Tiga Mawar Kuning

*Aku berjalan memasuki toko bahan makanan, tanpa tujuan khusus untuk membeli
bahan makanan. Aku tidaklah lapar. Kesedihan karena kehilangan suamiku yang
berusia 37 tahun masih membayang. Dan toko bahan makanan ini menyimpan
banyak kenangan manis.
Rudy, suamiku, seringkali datang bersamaku dan hampir setiap waktu ia akan
berpura-pura pergi untuk mencari sesuatu yang spesial. Aku selalu
mengawasinya berjalan di antara rak barang dan kembali membawa tiga kuntum
mawar kuning di tangannya.
Rudy tahu bahwa aku menyukai mawar kuning.

Dengan hati yang penuh duka, aku hanya ingin membeli beberapa barang dan
pergi, namun berbelanja bahan makanan ini menjadi berbeda sejak kepergian
Rudy. Berbelanja sendirian membutuhkan waktu dan pikiran lebih banyak
dibandingkan dengan berbelanja bersama Rudy. Ketika aku berdiri di muka
tempat daging, aku mencari-cari daging steak kecil yang paling sesuai dan
aku masih ingat betapa Rudy menyukai daging steak.

Tiba-tiba seorang wanita datang di sampingku. Ia berambut pirang, ramping
dan cantik memakai celana panjang hijau muda. Aku mengawasinya ketika ia
mengambil satu pak T-bone yang besar, menaruhnya di troly-nya, lalu bimbang
ingin mengembalikannya, dan akhirnya menaruh lagi di keranjangnya. Ia
berbalik pergi dan sekali lagi meraih bungkusan daging steak. Ia melihat ke
arahku yang memandanginya dan ia tersenyum. "Suamiku suka sekali T-bones,
tetapi jujur saja, dengan harga yang demikian mahal, aku tidak tahu."

Aku berusaha menahan perasaanku dan memandang matanya yang biru muda.
"Suamiku meninggal delapan hari lalu," kataku kepadanya. Sambil menoleh ke
arah bungkusan di tangan wanita itu, aku berjuang untuk menahan getaran
suaraku. "Belikan saja daging steak itu. Dan nikmati setiap waktu yang
kalian miliki bersama."

Ia menggelengkan kepala dan aku melihat emosi di matanya ketika ia menaruh
bungkusan daging steak ini ke dalam troly-nya dan berlalu. Aku berbalik dan
mendorong kereta belanjaanku sepanjang gang menuju bagian produk susu. Di
sana aku berdiri, mencoba memutuskan berapa ukuran susu yang aku harus beli.
Satu kuart, akhirnya aku memutuskan dan berpindah ke bagian es krim dekat
bagian depan toko itu.

Kalau tidak ada apa-apa, aku selalu langsung memakan es krim dalam cone itu.
Aku menaruh es krim itu ke dalam kereta belanjaan dan memandang ke depan
menuju ke depan toko. Aku melihat mula-mula celana panjang hijau mudanya,
kemudian menyadari bahwa wanita cantik itu menuju ke arahku.

Di tangannya ia membawa bungkusan. Di wajahnya ada senyum yang paling cerah
yang pernah aku lihat. Aku bayangkan ada lingkaran cahaya halo yang lembut
mengelilingi rambutnya yang pirang ketika ia terus berjalan ke arahku,
sementara matanya terus terpaku ke arahku. Ketika ia sampai di dekatku, aku
melihat apa yang ia bawa dan airmata mulai bergayut di mataku.

"Ini buat anda!" katanya dan meletakkan tiga kuntum bunga mawar kuning yang
indah di tanganku. "Kalau anda melewati kasir, mereka akan tahu bahwa mawar
ini sudah dibayar."

Ia mendekatiku dan memberi ciuman lembut di pipiku, kemudian tersenyum
kembali. Aku ingin memberitahu kepadanya apa yang ia telah lakukan, apa arti
mawar kuning itu bagiku, namun kata-kataku tercekat di tenggorokanku. Aku
hanya dapat memandanginya berlalu sementara airmata menutupi pandanganku.

Aku memandangi mawar kuning itu yang dibungkus dengan bungkus hijau dan aku
hampir tak mempercayai bahwa itu adalah sesuatu yang nyata. Bagaimana wanita
itu tahu kesukaanku?

