk selalu berserah padaMu. ajar aku agar aku selalu ingat padaMu, Bapa..walaupun dalam keadaan yang teramat amat amat amat sulit sekalipun..karena aku tau Engkau yang memberiku kekuatan agar kumampu lewati semua, Engkau yang memberiku kemampuan untuk terus melangkah maju dan menghadapi segalanya dengan hati yang penuh syukur, s'bab kutau Engkau yang mempunyai hidupku...jadilah padaku seperti yang Kau ingini...

1 kor 10:13C : "Pada waktu kamu dicobai, Ia akan memberikan kepadamu jalan keluar, sehingga kamu dapat menanggungnya."

Fil 4:13 = "Segala perkara dapat kutanggung di dalam Dia yang memberi kekuatan kepadaku"

Gbu all wonderful people >_*

Hidup adalah Proses

2011-07-07T00:28:00.000-07:00

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination. (Carl Rogers)

Hidup.....Kata yang begitu mudah diucapkan, namun jujur saja, sulit untuk dijalani bukan?! Tidak peduli orang kaya atau miskin, pandai atau pas-pasan, cakep atau tidak, keganasan hidup tidak pernah pandang bulu, menyerang semua makhluk yang masuk dalam kategori 'hidup'.

Andai pohon bisa bicara, mungkin dia akan mengeluh akan kerasnya terpaan badai yang mematahkan ranting-rantingnya.....

Namun, kita tidak punya pilihan, selain terus maju, menjalani hidup ini sampai jatah kita di dunia ini mencapai kesudahannya.

Dalam hidup, ada kalanya kita merasa begitu bahagia dan senang, namun tak jarang pula kita merasakan beratnya beban yang menekan.

Dalam hidup, kadang kita begitu menikmatinya, menghadapi segala sesuatu dengan pundak tegak dan dada membusung, hingga seperti seorang pujangga, kita kemudian berkata "Aku ingin hidup seribu tahun lagi...."

Namun, begitu diterpa ombak masalah yang datang silih berganti, badan kita mulai membungkuk, kita tidak lagi berani menatap ke depan dengan penuh harap, kita malah ingin mati saja.

Pernahkah Anda menghadapi masa-masa berat seperti itu? Saat di mana kita sudah tidak punya gairah lagi untuk hidup. Hidup ini suram, tak berpengharapan, masalah yang ada tak mungkin terselesaikan, dan ketika menghadapi semua itu, Anda merasa kepala seperti mau meledak rasanya.

Saat menghadapi situasi kelam seperti itu, saya mendapati bahwa diri saya sedang terperosok ke dalam sebuah lubang yang 'jahat'. Nama lubang itu adalah mengasihani diri sendiri.

Kita berkutat di dalamnya. Meratapi kemalangan kita, melupakan orang-orang di sekitar kita, terlena dalam masalah kita sendiri, ibarat katak dalam tempurung. Apa yang dapat dilihat katak itu dari dalam tempurung?

Tidak lain dan tidak bukan hanyalah dinding-dinding tempurung yang gelap.

Kita perlu keluar dari lubang itu. Ayolah, semua makhluk yang dikategorikan sebagai makhluk hidup di dunia ini memang sama-sama menderita 'sakit bersalin'. Yaa, mungkin itu istilah yang paling tepat.

Kita tidak akan pernah benar-benar bahagia jika kita berkutat pada hasilnya. Dalam hidup, proseslah yang penting.

Hidup ini proses....Segala sesuatu yang kita alami juga merupakan sebuah proses. Jadi jangan terlalu ribet dengan 'bagaimana hasilnya nanti?!'. Jalani hidup ini sebaik mungkin, hanya itu yang bisa dan harus Anda lakukan.

Woman's prayer

2011-07-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Finally I know the one who write the prayer.. Prayer for Life Time Partner.. This is her prayer when she was a single woman in year 2000, and I say this prayer now.. =)) *whoever u are, thanks..:)

Lord,

I pray for a man, that will be a part of my life

A man that really loves You more than everything

A man that will take me in the second place of his heart

A man that lives not for himself but for U

Face and phsysical attraction isn't important

The most important is

I want a heart that really loves and thristy of U

and have a desire to be like Jesus

And he must know for whom and for what he lives

So his life isnt useless

Someone that have a wise heart

Not only a smart brain

A man that not only loves me but also respect me

A man that not only can adore me

But can warning me when I'm wrong

A man that loves me not from my beauty but from my heart

A man that can be my best friend in every time and situation

A man that make me feel like a woman when I beside him

I'm not ask a perfect man

But I ask for imperfect man

So I can make him perfect in Your eyes.

A man that need my support for his strength

A man that need my prayer for his life

A man that need my smile to cover his sadness

A man that need my love so he could feel beloved

A man that need me to make his life perfect

And I also ask

Make me to be a woman that can made him proud

Give me a heart that really love You

So I could love him with Your love

Not love him with my love

Give me Your gentle spirit

So my beauty not come from my outside but come from You

Give me Your Hands

That I always able to pray for him

Give me Your eyes

So I could see many good things in him and not the bad one

Give me Your mouth

That fullfil with Your words of wisdom and encourange

So I could support him every day

Give me Your lips

And I will smile at him every morning

And I want that when finally we meet

Both of us can say

How great Thou Art

that You give me someone that can make my life perfect

I know that You want we meet at the right time

And You will make everything beautiful in Your time

Amen.

Beautiful at His time

2011-07-06T01:27:00.000-07:00

Mungkin kita sering jenuh dan tidak sanggup untuk menunggu sesuatu yang kita inginkan terjadi dalam hidup kita, tapi tak kunjung datang en terjadi. entah itu masalah keluarga, masalah keuangan, masalah pekerjaan maupun masalah yang sangat sering dirasakan oleh kaum hawa saat ini..hmmm...yaitu Masalah jodoh..hehehehe

Semua wanita pasti ingin mempunyai pasangan untuk bisa saling berbagi, pasangan yang menyayanginya, yang peduli padanya, dan menerima apa adanya *hehehe..lebay* tp tentu saja tidak smua wanita bisa seberuntung itu kan. ada banyak wanita diluar sana yang masih belum menemukan orang yang tepat, alias pasangan, alias mr. right-nya. padahal boleh dibilang umurnya sudah matang dan tepat untuk memiliki pasangan (baca: suami).
kalau dibilang karena faktor wajah, pada kenyataannya, banyak juga kok wanita cantik dan menarik yang sampai saat ini masih melajang. kalau dibilang karena faktor uang, banyak juga kok wanita kaya saat ini masih sendiri dan banyak juga wanita pas-pasan yang malah cepat dapat jodoh. kalau dibilang karena sifatnya, banyak juga wanita baik, ramah, supel, tapi masih sendiri.

nah lho, jadi apa yang menentukan seseorang itu bisa cepat atau lambat bertemu jodohnya??
tentunya ga akan ada yg bisa menjawab itu. malah kalau semakin dipikirin kita akan semakin capek sendiri, semakin menderita, nelangsa, merasa kesepian, dan rendah diri.

saya jadi teringat pepatah "tak kan lari gunung dikejar". ya benar emang, Tuhan kan pasti udah sediakan jodoh utk kita. tapi mgkn bukan saat ini waktu yang tepat untuk bertemu dengannya. pasti suatu saat nanti, saat yang terindah, yaitu pada waktunya Tuhan, kita akan bertemu dgn seseorang yang nantinya akan mendampingi kita seumur hidup..ooh so sweet..hehehe..

semuanya pasti akan indah pada waktuNya kan.. so c'mon woman, ayo bersemangatlah. jgn hanya meratapi nasibmu yang sampai saat ini masih sendiri aje..hehe, tapi justru anda harus bisa menunjukkan kemandirian anda saat ini. dan nikmati masa - masa sendiri anda saat ini. anda bisa ambil kursus, bisa travelling sepuasnya bersama teman-teman, bisa mengubah model rambut tanpa harus repot mikirin apa pendapat pasangan, bisa belanja sepuasnya untuk diri sendiri..hohoho..*ujung-ujungnya shoping deh:D* pokoknya anda bisa melakukan apapun yang anda suka, anda bisa mencapai impian-impian ada selama ini, woaaah..sembari saya menulis ini, tanpa sadar saya mulai menghitung trnyta ada bgitu banyak lagi impian saya yg ingin saya gapai..ooh...i'm so excited to reach them soon..

dan kalau anda menikmati hidup anda, tentunya akan lebih mudah untuk menjalani hidup ini kan..hidup terasa ringan, terasa indah dan bersemangat setiap hari (walaupun dalam hati masi terus bertanya-tanya "dimanakah jodohku berada?" hehehee)
yang penting percaya saja kalau waktu Tuhan adalah waktu yang terindah..^_^

Pkh 3:11 = "Ia membuat segala sesuatu indah pada waktunya,bahkan Ia memberikan kekekalan dalam hati mereka, Tetapi manusia tidak dapat menyelami, pekerjaan yang dilakukan Allah dari awal sampai akhir".

Yes 55:8-9: "Sebab rancangan-Ku bukanlah rancanganmu, dan jalanmu bukanlah jalan-Ku, demikianlah firman TUHAN. Seperti tingginya langit dari bumi, demikianlah tingginya jalan-Ku dari jalanmu dan rancangan-Ku dari rancanganmu".

GBu all woman in the world ^__^

Proud to be your self

2011-07-05T21:58:00.001-07:00

Daripada menghitung kesukaranmu, cobalah menjumlahkan berkat-berkat yang telah Anda terima! (Dr. Geoffrey Still)

Saat Anda melihat cermin, apa yang Anda perhatikan? Apakah Anda mengagumi diri Anda atau malah mengeluh karena hidung Anda kurang mancung, mata Anda kurang lebar, badan Anda kurang langsing?

Saat Anda berpapasan dengan seorang wanita kaya, apakah yang Anda pikirkan? "Kenapa dia begitu kaya? Wah sepatunya bagus, bajunya juga...."

