Sunday, August 3, 2014

The Gourami

Eid ul-Fitr festival 1435 H. Second Day.

It was two in the morning and I could not fall asleep. As I was staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, I thought about the sweet sour Gourami in the refrigerator. Oh, the tenderness of the inside and the crusty outer appearance... Hmm... But I understood it was too late to have a late supper so I hold myself back and switched my mind to having the tasty fish in the morning for breakfast.

Morning came with the mosquitoes having their fill before I did. Dad was in the dining table asking Mom for something to eat. He complained that he had to wait too long for the Chicken Lodho (Ayam Lodho) at his almost everyday breakfast stop, Bu Sri's. Starving, he asked for anything the refrig had.
Thinking about the Gourami, I rushed to the dining table, did not want Dad to have all my tasty Gourami. Mom took it out for serving. I drooled. But something not usual showed. The plate where the fish was watery! The fish was literally soaked in water. Bad! Bad! We did not know where the water came from--it must be water from the freezer.

For a while we weighed the options of saving the fish, so sad we had to let it go, lest we wanted to get sick (maybe?).

Hi everyone! It's been sometime since I pushed my fingers onto the keyboard for this blog. A lot has happened--even though I try to minimize those life events--but in a few words, I am back to my homeland, Indonesia. The over-thinking period of staying or not staying in the Netherlands is over and a decision has been made. Tulungagung is my current stop (not sure until when) and it makes me feel a lot more alive!

The Gourami story is a little reminder for me that even the tiniest plan could fail. Who are we to boast about our future?I could not even make sure that I would eat the Gourami I saved after dinner. I hope we will keep calm if things really go wrong (in our eyes), for God does have a better plan for us! I ended up eating shrimps for breakfast... Kya!

Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring. 
~ Proverbs 27:1 (NIV)

However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
~ Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)