There are too many sadness in the world. More often that not, we manage to feel sorry for the hunger in Africa, the closed regime of North Korea, the stolen generation of Australia; we get angry at the violence of Mugabe, the fuel hike in Indonesia, the closed-mindedness of Burma. All of them are sad, horrible and infuriating, but they hardly ever make you feel as sad, or near as bad when your loved one is sad.
Recently I came face to face with sadness. It came to me in a form of my best friend; clothes down a size, little of an appetite and sighs awfully a lot, thanks to a broken heart. Most times I didn't know what to do, or say. I didn't know whether it was better to leave her alone, or whether I should try to break her cocoon. It was one of the hardest week (...despite all the fun times we had) of my life.
How do you tell someone who was feeling lonely, at the lowest of low, and afraid and angry and sad that she was surrounded by gazillion helping hands? How do you make them see that all eyes were on her, and that people were watching out for her, waiting for her to reach out and meet their helping hands? Even if they're only to hold and to comfort, because often they alone did not have the strength to pull her out of the darkness; that her broken heart breaks their heart, too.
And just as I thought I was overcoming my pseudo broken heart, once again I was surprised by another friend's story about her cancer. She is one of the bravest people I've ever known, and I haven't known her for very long. In her quiet ways and soft-spoken words she told me, "I know I beat it once, but deep down I'm still scared... that it will come back and I won't be able to defeat it the second time around." There was fear in her eyes and again, I didn't know what to do, or say.
But then, there was Kungfu Panda. Dreamworks' latest animated movie about the fat, noodle seller Panda who loves food and dreams about kung fu. Everyone can always relate to the story of a loser who finds his potential and beats all odds. Po, the kung fu Panda master still has problems climbing the thousand steps into the Temple after beating the evil Tai Lung, but he learned that faith can make the impossible comes true. That the secret ingredient is no-secret ingredient, you just have to believe.
I left the cinema with a smile and newfound thoughts on my recent encounters with sadness.
Life works in opposite forces. Negative and positive have to coexists. Happiness and Sadness walks hand in hand. One can not function without the other, and one is never permanent. At times of sadness, we must rely on our faith. At all times, we must believe. Not only when reasons fail us, not only when we can not control things anymore. It needs to be the ground we stand on, because the thing about faith is,... it is simply beyond comprehension.
It is about giving in, closing your eyes and letting it guides you, even if doubts fill your heart and mind. That's why they call it a leap of faith.