Jika hal itu sempat terlintas dari benak Anda, maka cepatlah Anda menyadarkan diri Anda sendiri. Tarik diri Anda keluar dari dunia yang menyesatkan itu, dunia mengeluh.

Saatnya untuk mengubah fokus Anda. Di mana fokus Anda, di situ pula seluruh perhatian Anda tercurah.

Jika Anda hanya berfokus pada kekurangan Anda, maka hal itu tidak akan ada habisnya. Anda takkan pernah puas. Muka Anda akan selalu tampak kusut (karena Anda tidak bisa bergembira). Percayalah! Tiap manusia memiliki kekurangan. Nobody's perfect!

Daripada menyoroti kekurangan yang ada dalam diri dan hidup Anda, bagaimana jika kita mulai fokus pada apa yang sudah kita miliki.

Hargailah apa yang Anda miliki. Terima dan cintailah diri Anda apa adanya. Syukurilah apa yang Anda miliki! Jangan pernah membandingkan diri dengan orang lain, itu adalah tindakan yang sia-sia, karena Anda dan orang lain tidak akan pernah sama.

Ingatlah, selama Anda tidak menghargai apa yang Anda miliki saat ini, maka Anda tidak akan pernah memperoleh lebih dari kepunyaan Anda sekarang.

Segala sesuatu yang ada pada Anda itu yang terbaik adanya. Anda diciptakan untuk menjadi Anda dan bukan orang lain.

Demikian juga dengan segala hal yang Anda miliki, keluarga, karir, teman-teman, rumah, sepatu, baju, dan masih banyak lagi, syukurilah itu.

Ketika Anda bersyukur, maka kecantikan alamiah pun terpancar dari dalam diri Anda karena ada kepuasan dalam batin Anda. Dan Anda pun menjadi orang yang berbahagia, karena orang yang puas adalah orang yang berbahagia.

Bersyukur stiap saat

2011-07-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Judul diatas emang mudah diucapkan...tp utk dilakukan...huuuuftt....tidak selalu mudah. apalagi pd saat kita sdg mengalami hal-hal yang tidak enak, tidak beruntung, kecewa, sakit hati, malu, bosan, merasa direndahkan, tidak dihargai, dst dsb dll and so on...judul diatas tentu saja akan menjadi SANGAT SULIT 100% untuk dilakukan.

Saya sering bertanya - tanya, apa ada sih org yg selalu bisa bersyukur spt itu, walau keadaannya sedang sulit. kalaupun ada, apa benar rasa syukurnya itu tulus? atau hanya dibuat-buat saja, agar orang lain melihat dia adalah org yang selalu bahagia, org yg selalu ceria, pdhl jauh didalam lubuk hatinya dy merasa tertekan, muak, marah, bosan, putus asa, dan sedih. Tp dy hanya memendam perasaannya, menutupi dan menyimpan sendiri penderitaannya entah sampai kapan, hanya sekedar agar orang - orang disekitarnya melihat bahwa ia adalah orang yang selalu bahagia, tidak punya masalah dan selalu semangat. padahal itu cuma acting belaka.

Lalu pada suatu kesempatan, saya mendengar khotbah seorang pendeta di gereja. dia mengatakan kalau "hidup kita itu cuma sebentar saja. paling 70 tahun dan kalau kuat 80 tahun. dan kalau kita sudah mati, kita tidak akan bisa memperbaiki perbuatan2 kita semasa kita hidup, walaupun kita memohon pada Tuhan, merengek, bersujud maupun nangis darah juga, tidak akan ada kesempatan lagi utk kita.
karena itu, kesempatan kita cuma ada pd saat kt hidup saat ini. jgn sia-siakan waktumu hanya untuk menjadi orang yg mudah sakit hati, mudah tersinggung, jadi org yang tidak semangat, yang tidak tau arah tujuan hidupnya. mari kita ubah pola pikir kita. mulai saat ini, hiduplah untuk Tuhan, hiduplah untuk menyenangkan hatiNya, hiduplah untuk memuliakanNya. karena kalau tujuan kita adalah Tuhan, segala sesuatu akan menjadi indah, pribadi kita, prilaku kita, cara pandang kita, dan apa saja yang ada disekitar kita akan menjadi indah".

pada saat saya mendengar itu, tanpa terasa air mata saya jatuh. saya ingin seperti itu, saya ingin mengubah cara berpikir saya. saya ingin menomorsatukan Tuhan dalam segala hal, karena jika Tuhan yang menjadi tujuan hidup saya, semuanya akan menjadi indah dan terasa mudah. saya ingin berubah, dan menjadi orang yang benar2 bisa beryukur setiap saat, dan menjadi orang yang benar-benar bahagia, bukan pura-pura bahagia, bukan pura-pura semangat, bukan pura-pura ceria.

1 Tes 5:18 = "Mengucap syukurlah dalam segala hal, sebab itulah yang dikehendaki Allah di dalam Kristus Yesus bagi kamu."

Gbu Everyone ^_^

2 hari yang tidak perlu dikhawatirkan

2011-07-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

Mau hidup tenang? Jangan mengkhawatirkan dua hari ini.

Manusia tertekan dan stres karena mereka suka berpikir. Semuanya dipikirkan untuk mendapatkan yang terbaik, dengan harapan jika yang terbaik sudah di tangan, maka kehidupan mereka akan bahagia. Namun seseorang seringkali lupa, hal terbaik yang mereka miliki adalah apa yang mereka ada saat ini. Bukan apa yang pernah mereka miliki kemarin, atau apa yang akan dimiliki esok hari.

Oleh karena itu, Anda memiliki dua hari untuk diabaikan dalam satu minggu, seperti apa yang ditulis Jennifer Kritsch ini.

Dalam satu minggu, ada dua hari yang tidak seharusnya kita khawatirkan. Dua hari yang harus bebas dari ketakutan dan rasa khawatir akan apa yang bakal terjadi.

Hari yang pertama adalah hari kemarin, lengkap dengan kesalahan dan kesusahan, kesialan dan hal buruk yang terjadi saat itu. Hari kemarin telah berlalu selamanya tanpa bisa kita cegah. Semua uang di dunia ini tidak bisa membawa kembali hari kemarin, dan tidak bisa membatalkan apa yang telah terjadi. Bahkan tidak bisa untuk menghapus sebuah kalimat yang telah kita ucapkan. Tidak ada lagi hari kemarin.

Hari berikutnya yang tidak perlu kita takutkan adalah hari esok, lengkap dengan segala kemungkinan, kemalangan, keberuntungan, beban dan janji-janji di hari esok. Hari esok juga berada di luar kendali kita. Besok matahari masih akan terbit, entah diselimuti awan atau terang benderang, namun pasti akan terbit. Hingga matahari terbit kembali esok hari, kita masih belum masuk pada hari esok. Hari esok masih belum ada.

Dengan demikian hanya tertinggal satu hari, yaitu hari ini. Setiap orang bisa melakukan apa saja pada hari ini. Kita bisa melakukan dan mendapatkan yang terbaik pada hari ini, hanya jika kita bisa mengesampingkan beban dan kekhawatiran akan hari kemarin dan hari esok. Jujur saja, bukan pengalaman hari ini yang seringkali membuat orang marah, tapi apa yang terjadi kemarin dan apa yang diperkirakan bakal terjadi esok hari yang membuat seseorang cemas, takut, marah dan gelisah. Jika Anda hanya berusaha maksimal untuk hari ini, maka Anda akan merasakan sebagian besar beban hidup Anda serasa hilang.

Say " I'm Happy"

2011-07-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

"It takes 64 muscles of the face to make a frown, and only 13 to make a smile. Why work overtime?" - unkown -

Lagi-lagi kesibukan, padatnya jadwal, pertengkaran, perbedaan pendapat, deadline pekerjaan, membuat Anda stres dan lupa bagaimana cara tertawa. lihat saja, orang-orang di Jepang bahkan rajin mengikuti kursus agar dapat tertawa untuk menghilangkan stres. Kebanyakan mereka sulit untuk tertawa karena terlalu serius bekerja dan kesibukan membuat tertekan.

Ketika membaca beritanya di suatu media, mungkin kita boleh menertawakan kebodohan mereka. Mengapa untuk tertawa saja harus mengikuti kursus segala? Namun lihat diri Anda sendiri. Saat ini Anda mulai sibuk dengan aktivitas sehari-hari. Belum lagi jika ada sesuatu hal yang menghalangi kegiatan Anda dan menghambat prosesnya. Anda tentu geram dan stres dibuatnya. Perlahan kemudian wajah Anda selalu serius dan senyum ramah itu jarang dapat dinikmati.

Lalu masihkah Anda bisa menertawakan apa yang dilakukan orang-orang Jepang di luar sana? Apakah Anda membutuhkan kursus yang sama? Tentu tidak seserius itu. Yakinlah, untuk tersenyum itu bukan hal yang sulit. Apalagi dunia ini begitu banyak hal indah yang dapat membuat kita tersenyum bahagia. Bagaimana tidak, setiap hari kita melihat terbitnya matahari, birunya langit yang kadang-kadang keabu-abuan karena mendung, bunga-bunga berwarna-warni dengan kumbang dan kupu-kupu yang bermain di atasnya. Coba sebutkan bagian mana yang tidak indah?

Kesibukan, pekerjaan, rasa kesal boleh mengganggu aktivitas Anda. Tetapi semua hal berat itu tidak akan menghalangi Anda untuk tersenyum bahagia. Tidak! Tentu Tidak! Anda berhak tersenyum dan Anda berhak bahagia. Tidak susah, karena untuk tersenyum hanya membutuhkan 13 otot wajah saja, dan tidak akan membuat Anda merasa lelah. Bayangkan untuk cemberut Anda membutuhkan 64 otot wajah untuk bergerak dan tegang. Oleh karena itu, kita lebih sering kelelahan jika kita dalam keadaan tegang, marah dan stres.

Yuk kita tersenyum sama-sama, katakan aku bahagia...

