Beauty for ashes? I believe some things are meant forever, and its beauty is beyond this world, beyond the ashes of time.
It’s Friday and if you want a news to deepen your weekend with hope, here’s one.
Hospital worker Intan Syari, 26, went ahead with what her late husband, medical doctor Rio Nanda Pratama, wanted. It was literally his last wish.
Dr Rio, also 26, was “among the 189 people on board Lion Air Flight JT610 that crashed after take-off from Jakarta on Oct 29.” It reports that he was returning from a conference there.
That crash was Indonesia’s worst aviation disaster “since a Garuda Indonesia plane crashed in Medan in 1997, killing all 234 people on board.”
And here is Dr Rio’s last wish. He jokingly told her this: -
“If I don’t return by Nov 11, go ahead wear your wedding dress that I chose for you, wear beautiful make-up, ask for a fresh white rose from Ms Sheila (wedding organiser), and take good photos. Then, send the photos to me.”
Syari fulfilled that wish. She donned a white wedding dress, holding white roses, and the photo went viral on social media in Indonesia. One photo showed her wedding ring. Another photo showed her standing beside Dr Rio’s sister.
She said: “There is sadness that I cannot describe, but I have to smile for you. I shall not mourn. I have to stay strong like you always told me. Although you are not beside me, your sister was with me to fullfill your most beautiful last wish. I know you are happy up there.”
She ended with this: “He always reminded me...that in the world, nothing is eternal.”
Lesson? One.
Yes, it’s about love. Some call it that old devil; others call it the conqueror. Still others call it God.
But whatever name you give, whatever label it receives, love will see you through. It was the beauty of undying love that gave Syari hope to face tomorrow. And love, pure love, can never be corrupt, can never betray.
This story has to be told not so much because it went viral or it was touching, to say the least. But it has to be told because if there is any refuge left in this world for a heart so broken by the state of the world, it has to be in the arms of love.
Love defies not just gravity, but time and space. You are lifted above the circumstances by it. When love envelops, you lose all sense of time. Timeless love transcends the past, the present and the future.
Even the space upon which you stand expands out into boundless horizons of courage and hope when love takes hold and transforms the jaded heart.
Indeed, Dr Rio reminded his fiancée well. He said nothing in this world is eternal. And it is trite and still true that a love that overcomes cannot be from this world. For whatever draws its strength or sustenance from the world depletes fast, corrupts deep and lasts but for a time.
Fame is not forever. One moment you have a thousand followers and ten thousand “Likes”, and the next, when you are old news, you are forgotten.
The world of fame works the same way as the world of lust. It comes in hot, demanding and beyond your control. But after the party is over, it leaves you lusting more.
Power can never quench or satisfy. It in fact changes you. It takes over you. It makes you do its bidding. It reduces you for its feeding. You lose yourself in power and not the other way round.
Then wealth. Alas, need I say more? Wealth may satisfy your deepest insecurities, but what good is riches if every kiss you receive is loaded, every embrace is calculated, and every promise is conditional.
We cry out for authenticity, for a beauty that lasts in this world, but the love of Dr Rio and Syari is that lasting beauty we often take for granted. And in a world of impermanence, the love they embrace is just a visitor passing through, leaving behind a glimpse of what is truly eternal.
Let me end with the enchanting words of Hafez, a Persian poet, as a tribute to the love that Dr Rio and Syari shared: -
“Our union is like this: you feel cold, so I reach for a blanket to cover our shivering feet. You ache with loneliness one night so much you weep, and I say here is a rope, tie it around me, I will be your companion for life.”
Alas, to behold such love, to have but a foretaste of it in this life, sometimes requires, even demands, that we risk everything. The reservation is understandable from a place of natural resistance. But to not risk everything, to fear taking the plunge, we may risk even more.
We may risk a heart that refuses to be broken, a heart so decidedly invulnerable that it has to be kept safe from love, from hurts, from disappointments, and from growth.
And to escape from its reach, such a heart has to be caged up, kept in the dark, reclined in a cold coffin, and buried together with all its owner’s possessions, his wealth and fame when he leaves this world. Cheerz.
No comments:
Post a Comment