Tiba-tiba jawaban itu nampaknya begitu jelas. Aku tidak sendirian. "Oh,
Rudy, engkau tidak melupakanku, bukan?" kataku berbisik dengan berlinangan
airmata. Rudy masih peduli kepadaku dan wanita itu adalah malaikat yang
dikirim Rudy untuk memberikan mawar kuning ini.

Bersyukurlah setiap hari atas apa yang engkau miliki dan atas dirimu! *Masuklah
melalui pintu gerbang-Nya dengan nyanyian syukur, ke dalam pelataran-Nya
dengan puji-pujian, bersyukurlah kepada-Nya dan pujilah nama-Nya! Sebab
TUHAN itu baik, kasih setia-Nya untuk selama-lamanya, dan kesetiaan-Nya
tetap turun-temurun. *
(Sumber: Inspirational Nursing - diterjemahkan oleh Hadi Kristadi untuk
http://pentas- kesaksian. blogspot. com - mohon keterangan ini jangan
dihilangkan ketika anda memforwardnya untuk memberkati orang-orang yang anda
pedulikan - terima kasih banyak)


Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

T.S. Eliot
1888-1965, Poet and Critic

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."

Albert Einstein
1879-1955, Physicist

"When you know that you're capable of dealing with whatever comes, you have the only security the world has to offer."

Harry Browne
Financial Advisor and Writer

Pessimism: Its Mistaken Perspective

I've heard there are people with such sunny dispositions that they never give way to sadness. The rumor is that they always make lemonade from their lemons. And the boast is that they can always win at cards - no matter the hand they get dealt. They always come out of tough times on the winning side, always cure their own illnesses with positive thinking, and are always loved by all who know them. Maybe there are such people. I doubt it.

Don't get me wrong! There is certainly value to looking for silver linings over getting lost in the dense fog of a dark cloud. In fact, if I had to choose between being a naive optimist and marching to the beat of the pessimist's drum, I would hope to be confused with Forrest Gump over Eeyore.

There is lots of pessimism in the air these days. There's pessimism over the Middle East and the economy. There is Eeyore-like melancholy over the state of world and national leadership. You name it. Somebody is there to tell us why things are worse than they've ever been - and destined soon to get worse still.

Maybe the pessimist lives under the delusion of Golden Age Syndrome. For most of my life, I have had to endure the lament of older people wishing for "the good old days" and "things as they used to be." I've always been skeptical of those people and have been inclined to suspect they have selective memory.

Now that I have lived a while, I'm trying to keep from using those phrases myself. Economics, politics, human relationships, religion - I seriously doubt there has ever been a time when all these things were just right.

Professor Walter Jackson Bate quotes a dejected Egyptian scribe who lived more than 2,000 years before Christ. The scribe commented on the limitations of language and wrote dejectedly of the fact that there were no fresh, new ways of saying things. On his view, "men of old" had created all the phrases that were possible for human language and had exhausted them by his time. Therefore all human expression had grown stale. Language was bankrupt.

As Professor Bate points out, this pessimistic requiem was sung over civilization before any of what we now take to be the world's greatest works of literature had been composed. Maybe the scribe was premature!

If all the pessimists across time had been correct in speaking of their generation going to the dogs, exhausting every creative option, or being abandoned by God, you and I would not be here to reflect on it.

Without either being naive or embracing Gump-ism, there is more value in facing the coming week with a positive, forward-looking spirit than wallowing in sadness over our loss of a perfection that never was.

Rubel Shelly

Rubel Shelly is a Preacher and Professor of Religion and Philosophy located in Rochester Hills, Michigan. In addition to church and academic responsibilities, he has worked actively with such community projects as Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, From Nashville With Love, Metro (Nashville) Public Schools, Faith Family Medical Clinic, and Operation Andrew Ministries. To learn more about Rubel please go to: www.RubelShelly.com

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you."

William James
1842-1910, Psychologist, Professor and Author

Part of being a champ is acting like a champ. You have to learn how to win and not run away when you lose. Everyone has bad stretches and real successes. Either way, you have to be careful not to lose your confidence or get too confident."

Nancy Kerrigan
Olympic Figure Skater

"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them."

Washington Irving
1783-1859, Author

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