Apa Tujuan Hidupmu?

2011-07-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

Tak banyak orang tahu akan tujuan hidupnya, contohnya saja Anda. Saat ditanya ke manakah arah tujuan..

Di sebuah daerah yang nyaris tandus dan kering, hiduplah seorang bernama Das. Tak ada yang tahu dari mana asalnya, dan ia tumbuh besar seorang diri saja.

Suatu hari, Das bermain-main sampai ke pinggir sabana. Di sampingnya terhampar luas lautan pasir yang entah di mana ujungnya. Ia pun menjejakkan kaki ke arah pasir yang halus. Ia terkejut. Di sana ada sebuah bayangan hitam yang besar hampir menyerupai dirinya. Karena tak mau lagi kesepian, Das mengejarnya. Semakin kencang ia mengejar, semakin kencang pula bayangan hitam itu berlari.

Semangat Das tak terpatahkan hingga matahari tepat di atas ubun-ubun kepalanya. Bayangan hitam itu lenyap entah ke mana, menyisakan sebuah bola kecil di ujung kakinya. Das yang sudah berada di tengah lautan pasir pun bingung, entah di mana dirinya saat ini. Berlari ke arah mana saja, tak ditemukannya jalan pulang. Ia pun menangis ketakutan. Hingga akhirnya bayangan hitam misterius itu sempat muncul sebentar dan hilang ditelan malam.

Das berjalan lagi tanpa tujuan, ke arah yang tak ia kenal. Hari demi hari dilalui, dan bayangan hitam itu datang dan pergi tanpa diundang. Das yang perut dan tenggorokannya tak pernah tersentuh makanan dan air pun mulai terkulai lemas. Jatuh terkubur pasir di tengah gurun pasir yang membuatnya tersesat.

Apa yang dialami Das, seringkali kita alami di kehidupan nyata. Seringkali kita melangkah tanpa tujuan pasti, hanya mengikuti bayangan-bayangan tidak jelas yang membuat kita kehilangan fokus. Coba tanyakan pada diri Anda, ke manakah tujuan hidup Anda saat ini? Apa yang ingin Anda kejar di hidup Anda?

Bila Anda tak jua menemukan jawabannya, pikirkan satu saja hal yang ingin Anda wujudkan di hidup ini. Dan dari hal kecil tersebut lakukan satu hal lain untuk mencapainya, perlahan Anda akan menemukan arah dan tujuan hidup yang pasti. Daftar keinginan Anda sangat banyak bukan? Mari wujudkan satu per satu mulai dari sekarang.

Hikmah dibalik kehilangan

2011-07-05T03:16:00.000-07:00

Bila Anda sering merasa banyak yang hilang dari kehidupan Anda, percayalah, tidak ada kehilangan yang benar-benar hilang. Seperti kisah ini....
Pada suatu masa, di sebuah pedesaan China, hidup seorang pria tua dan keluarganya. Pria tersebut mengolah sebuah kebun dan memiliki beberapa hewan peliharaan, salah satu peliharaannya adalah seekor kuda jantan. Suatu ketika, kuda yang dimiliki pria tua tersebut hilang. Beberapa tetangga mengatakan sempat melihat kuda tersebut berlari melewati batas daerah yang tidak boleh dilewati oleh warga desa. Pria tua itu menjadi sedih, tetapi dia mengatakan, "Tidak apa, barangkali kejadian ini bukan sesuatu yang buruk dan siapa tahu akan datang sesuatu yang baik."

Setelah hari berganti hari, pada malam hari, pria tua itu dikejutkan dengan suara kuda. Dia langsung bangkit dan melihat ke arah luar rumah, tampak kudanya yang hilang telah kembali dan membawa seekor kuda betina entah milik siapa yang menjadi pasangannya. Tentu saja, seperti peraturan di desa itu, kuda yang tidak diketahui pemiliknya atau liar akan menjadi milik mereka yang menemukan. Para tetangga memberi selamat pada pria tua yang telah mendapatkan kembali kudanya serta tambahan satu kuda secara cuma-cuma.

Setelah waktu berjalan, anak laki-laki dari pria tua tersebut mulai berlatih untuk naik ke atas punggung kuda dan memacu kuda tersebut di sekitar area perkebunan. Sayangnya, pada suatu hari, anak laki-laki itu jatuh dari atas punggung kuda dan mengalami cedera kaki yang sangat parah. Perlu waktu lama untuk sembuh, tetapi sekalipun telah sembuh, anak laki-laki itu tidak bisa berjalan normal. "Tidak apa-apa, nak" ujar si pria tua, "Mungkin hal ini akan mendatangkan sesuatu yang lebih baik untuk mu,"

Dan seperti kejadian sebelumnya, si pria tua merasakan kembali sesuatu yang baik tersebut. Pada masa itu adalah masa perang, semua anak laki-laki di desa wajib memanggul senjata dan bertempur di medan perang. Tetapi karena cacat, anak laki-laki sang pria tua tetap di desa dan bekerja mengolah kebun. Tidak ada yang disesali, karena anak laki-laki itu juga bersikap sama seperti ayahnya, dia percaya akan ada hikmah di balik kejadian buruk yang menyebabkan dia kehilangan cara berjalan yang normal.

Tahun berganti tahun. Perang telah berakhir dan para anak laki-laki yang bertempur kembali ke desa. Ternyata hanya beberapa yang kembali, karena kebanyakan dari mereka ternyata tewas di medan perang. Sang pria tua sedikit bersyukur karena anak laki-lakinya tetap dalam kondisi sehat dan semakin pintar mengurus perkebunan. Sehingga, tidak ada yang perlu disesali karena bagi keluarga tersebut, kebahagiaan tidak hanya dinilai pada saat sesuatu terjadi, tetapi juga pada masa-masa setelahnya.

Sahabat, hikmah dari cerita tersebut kita harus belajar bahwa setiap kali kita merasa kehilangan, sesungguhnya apa yang kita tangisi tidak benar-benar hilang, karena pada saat yang tidak akan kita sangka, kita akan mendapatkan hikmah dari rasa kehilangan tersebut. Kita akan merasakan kebahagiaan lebih berlipat jika kita pernah merasakan kehilangan. Tetapi rasa bahagia itu akan datang saat kita bisa melepaskan dengan rela apa yang telah hilang, tidak dengan meratapi atau menangisi terus-menerus.

Es dalam Hati

2011-07-05T02:37:00.000-07:00

Di sebuah perusahaan rel kereta api ada seorang pegawai, namanya Nick. Dia sangat rajin bekerja, dan sangat bertanggung jawab, tetapi dia mempunyai satu kekurangan, yaitu dia tidak mempunyai harapan apapun terhadap hidupnya, dia melihat dunia ini dengan pandangan tanpa harapan sama sekali.

Pada suatu hari semua karyawan bergegas untuk merayakan ulang tahun bos mereka, semuanya pulang lebih awal dengan cepat sekali. Yang tidak sengaja terjadi adalah, Nick terkunci di sebuah mobil pengangkut es yang belum sempat dibetulkan. Nick berteriak, memukul pintu dengan keras, semua orang di kantor sudah pergi merayakan ulang tahun bosnya, maka tidak ada yang mendengarnya.

Tangannya sudah merah kebengkak-bengkakan memukul pintu mobil itu, suaranya sudah serak akibat berteriak terus, tetapi tetap tidak ada orang yang mempedulikannya, akhirnya dia duduk di dalam sambil menghelakan nafas yang panjang. Semakin dia berpikir semakin dia merasa takut, dalam hatinya dia berpikir: Dalam mobil pengangkut es suhunya pasti di bawah 0 derajat, kalau dia tidak segera keluar dari situ, pasti akan matikedinginan. Dia terpaksa dengan tangan yang gemetar, mencari secarik kertas dan sebuah bolpen, menuliskan surat wasiatnya.

Keesokkan harinya, semua karyawan pun datang bekerja. Mereka membuka pintu mobil pengangkut es tersebut, dan sangat terkejut menemukan Nick yang terbaring di dalam. Mereka segera mengantarkan Nick untuk ditolong, tetapi dia sudah tidak bernyawa lagi.

Tetapi yang paling mereka kagetkan adalah, listrik mobil untuk menghidupkan mesin itu tidak dihubungkan, dalam mobil yang besar itu juga ada cukup oksigen untuknya, yang paling mereka herankan adalah suhu dalam mobil itu hanya 28 derajat saja, tetapi Nick malah mati “kedinginan” !!

Nick bukanlah mati karena suhu dalam mobil terlalu rendah, dia mati dalam titik es di dalam hatinya. Dia sudah menghakimi dirinya sebuah hukuman mati, bagaimana dapat hidup terus?

Percaya dalam diri sendiri adalah sebuah perasaan hati. Orang yang mempunyai rasa percaya diri tidak akan langsung putus asa begitu saja, dia tidak akan langsung berubah sedih terhadap keadaan hidupnya yang jalan kurang lancar.

Tanyalah pada diri kita sendiri, apakah kita sendiri sering langsung memutuskan bahwa kita tidak mampu untuk mengerjakan suatu hal, sehingga kita kehilangan banyak kesempatan untuk menjadi sukses? Kehilangan banyak kesempatan untuk belajar mandiri? Untuk jadi lebih mengerti kehidupan ini?

Yang mempengaruhi semangat kamu bukanlah faktor-faktor dari luar, melainkan hatimu sendiri. Sebelum berusaha sudah dikalahkan oleh diri kita sendiri, biarpun ada banyak bantuan yang tertuju pada dirimu tetap tidak akan membantu.

Tempat Paling Romantis di Dunia

2011-07-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

Menikmati masa liburan berdua dengan pasangan adalah impian setiap orang. Karenanya, pemilihan tempat wisata yang akan dituju harus direncanakan dengan matang.

Nah, berikut deretan tempat-tempat romantis di dunia yang bisa menjadi acuan saat berlibur dengan pasangan Anda.

Lembah Napa, California

Setiap tahun lebih dari empat juta orang mengunjungi Lembah Napa di California. Bukan cuma romantis karena memiliki banyak pohon anggur, melainkan di tempat ini juga terdapat pabrik minuman anggur kelas dunia.

Big Sir, California

Meski keadaan pantainya terlihat lebih kasar, namun pantai-pantai di Big Sur, California menawarkan pemandangan yang dramatis dan romatis. Salah satunya yang ada pada gambar adalah Pantai Pfeiffer di California tengah.

Paris, Prancis

Anda tentu tahu lokasi paling romantis di dunia di Kota Paris, yakni Menara Eiffel. Banyak orang menyatakan cintanya di sini atau hanya berbagi sensasi yang memabukkan di bawah cahaya lampu menara.

Venesia, Italia

Untuk mengungkapkan rasa cinta, bisa Anda lakukan di Sungai Venesia, Italia. Setiap tahun ratusan penduduk lokal dan wisatawan asing banyak yang menghabiskan waktunya di atas perahu gondola. Ini adalah tujuan wisata populer sejak abad ke-14.

Praha, Republik Ceko

Perlu Anda ketahui bahwa pesona Praha diwarnai hiasan patung pahatan dan beberapa lampu di sepanjang Jembatan Charles atau lebih tepatnya di atas Sungai Vltava. Banyak orang berjalan di tempat ini bersama seorang kekasih.

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Bora-bora merupakan kepulauan bekas jajahan Prancis di dekat Tahiti. Pantai ini seringkali dijadikan surga bagi para pasangan yang ingin berbulan madu. (romantic heaven on earth).

Bukan cuma pantai yang menjadi daya tarik Bora-bora, di balik resor pantai juga terdapat panorama cantik sebuah gunung yang bernama Gunung Otemanu.

Return to Paradise

2010-01-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

Lisa gazed out over the Caribbean Sea, feeling the faint breeze against her face - eyes shut, the white sand warm between her bare toes. The place was beautiful beyond belief, but it was still unable to ease the grief she felt as she remembered the last time she had been here.
She had married James right here on this spot three years ago to the day. Dressed in a simple white shift dress, miniature white roses attempting to tame her long dark curls, Lisa had been happier than she had ever thought possible. James was even less formal but utterly irresistible in creased summer trousers and a loose white cotton shirt. His dark hair slightly ruffled and his eyes full of adoration as his looked at his bride to be. The justice of the peace had read their vows as they held hands and laughed at the sheer joy of being young, in love and staying in a five star resort on the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic. They had seen the years blissfully stretching ahead of them, together forever. They planned their children, two she said, he said four so they compromised on three (two girls and a boy of course); where they would live, the travelling they would do together - it was all certain, so they had thought then.
But that seemed such a long time ago now. A lot can change in just a few years - a lot of heartache can change a person and drive a wedge through the strongest ties, break even the deepest love. Three years to the day and they had returned, though this time not for the beachside marriages the island was famous for but for one of its equally popular quickie divorces.
Lisa let out a sigh that was filled with pain and regret. What could she do but move on, find a new life and new dreams? - the old one was beyond repair. How could this beautiful place, with its lush green coastline, eternity of azure blue sea and endless sands be a place for the agony she felt now?
The man stood watching from the edge of the palm trees. He couldn't take his eyes of the dark-haired woman he saw standing at the water's edge, gazing out to sea as though she was waiting for something - or someone. She was beautiful, with her slim figure dressed in a loose flowing cotton dress, her crazy hair and bright blue eyes not far off the colour of the sea itself. It wasn't her looks that attracted him though; he came across many beautiful women in his work as a freelance photographer. It was her loneliness and intensity that lured him. Even at some distance he was aware that she was different from any other woman he could meet.
< 2 >
Lisa sensed the man approaching even before she turned around. She had been aware of him standing there staring at her and had felt strangely calm about being observed. She looked at him and felt the instant spark of connection she had only experienced once before. He walked slowly towards her and they held each other's gaze. It felt like meeting a long lost friend - not a stranger on a strange beach.
Later, sitting at one of the many bars on the resort, sipping the local cocktails they began to talk. First pleasantries, their hotels, the quality of the food and friendliness of the locals. Their conversation was strangely hesitant considering the naturalness and confidence of their earlier meeting. Onlookers, however, would have detected the subtle flirtation as they mirrored each other's actions and spoke directly into each other's eyes. Only later, after the alcohol had had its loosening effect, did the conversation deepen. They talked of why they were here and finally, against her judgement, Lisa opened up about her heartache of the past year and how events had led her back to the place where she had married the only man she believed she could ever love. She told him of things that had been locked deep inside her, able to tell no one. She told him how she had felt after she had lost her baby.
She was six months pregnant and the happiest she had ever been when the pains had started. She was staying with her mother as James was working out of town. He hadn't made it back in time. The doctor had said it was just one of those things, that they could try again. But how could she when she couldn't even look James in the eye. She hated him then, for not being there, for not hurting as much as her but most of all for looking so much like the tiny baby boy that she held for just three hours before the took him away. All through the following months she had withdrawn from her husband, family, friends. Not wanting to recover form the pain she felt - that would have been a betrayal of her son. At the funeral she had refused to stand next to her husband and the next day she had left him.
< 3 >
Looking up, Lisa could see her pain reflected in the man's eyes. For the first time in months she didn't feel alone, she felt the unbearable burden begin to lift from her, only a bit but it was a start. She began to believe that maybe she had a future after all and maybe it could be with this man, with his kind hazel eyes, wet with their shared tears.
They had come here to dissolve their marriage but maybe there was hope. Lisa stood up and took James by the hand and led him away from the bar towards the beech where they had made their vows to each other three years ago. Tomorrow she would cancel the divorce; tonight they would work on renewing their promises.

Old Ghosts

2010-01-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

It is Jim Brennan's birthday. He wakens on this humid August morning, startled by birdsong echoing across the garden outside and, for a long time, he stares in confused remembrance towards where the swelling orange sun is burning the faded floral wallpaper across from his tumbled bed.
'It's my birthday,' he finally realises. 'I'm seventy-six today. Where did it go?'
Climbing painfully from a sore mattress, standing in striped pyjamas by the window, Jim stares gardenwards. There's much too be done. Later. Much later. These days it's all weed killing, backache and wishes. Outside in the sunrise garden roses are already awake, clematis climbs like a growing child and all the border marigolds are on fire.
'It's my birthday.'
Next door's dog barks. A cat scales a glass sharp wall and drops beside its shadow under an apple tree, stalking anxious sparrows with the first sun. Under the broken birdhouse a mouse plays with a nibble of yesterday's bread. Shadows shrink in bright shyness against all the garden fences and the last star melts into dawnrise. There's heat in the breathless August day already.

Jimmy Brennan, seventy-six, sitting in his kitchen. Silent. The house, holding its breath around him, the roof heavy and oven baked. Jim's thick veined hands brush toast crumbs from the plastic tabletop and when he moves his faded slippered feet dust dances giddily on the sun patched carpet. He listens to the awakening of the new day: the clock on the dresser ticks hurriedly and the letter box snaps awake.
Jim walks to the hall and picks up bills and ads that promise discounts and holidays abroad. Jim has never been out of Ireland, never crossed the sea. His tired eyes examine the envelopes at arm's length. There are no birthday cards to sigh over - these days who would know?
Returning to the familiar kitchen he slides a knife along his letters, slitting out their folded information. It's better than nothing. Even if the electricity is red and overdue. At least, they keep in touch. No longer absorbed in his letter opening task Jim looks at the sunlight shining blindly on his glazed, brown teapot and then, laying the bad news aside for later, he pours more lukewarm tea. He sits and thinks about birthdays back then. Cakes and ale, songs and celebrations and the long dead who cared. Back when.
< 2 >
'Time flies,' he says.
He's talking to himself most days - who else will listen? Up in the still shadowed parlour a clock chimes the hour and Jim rises tiredly and prepares to face the day. When he turns on the wireless the news assaults his soul. The world is littered with dead children and pain. Bad news amuses while the ad men slip in a jingle. The world has gone mad with cruelty and nobody seems to have noticed. He turns a dial and foreign voices cackle urgently in the ether. Talking violence in tongues, telling of the rapes of children, no doubt. The media loves abusing the innocent with their excited updates and urgently breaking stories. It was different back then. It seemed quieter and children could play on the streets. Back when.
Ring- a- ring- a- rosy!
Jim smiles and finds Mozart and the morning is saved by Cherubino. Then he dresses and walks, cane and cloth cap, to the front door and checks the windows and the bolts and all's secure. When the nighttime house creaks with its own age, Jim thinks of burglars and imagined violations and trembles in case they invade him.
What a world!
Jim swings open the front door and sees Ellen Kelly stands there, smiling like sunlight.
'Happy birthday, Jim.'
No longer astonished, Jim smiles back and sighs because Ellen isn't really there.
Ellen Kelly, fourteen last week. He's been seeing Ellen a lot lately. She walked behind him all the way to the hushed library yesterday and when he sat to rest in Carolyn Park she was standing under a tree, waiting in its shade.
'I didn't forget,' Ellen says.
'I know, I know.'
'Will you come out to play?'
'I can't Ellen. You're dead.'
The sun slides down the street and settles on Jim's house and Ellen fades like a startled shadow.
'Poor Ellen,' Jim whispers sadly. 'My poor dead darling.'

Jim avoids the supermarket. It's too complicated. Grim checkout people urgent to get home. Kids breathing asthma. Babes bawling immediate needs. Bald headed young men pushing forward, rings in their ears, rape in their shiftless eyes. Never stare back. Girls demanding more. Car parks cluttered with stress earned money. Housewives hurrying, car exhausts, liberated women with little freedom. The exhaustion of super markets and too much choice. Too big, too modern. Too lonely for Jim.
< 3 >
He goes to smaller stores, chats with familiar people and gets milk and eggs and a small loaf of fresh bread. Further along, outside the charity shop, Mrs Barret from number twenty-nine nods an inquisitive greeting.
'How are you keeping?' she asks, looking past him at the bargains in the window.
'Grand, thank God. Yourself?'
'Couldn't be better.'
Life is strangled with polite lies.
Jim walks home through the heating streets towards sanctuary at seventy six.

In his armchair in the parlour looking out on the road. Hearing the parlour's ten time chime and the long day stretching ahead like a dreadful eternity. The terror of ten a.m. Nothing to do and outside bright girls hurry through the morning, sun on their heads, time on their hands. Feet clattering, black tights, skirts just short of sin. Making promises.
I'm glad I'm not young anymore.
Jim despises this time of day. Already too hot for the garden and nothing to fill the mind until making something at lunchtime. Light sustenance for the long afternoon lengthening drearily ahead like an empty road going nowhere. Jim tries to read but even in glasses the words are a blur.
'Ellen,' he whispers and her name rings in his head like a tolling bell.
Ellen Kelly, Kelly Ellen, Kellen Nelly.
Jim plays with her. His eyes close. He becomes delirious with dreaming and hears distantly the brass handle under the Brassoed letterbox clattering once. Jim shuffles down the hall and when he cautiously opens the wide door Ellen is there, fifteen and lovely, framed in the sun like a miracle. Ellen Kelly, budding with womanhood and childfresh happiness.
'Will you not come out to play, Jim?'
From behind, a different ghost in the dark hallway, Jim's mother, smiling.
'He's got to do some shopping for me, Ellen dear.'
Jim, sixteen, between women, inter Ellen's, adolescently happy.
'I'll come along with you, then,' Ellen, always agreeable. 'We'll go to the shops together. If that's all right?
Mother agrees, loving neighbour Ellen like the daughter her grey age longs for.
'Of course it's all right with me, darling.'
Jim and Ellen walking down the path with mama at the door, waving like a mother, waiting until they are beyond the gate, forever worrying about crossing roads and unsuspected illnesses. Tuberculosis, Pneumonia. Polio. Measles. Mumps. You name it. Young people often died young back then.
< 4 >
Jim and Ellen, heads tilted, magnetic affection drawing them closer, talking, laughing, a pair apart from others. In love. Ellen's raven hair curling around her tiny, elfin ears. Ellen, quiet and reliable as the moon.
'Will you love me forever?' Jim asks.
'Forever and ever,' Ellen assures, squeezing his hand.
On the way back they short cut thorough the August woods. A long short cut. Still talking, their words tumbling like thistledown on the hot butterflied silence. In the deep green they settle in shade and kiss among fernleafs, innocently. They kissed like that for years.

Life, a summer holiday until seventeen. Then. Jim goes to Cork with his father. A business trip. Magnificent Cork and boat bobbing, cathedraled Cobh and then the Metropole Hotel. Swanky. Dinner and desserts. Black ties, brown cigars. Gin and tonic with a twist of lemon. Now Cork is always dry gin and a twist in Jim's fading memory. Bitter lemon.
Jim with father's friends. A party and the talcum smell of sex. Dad leaves early with a friend. Dad feels only half married. Winking a man's signal. Permission to sin. A bird in the bush.
Jim dancing until dawn with necklace and pearls. Back at her oak roomed upstairs house she says her parents are away and Jim is still not sober.
'Let me help you to bed,' he says, learning the rules of the game and when to cheat.
Sixteen Ellen smelled of love and roses. This girl is twenty and slick with gin. Pearls in her ears, stones in her heart. Bath naked she drips rich. Jim falls into her and is devoured. Ellen, sweetest sixteen, gave him everything except that. Her tended flesh is reserved for the marriage bed. Jim wanted more. Pearls before swine.
Mea culpa, Ellen -mea maxima culpa!
The blonde one came to Dublin with the snow, passion pursuing Jim all grown up and knowing. Blood on snow. Seventeen Ellen, discarded, like a toy wound down, broken and useless.
'Don't you want me anymore?'
'No.'
Tears on Ellen's bitten lips. Eyes red with pain. Soul seared. Ellen goodbye.
'No. I don't want you.'
Jim brave and final, cruel as winter. Abandoned Ellen, quietly waiting for him to mature.

Next year he took the pearly girl away. Holidaying. Not even saying goodbye to pale Ellen, eighteen and alone with sickness teasing her young pink lungs, her heart dark with love. Ellen's innocence like petals blowing on grass, dancing redly away. Crowns of thorns for Ellen's virgin bridehood. Veils of tears.
< 5 >
Ellen ill.
On Jim's return his mother greets him with rubbing, folded fingers. Wet cheeks.
'Poor Ellen,' mama whispers. Respect for the dead.
Jim matures. Instantly.
Too late.
Ellen's black blood on her spitting lips. The flowers on her grave stiff in frost. Brown leaves tumbling, flying wildly in the frozen air, reburying her. No more warm kisses and a heart soaring with love. Ellen nineteen, never twenty. Mama behind the coffin, mama in her own maternal grave. And rain for fifty long years and more, after that.
My darling gone for evermore!

Clock chime. Ding. One. Ding. Two. Et Cetera.
Jim struggles from a dream speaking her name into the listening shadows.
'Ellen?
The pitch dark shadows silent as lovewords from dead mouths. Marble graveyard lips, cold as stone. Ivy and moss. Memories haunting his present. Jim shivers and steps into the window sun. Rubs his thick veined hands. Prays. Then he makes lunch. Tomatoes and ham. He dreams the evening away - half out of life. On the radio a woman sings Four Last Songs. You don't have to know the language.
Such sweet sorrow. Who said that?
Later, a seat in the garden looking towards the singing sunset. There is nothing to see except blackbirds and sparrows; nothing to hear except the noise of butterflies' wings.
Even later, the clock in the parlour chimes twelve heartbeats. Night comes hot and bothered.
Climbing into an empty bed, Jim turns off the sidelight and watches the shadows huddling against the floral wallpaper. Stars look in at his greying face. A hot August moon in the open window. Soft as silence, quiet as apple blossoms falling, gentle as Ellen's dimpled smile. Ellen's same sad glad smile standing there by his bed. Faithful Ellen, waiting.
'Do you want me now?'
Yes! Dear sweet God - yes!
He says 'I can play now, Ellen, If you like. I'm finally, properly dead.'
'I'm glad. I've been waiting for such a long time!'
Jim rising from his bed, leaving his seventy-six years between the laundered sheets. Soaring through the moonlight with Ellen in his arms, the pair of them shooting like comets into Eternity while the clock in the parlour stops.
Forever and forever.

Madeleine Rain

2010-01-11T20:22:00.000-08:00

It happened because she was edgy and bursting. It was the first day you could really feel Spring approaching. It was that brief time in between seasons that she could feel something new happening, and it made her anxious and excited. It was like new air, or sweeping cobwebs. There was a light rain outside and Madeleine wanted to throw open her two little windows to her small apartment space and let the warm mist fill the room. But the noise from the traffic would've been too much, and she was worried for the bird. As it was, the hiss of the scratchy needle was barely audible. She crouched down beside the heating vent to listen. The music was low and tired. Something like Billie Holiday. It was Billie Holiday, but for the two weeks she had looked, she hadn't been able to find it in any of the record shops. She leaned against her raggedy old reading chair and stared at the stack of books and odd art supplies next to her. Too much time spent inside reading and dreaming, she worried.

She looked up at the small, blue-green bird in the cage next to her bed, and then picked up a blue crayon. The bird was quiet. Quite still and beautiful. Every once in a while she would turn her head slightly to observe her new surroundings. She was calm. Even when Madeleine had brought her home a week ago and taken a polaroid of her, she had fluttered her wings, but in a gentle way. The softly blurred movement was a moment of perfect grace, Madeleine thought, as she ran her fingers along the edge of the picture which now hung on the wall beside the chair. She looked like the sea. As she put down the crayon for another, it started. She wondered how long Maggie had lived down there. How long she had been there. She rested her head against the wall and began to slowly peel away the old crayon's paper label. She reached for a jar of rubber cement and twisted off the top. The music mixed with the sound of Maggie, as if the sobs were a part of the song. Not like an instrument - not an accompanying sound - but interior, as if growing from within the music. A ghost. Madeleine brushed a streak of glue next to the polaroid and stuck the green paper to the wall. "Seafoam," she whispered.
< 2 >
Typically, she had only gone on Wednesday afternoons. It was the one day that they ran a bargain matinee and it only cost her $3. Besides the price, she liked the fact that the theatre was empty then. It was an old movie house where they played revivals and art films. Madeleine liked the musty smell inside, and the worn crushed burgundy of the seats. She liked the warm glow of colors that were muted by the darkness, like the old Hopper painting that hung above her chair. Occasionally, she would bring her little reading light and a sketch pad and work on a face from the film.

It was on a Sunday night that she had met her. One of those odd times when she had to pay full price, because the film she wanted to see was only a weekend run. It was Stardust Memories, by Woody Allen. He had been one of her favorites before the awful thing with his wife's daughter. Before the fear of age and death had become too overwhelming for him. She had seen one or two of his newer movies, and it made her feel embarrassed. Like finding out a close friend has been lying to you.
"Do you ever draw birds?"
Madeleine looked up from her wallet. "I'm sorry..."
"The drawing pad. You're a painter?"
"Um, I sketch."

Madeleine was startled to realize it was the woman from her building. She had seen her in the basement laundry room that first day she had been down there. One of the woman's laundry baskets was overturned and used as a step, so that she could climb up onto the washing machine and then again to nestled herself in a window above the machines. She had pried open the dingy window frame and was quietly feeding a few small birds through the security bars. Madeleine watched as they hoped in and out, pecking crackers straight from her hands. It was three days later that she first heard her through the vent and realized she lived in 3c, directly below her. She had seen her one other time out her window one evening. She had been exiting the building, alone. Madeleine remembered the way that her hair had lifted softly, caught by the wind as she walked off out of view.
< 3 >
"I like this one," the woman said, tearing an orange ticket from her ticket spool. Madeleine struggled with the loose bills in her wallet.
"Although, he's kind of a creep, now."
Madeleine put her $6.50 on the booth counter and looked up again. She noticed the woman was smiling at her. She had a beautiful, quiet smile, that was enhanced by deep pensive brown eyes. Madeleine wanted to tell her that she didn't really like Woody Allen anymore either, and that she was only coming to draw the sad woman who had played Woody Allen's first girlfriend in the film. That she hadn't seen the woman in anything else, as if she had disappeared. And that there was one particular scene that she adored. Just simple shots of the woman - jumpcuts of different expressions: manic anxiety, whimsical laughter, pain, sorrow. She wanted to tell her that this was all she had come for. Just to sketch her in her book, to take her from the film and close the door on Woody forever.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," she eeked out in an apologetic manner. Lame, she thought.
"Here you go." The woman nonchalantly slid Madeleine's money back at her, with her ticket.
"But won't you --"
The woman smiled softly and nodded. "Go ahead, I'll see you around. You can get me another time."
"Oh. Thanks ..." Madeleine smiled. She gathered her things.
"Maggie."
"Thank you, Maggie."
The lines were simple, as Madeleine let her hand go. She was half-conscious of what she was doing, caught somewhere between the last sounds of Maggie and her fading song, and the tapping of the rain which had started to fall hard on her window. It was the bird who brought her out of it. She had pecked the tiny silver bell, hanging from the top of her cage. The bird tilted her head to look down at Madeleine on the floor. Madeleine stared for a moment, smiling, and then turned back to the wall to finish her sketch: a ribbon around the bird's neck drifted across the wall into words: HELLO, SAD MAGGIE.

She didn't take the elevator, because she wasn't sure if it would bother the bird. By the second set of stairs her hands were beginning to tremble. The rain clattered off of the metal dumpsters outside, and filled the stairwell with echoes. "You okay, honey?" The bird hopped from one perch to the next, calmly inspecting the passing walls and handrails. As she entered the hallway and stepped up to the door, a horrific thought occurred to her: "Hello, Maggie? I know i've only seen you around a couple of times, and well, there's this vent in my place, you see...anyways, I hear you crying and I...I just wanted to give you this bird?" Yeah, right. Shit. She began to freeze up. "Don't. Don't freeze up," she thought. She looked down at the bird. She turned back to the stairs, and just as she was about to retreat, it happened. The bird cheeped. A little one. She froze. She looked back down at the bird. The bird was staring up at her. Another. Madeleine couldn't move.
< 4 >

The apartment door opened. Maggie peered out. "Bird?"
The bird began to sing. Maggie stepped out into the hall.
"Oh, sweetheart. You're lovely. Yes." she said, as the bird continued. She turned to Madeleine. "Hi."
Madeleine smiled. Her face was red. She wasn't sure if she could move. She raised her arm tentatively to present Maggie with the cage. The bird sprung up against the front of the cage door to greet Maggie. Maggie leaned in an ran her finger against the bars near the bird.

"Um. I bought her for you."
Maggie looked up at Madeleine. She was quiet. "Oh," she said. She smiled softly, looked serious for a moment and then her eyes started to become wet.
She took the cage from Madeleine's slightly trembling hands. She continue to stare at Madeleine. "Can you come in?"
Madeleine tried to relax into a smile.
"Yeah. Sure."

The first thing Madeleine noticed, once inside, were all of the plants. Not the amount of them - although there were a few - but how green they were. She had never seen such lush house plants in the city before. Or, anywhere for that matter. They surrounded the two small window spaces.

"How do you keep your plants so green?"
Before she could get an answer, she felt a soft hand touch her neck. She turned and Maggie leaned in and kissed her.
"Thank you." Maggie whispered.
Madeleine looked into her eyes, as Maggie reached up and brushed Madeleine's hair lovingly from her forehead. She kissed her again.
"I talk to them," Maggie said. Madeleine smiled.
"There was something I've been wanting to tell you," Madeleine said, feeling Maggie's hands still brushing against her waist. She looked over at the bird, who was still leaning tight against the cage door, staring up at the two women.
"Well. This is kind of stupid but ... the first time when I ... well ...," She paused, serious. "When I came to the theatre I wanted to tell you ... I really don't like Woody Allen anymore, I think he's gross. I just really liked that film. Yeah. There." She exhaled and laughed awkwardly.
Maggie laughed. She kissed Madeleine's forhead.
"I sketched the woman in it." Madeleine continued shyly.
Maggie nodded, smiling.
Madeleine looked around the apartment and then back at Maggie.
"The first girlfriend," Madeleine added.

< 5 >

Maggie nodded, knowingly. "Jumpcuts," she said quietly.
Madeleine smiled. "I used to think you were a ghost."
"How do you know I'm not," Maggie grinned.
"Well. I guess I don't." She paused and looked over at the bird. "But, the bird sees you, too."
"That lovely bird's probably seen lots of ghosts."
Madeleine was quiet. She looked down at the ground. She looked back up at Maggie, her head tilted slightly like the bird. "Are you?"
Maggie paused. She sighed. "I'm not sure," she said softly. Her look became distant. Madeleine took a deep breath and step towards Maggie, squeezing her hand lightly. Closing her eyes, she leaned in and kissed Maggie just below her ear.
"I don't mind," she said.

Three Letters

2010-01-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

It was autumn. Although still afternoon the journey had been spent peering at slowly moving red lights through clouds of condensing exhaust and the intermittent slip-slip of wipers. Now as she turned off the ignition darkness gathered silently around her. She walked head down, hood up, feeling plastic handles moulding themselves around her fingers, the carrier bag spinning one way then the next as it clipped against her leg. The pavement was thick with the slippery brown mulch of fallen leaves and the smell of bonfires wafted across the common. A thin mist clung around the streetlights producing a shifting yellow gas. Sounds were muffled and movements lethargic. Cars slipped slowly by on a film of dirty water. At her gate she delayed, unwilling to break the stillness with squeaking hinges; not yet teatime and the city was being put to sleep.

The terrace before her hugged the curve of the road tumbling erratically down the hill and into the gloom. Bending around the edges of her vision she was conscious of curtains being swished closed, stone faces bathed by the grey light of televisions, broken roof tiles, satellite dishes, bay windows, the whole higgledy-piggledy collection of guttering and skylights. For a moment her home was a stranger, a simple compartment in this huge connected structure.

She rattled the key into the lock, tilting it to the particular angle that would allow it to catch. She stepped inside, her hand brushing the light switch as she closed the door behind her. The softly lit warmth of the interior walls were a welcome contrast to the dark slimy surfaces of the outside. Two elderly neighbours warmed the house from the sides and soon she would hear the comforting noises of the boiler rousing itself into life.

She kept her mind occupied by these happy details of returning home as she walked along the hall and into the kitchen. She lifted the carrier bag onto the worktop and reached for the kettle. Standing in the centre of the room, still in her anorak, she listened to the sound of the water boil and felt the house adjust itself to her presence. Now she returned at all times of the day she sometimes sensed she had caught it unawares. What ghosts that had been running through rooms were now slipping reluctantly back into walls? While its inhabitants had moved the house stayed still, preserving pockets of time in dusty corners. The blue-tak tears on bedroom walls, a water-colour sun and stick man hiding behind a fitted wardrobe, a dent in a table, a crack in a mirror, were all passing moments etched into the physical world, like voices pressed into vinyl.
< >
Steam began to rise vertically to the ceiling where it changed direction aware of the presence of some subtle draft (or draft of some subtle presence). Through the window she could see the outline of the narrow garden, the fuzzy grey shapes of a rusting climbing frame and overflowing compost heap. Along one side a scruffy fence lent drunkenly one way then the other, while a brutally straight line of six-foot high boards marked the other side of the territory. What further anti-cat measures (minefields, tripwires perhaps) lay waiting beyond? As if summoned by her thoughts Rahel, green eyes and a flicking tail, appeared on the window ledge, her silent meows making small circles of condensation. Smiling, she unlocked the door. The cat padded in, figures of eight around her feet represented by muddy paw prints on the kitchen floor. The kettle worked itself towards a crescendo, beads of perspiration appeared on its sides and it shook violently unable to contain the bubbling pressure inside. Abruptly it finished, sat back on the filament and turned itself off.

She reached up to the top cupboards for the coffee jar and bent down for those that contained the mugs. Here she paused, confused by the vast number of assorted cup, mugs and beakers that stared blankly back at her. Why did she have so many? Where had they come from? She sighed as she straightened pulling out a standard shaped mug with handle; colour - light blue; design - three letters emblazoned in gold, S U E.

She took off her coat and laid it over the back of the oak kitchen chair and sat down. She let her feet slip out of her shoes and raised them onto the fitted bench across the other side of the table. Above the bench were shelves supporting decorative plates in wire stands, a Charles and Diana mug (more mugs!), and a collection of photographs showing either madly grinning or defiantly sulky children (both on the verge of crying). As she looked the image of a growing family seemed to slowly recede to reveal the image of a shrinking woman.

There was the sudden sound of water flooding into a drain as somewhere nearby a plug was pulled from a sink, a toilet was flushed or maybe a washing machine emptied itself and she realised that her coffee had gone cold. She moved to the sink and ran the hot water. Staring out into darkness she listened to the succession of far-off bangs and shudders from the network of pipes. Bathed in yellow light hovering over the gloom of the garden she looked in at a woman repeatedly working a tea towel around the inside of a mug. Who was she? Why was she so miserable?
< >
She shook herself and took out the plug. Slipped away again into nothing time (that time that flowed into the gaps between the things you did). Wouldn't a wasted minute become a wasted hour, wasted hours become wasted days? Where could she be now if she hadn't been doing, what? - making tea, sitting in traffic jams, reading the local paper, standing in a supermarket queue. Best avoided, the thought of her life draining into these moments.

She unpacked the carrier bag. She put away the milk, the orange, the biscuits and the cat food, then struggled to slide the two pizza's into an already crowded freezer spraying tiny shards of ice across the floor. An overflowing collection of polythene bags scrunched inside other polythene bags in the bottom of a cupboard was her commitment to recycling. When it was opened a white plastic avalanche slid towards her. She threw in the latest addition and slammed the door. A lone bag made a break for freedom and buoyed by the swish of air it lifted across the room like a jellyfish. Two pairs of eyes followed its progress over the spice rack and breadboard until it was caught on a bottle of olive oil.

The oak bench was not just a foot rest. She had made this discovery during a rigorous cleaning session one New Year. Under the lip of the removable cushioned seat she had found a small catch, rusty enough to break two nails. Eventually it yielded and raised to reveal a dark, hollow chest. Despite a few moments when her heartbeat seemed to fill the house, it proved to contain nothing more exciting than a pile of old newspapers - more dirtiness to clean. It was, she decided, an ideal place to store tablecloths and tea towels, but steadily it began to swallow bedding, pillowcases and blankets of various sorts. Really, it was ridiculous to think that no one else was aware of its existence (was she the only one ever to change a bed, lay a table?) Still, she always thought of it as hers, and, when alone in the house, she opened it, she experienced a flush of childish excitement. She felt it rise now as her fingers fumbled beneath soft layers of folded cotton searching for the sharp cold of a shiny metal toffee tin.
< >
She put the tin on the table. Inside lay a medal from the Polish Airforce; a commemorative coin; a pebble taken from Ilfracomb beach in 1978 (could she really remember the heavy heat of that day or did she need the proof of the pebble to tell her she had been there); a present bought but never given; and inside a neatly folded bag, three envelopes. She glanced around the room, from somewhere inside a wall a pipe clanked - the house clearing its throat - and took out the top envelope.

An antelope leapt across a colourful stamp. It looked startled as antelopes often do caught in the sights of the black postmark. The paper inside was thick and cream-coloured, it had a blue letterhead and the date in the top right hand corner was July 2000. As she let her eyes wander over the page she noticed it was just a little crumpled, stiff in places, as if it had been wetted then dried. *
This must be something of a surprise. If, that is, this letter gets to you. I remembered your address, of course, but then it suddenly struck me that maybe you had moved and I didn't know and anyway the post round here isn't exactly reliable. So perhaps I am only writing a letter to myself.

Really now that I've started I can't think what it was I wanted to say. I think it was just the act of writing that was important, just to feel as if I was still in contact with things, although I guess a blank piece of paper in an envelope would have seemed a little strange.

I've really no need to ask how things are with you. It all seems to have worked out pretty much as you planned. But still I hope you are both healthy and happy.

I am afraid I've done nothing very exciting to tell you about. Here is just an endless succession of long boring tasks, and then there's the heat and the clouds of flies that rise from the river and make everything twice as hard. But this evening as I washed and dried my clothes suddenly there was this feeling of satisfaction. Strange, five months of toil and worry then calm descends as welcome and unexpected as an ice-cream van clattering through the bush.
< >
Maybe that's why I am writing this letter. Perhaps it's thinking about England in the summer, perhaps it's the sounds of the river at night but my mind wandered back to the place of long afternoons, listening to Pink Moon and Lay Lady Lay. Can you still find a way back to the taste of cheap wine, the feel of grass between your fingers and a world that was all shimmering reflections?

All those people disappeared into the world. How would they be recognised now - perhaps only by the sound of their laughter?

I'm afraid I once damaged the environment in your name and took a penknife to the willow we used to sit by. I can remember wondering if the bark would ever grow back. If you ever find yourself driving past one weekend . . . Well perhaps not, it's probably so sadly different. But I know your name will still be there, carved in the memory of a tree.
*
She re-folded the letter and tapped it several times against her top lip. From the hall the clock calling out the quarter hour, then a moment of stillness - time stalling - before, faintly, the clock in her study responded.

She took out the next envelope. While her fingers searched for the flap she looked at the Queen's silver silhouette. The letter was written on paper so white and thin that as her gaze fell across it she saw it as a shade of blue. The date was April 1976.
*
Do I remember that September afternoon when I first met you? Is it possible to remember the slide into sleep or the hypnotist's fingers on your eyelids? I only know that it happened because at some stage I awoke.

Some things are clear, the lucid fragments of a dream, a conversation over the phone one Easter. We both felt down because I was working in a stuffy shop and you in a sorting office. I hated it and asked you how it was that time moved so slowly. It's okay, you said, it doesn't matter, because it will end and time passed is all the same, and anyway, in the end it's not time that you're left with.

You told me to go look for happiness and bring some back when I found it. But you can't bank happiness. You can't keep it for when you need it and you cannot give to someone else simply by having it yourself.
<>
I thought I would be content to watch the river flow past and drift away on the scent of water lilies. I watched days become nights and nights gently give way to days, believing I was shedding my cares when really I was storing regrets. Now I know that reading is dreaming, that dreaming is sleeping and thought inaction. When I wake I find that all I have left is thoughts of you.
*
The noise of the cat jumping clumsily onto her lap, the feeling of her pressing up and down with alternate paws, claws snagging loops of cotton.

This time the silhouette is not the Queen's but that of Nehru, a white head against an orange background. The stamp is stuck on at an odd angle (but still stuck after all this time!) and he stares down at the scraggly lines of a familiar address. The letter itself is written on a school child's lined paper, as her eyes run down the page they linger on the date, Nov. 1968 and the dappling of yellow blotches. What were they? Had they always been there?
*
I still can't believe you decided to go. Why go back to the grey, the dirt, the noise, the rush? There is a lifetime to do those things. I know you chase that dream of yours, but the dream is so sweetly deferred here. Here I feel as if I am absorbing the sunshine and serenity.

Since you left we moved further east where the earth here has a reddish tinge and so does the food. Today we met a group of Americans. We got a ride on the roof of their van and helped them collect firewood. They say there is an old man who sells the beads you wanted from the front of his hut, and eight miles of white sand.

I am writing this in a flickering of orange and blackness. This is the best time, talking and reading, the world melting away into words, although sometimes a phrase is so beautiful I have to walk around a little just to let them settle in. One of these made me think of you. 'Do that which makes you happy to do, and you will do right.'
*
The freezer's cooling mechanism rattled, then fell silent, and she realised that she hadn't been aware of the noise it was making. In its absence the air in the house seemed to hang with that same question; how would her life have been if she had managed to send just one of them? But the air received no answers and went back to its lazy circulation.

< >
In time she would fold the letter away and place it back in the envelope, place the envelopes back into the bag, the bag back into the tin and the tin into the trunk. She would cover it with layers of cloth and place down the seat and lock the catch. But now she just sat for a moment, the noise of the cat's contented breathing filling the house.

20 Places you must see

2009-06-18T23:46:00.000-07:00

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

Yosemite terletak di lereng barat dari Sierra Nevada Mountains. Taman adalah salah satu taman nasional yang paling terkenal di Amerika Serikat. Yosemite Valley adalah tujuan yang paling terkenal di Yosemite. Setiap tahun, lebih dari 4 juta orang datang mengunjungi Yosemite Valley. Tempat ini difasilitasi dengan restoran, toko dan campsites. Tempat ini adalah ratusan mil rute hiking. Anda akan menemukan berbagai jenis satwa liar besar seperti rusa, beruang hitam dan berbagai jenis burung. Bila Anda rencana liburan ke Yosemite, Anda dapat menikmati berbagai kegiatan seperti hiking, ski, berkemah, snowshoeing, menunggang kuda dan persepedaan.

SOUTH ISLAND ( NEW ZEALAND )

South Islands di Selandia baru adalah ciri - ciri dari pemandangan alam terbuka yang amat besar. pulau ini terkenal oleh fiord - fiord, hutan pantai yang besar, pantai berpasir yang luar biasa dan dataran luas. Semua orang bisa menikmati perjalanan ke selatan pulau. Sebelah selatan pulau sepuluh memiliki taman nasional. Taman ini memasukkan situs warisan dunia, danau, glaciers, fiords, hutan asli, pantai, dan hiking trek kelas dunia . Pemandangan yang menakjubkan di bagian selatan tanah menarik banyak orang untuk merencanakan liburan.

PYRAMID

Pyramids dan candi yang besar dan besar adalah tempat - tempat yang wajib dinikmati di Mesir. Anda dapat memilih tempat-tempat seperti Sinai atau pantai Laut Merah untuk bersantai. Musim dingin adalah musim yang terbaik untuk jalan liburan ke Mesir. Maret - Mei dan September-November adalah waktu yang tepat untuk menikmati hari hangat dari Mesir.

PETRA

Petra, merupakan satu dari tujuh keajaiban, yang menyerupai mawar merah dan dikenal lebih dulu sebagai kota Nabataean di sebelah selatan Yordania. Jika Anda telah memutuskan untuk melakukan perjalanan ke Yordania, Petra adalah bagian atas dari daftar prioritas. Bangunan batu berwarna Merah yang solid ada di tempat ini - yang mungkin tidak pernah anda lihat sebelumnya. satu hari ini sudah cukup puas untuk melihat segala sesuatu di sekitar Petra. Kota ini juga menawarkan berbagai hotel agar sesuai anggaran Anda.

SIDNEY

Sydney adalah kota pusat ekonomi di Australia. Tempat yang penuh dengan matahari dan wisata alam, makanan lezat dan restoran, gedung - gedung pencakar langit, tempat perbelanjaan yang indah dan ramah ini, membuat sebagian besar turis ketagihan ingin mengunjungi tempat ini lagi. Anda bisa bepergian ke Sydney setiap saat sepanjang tahun.

PARIS

Paris adalah tempat yang paling indah dan juga ibu kota Perancis. Musim semi adalah waktu terbaik untuk mengunjungi Paris. Paris adalah kota yang hidup, romantis dan penuh cahaya. Anda akan menemukan merasakan romantisme dan magic ketika Anda mengunjungi menara Eiffel sampai ke lukisan Mona Lisa di Louvre dan menikmati keramaian di sepanjang jalan Champs Elysees ke jalan-jalan berliku-liku dari Montmartre.

NIAGARA FALLS

Niagara Falls dapat diakses dari kedua sisi Amerika dan Kanada, tetapi untuk mendapatkan pemandangan yang airterjun seutuhnya lebih terlihat jelas dari sisi Kanada. Bila Anda bepergian ke Niagara Falls, jangan lupa untuk mengendarai pada perahu terkenal "maid-of-the- mist" .Anda tidak akan mendapatkan seluruh pemandangan Niagara sampai Anda naik salah satu kapal. Ini merupakan dasar untuk melihat banyak tempat menarik dan hal-hal yang harus dilakukan. Jika Anda menyukai pemandangan alam yang indah, romantis, keluarga dan petualangan malam yang penuh semangat, Niagara Falls adalah tempat terbaik untuk dikunjungi.

NEW YORK

New York adalah yang kota metropolitan terbesar di Amerika Serikat. Kota ini merupakan pusat fashion, budaya, keuangan, penelitian, media, makanan, seni, dan perdagangan. Kota ini terdiri dari 5 kota kecil dan masing-masing dibedakan oleh budaya sendiri. New York adalah kota film. Setiap tahun ini ada sekitar 200an film yang mengambil New York sebagai latar belakangnya.

MALDIVES

Maldives merupakan tempat hening dan pulau tropis, pohon-pohon palem, pantai putih dan pantai bening berwarna biru kehijau-hijauan. Maldives adalah sekelompok pulau karang yang berjumlah 1190. Tempat ini merupakan tujuan untuk scuba diving. Mengunjungi Maldives antara Desember dan April dapat membuat anda merasakan sinar matahari ekstra setiap jam. Ini juga merupakan musim utama bagi pariwisata.

HONGKONG

Hong Kong, sebuah mutiara oriental, sangat luar biasa. jika anda sudah pernah kesana maka akan sangat sulit bagi Anda untuk menemukan kota yang lebih menarik daripada Hong Kong. Hal yang sering dijumpai bila berada di Hong Kong menjadi adalah rasa kebingungan dengan kontradiksi dari budaya Cina dengan berbagai kota Asia dan elemen barat .Periode yang terbaik untuk berlibur ke Hong Kong pada bulan Oktober, November dan sebagian besar pada bulan Desember.

HAWAII

Liburan ke Hawaii akan membuat Anda merasa sangat senang dengan keindahan dan perhotelannya. Hawaii pulau yang indah dan menawarkan Anda untuk melihat dunia pantai dengan lebih dekat; menawarkan perdamaian dan ketenangan. Selama musim dingin, Hawaii terisi penuh sesak dengan wisatawan. Ketika Anda mengunjungi Hawaii, jangan lupa untuk menikmati kegiatan-kegiatan seperti: Melihat aliran cairan lahar gunung berapi di Kilauea, hiking melalui Waipio Valley, mengunjungi candi terbesar Hawaii agama Puukohola Heiau dan bermain di salju di puncak Mauna Kea.

CHICHEN ITZA

Chichen Itza adalah sebuah kata dalam bahasa Mayan. Chichen Itza merupakan salah satu kota terbesar kepurbakalaan Meksiko dan salah satu dari tujuh keajaiban. Ini merupakan daerah tujuan wisata yang paling sering dikunjungi. Wisatawan biasanya mengambil a day-trip untuk mengunjungi Chichen Itza. Jika Anda ingin menikmati semua kegiatan disekitar Chichen Itza, dibutuhkan 2-3 hari menginap. Sebelum masuk ke dalam Chichen Itza, Anda akan menemukan sebuah museum informatif,kamar untuk beristirahat, ruang makan, beberapa pedagang dan toko suvenir. Anda dapat mengunjungi tempat ini setiap saat sepanjang tahun.

CANADIAN ROCKIES

Canadian Rockies adalah salah satu tempat paling spektakuler di bumi. Tempat ini memiliki potensi dan peluang berkelas dunia resort. Mengunjungi dua taman nasional di Kanada Rockies dan menemukan mengapa sebagian besar wisatawan memilih Kanada Rockies dan meninggalkan rumah mereka dan memilih tempat ini sebagai tempat berlibur yang terbaik dari yang terbaik. Menawarkan Anda perjalanan yang tidak ingin anda lewatkan, scenic drives dan masih banyak lagi kegiatan lainnya. Anda dapat pergi bahkan untuk liburan bersama dengan anak-anak Anda. Musim dingin adalah waktu yang tepat untuk menikmati tempat ini. Saat ini, Anda dapat mencoba olahraga seperti ski, snowshoeing kemudian bersantai di sekitar api unggun pada setiap malam.

GREAT WALL OF CHINA

The Great Wall of China adalah salah satu dari tujuh keajaiban di dunia. Ini merupakan Travel Icon-nya China, dan merupakan salah satu tujuan pariwisata yang paling populer di dunia. Butuh waktu ratusan tahun untuk konstruksi bangunan ini. Bila Anda telah memutuskan untuk pergi ke Cina, jangan lupa untuk melihat dinding besar ini.

LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas adalah kota terbesar di negara bagian Nevada - Amerika Serikat. Tempat ini sering disebut sebagai modal hiburan dunia. Kota ini memiliki banyak kasino hotel dan menciptakan suasana seperti fantasi. Las Vegas merupakan perjalanan untuk tujuan bulan madu dan bagi pecinta travelling. Sebuah perjalanan ke Vegas biasanya perjalanan ke "strip", sekitar 20 blok dari lampu neon, publik dan minum Casinos

GREAT BARRIER REEF( Australia )

Ini adalah batu ekosistem terumbu karang terbesar di dunia. ini adalah salah satu tujuan atas perjalanan di Australia. Anda dapat melihat dari ruang angkasa dan merupakan terbesar di dunia satu struktur yang dibuat dari organisme hidup. Karang yang mendukung 10.000 spesies yang terdiri dari 1.500 jenis ikan dan 200 jenis burung. Inspirasi dari kecantikan batu ini membuat banyak wisatawan untuk mengunjungi tempat ini.

GOLDEN TEMPLE

Candi ini memiliki pengaturan mulia dan ada di tengah-tengah kolam besar biru yang suci. tempat ini adalah budaya yang paling signifikan dari kuil Sikhs dan salah satu yang tertua dari gurudwara Sikh. candi ini terletak di kota Amritsar, yang didirikan oleh Guru Ram Das, keempat guru dari Sikhs.

CAPE TOWN ( SOUTH AFRICA )

Cape Town terletak di ujung Benua Afrika. Satu-satunya cara untuk memahami dan menikmati Cape Town adalah dengan mengalami yang unik dari berbagai gaya hidup multibudaya dan pemandangan sekitarnya nasional untuk diri sendiri. Selama musim panas, Cape Town adalah penuh dengan keputusan menikmati liburan cuaca panas, cerah pemandangan dan pantai yang indah. Jadi, jika Anda ingin menghabiskan waktu selama musim liburan, yang terbaik adalah reservasikan secepatnya. Sebelum mencapai tempat, ada gambaran kasar tentang tempat di Cape Town, yang ingin Anda kunjungi.

GRAND CANYON

Grand Canyon adalah jurang curam yang diukir oleh Sungai Colorado di Arizona State of Amerika Serikat. sumber yang kuat yang menyebabkan dampak pada Grand Canyon adalah erosi, pertama adalah dengan air dan kedua adalah oleh angin. Hampir 5 juta orang mengunjungi 1 mile deep Grand Canyon setiap tahun. Perencanaan berlibur ke Grand Canyon taman nasional memberikan penyegaran yang besar untuk Anda dan keluarga. Waktu terbaik untuk mengunjungi Grand Canyon adalah saat musim panas, musim gugur musim semi dan ringan, namun sebagian besar penduduk setempat setuju bahwa musim dingin adalah waktu yang tepat untuk dikunjungi. Namun, Berkemah di lantai Grand Canyon perlu ijin dari kantor negara.

2009-04-14T21:35:00.001-07:00

JUDUL BUKU : Pasangan ( Jadi ) jadian

2009-04-09T03:18:00.000-07:00

Pengarang : LusiWulan

Penerbit : Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Resensi :

Dor, dor, dor..
mata priyayi membelalak. Dia sempat mencerna apa yang ia dan jagad lakukan. priyai panik.

keputusannya diam-diam menyewakan kamar pada teman cowok..yang sekarang (tahu-tahu) tidur di sebelahnya- terancam ketahuan.
pagi ini keluarganya akan datang.
dan kekacauan tersebut berujung pada satu ultimatum yang membuat Priyayi pusing harus mempertaruhkan masa depan dan hubungan cintanya.

JUDUL NOVEL : Beauty & The Bitch

2009-04-08T01:30:00.000-07:00

Pengarang : Christina Tirta

Penerbit : Gagas Media

Nadine. Cantik yang klasik. namun lugu dan kelewat old-fashioned.
Isabelle. Cantik yang Eksotis. tapi terlalu antusias dan agresif.

mereka bersahabat sewaktu sekolah dasar. terpaksa berpisah karena Isabelle melanjutkan sekolah di Singapura sedangkan Nadine tetap di Bandung. setelah 16 tahun berlalu, tanpa sengaja, takdir mempertemukan mereka kembali. namun kehidupan telah berubah. Nadine, tetap cantik. masih lugu. tidak lagi old-fashioned karena telah menjadi nyonya muda kaya-tapi sayang, kesepian.

Isabelle. tetap cantik dan telah menjelma menjadi wanita anggun dan berkelas. hanya saja patut disesali, semua kosmetik dan pakaian - pakaian bermerek yang dikenakannya tak mampu menyembunyikan muram dunianya kini.

tak disangka, pertemuan mereka kembal, mengubah nasib dan membuka rahasia - rahasia yang selama bertahun - tahun terlelap.