Loneliness and Solitude

(a small reflection on movie Lost in Translation)

Like Bob and Charlotte, I sometimes also experience loneliness. I think everyone must have experienced loneliness, even those who are very happy in life. I feel lonely especially when I am in a new place, or in a new community, and when I met new peoples. In these, it seemed that I had no friend. It is what Bob and Charlotte (in Lost in Translation) feel when they are in Japan and had no one to be their friend. Finally, they met in the hotel bar and became a match for one another. They became friends.

What I really feel in AIR is more or less the same. When I came here, I really fell welcomed by the members of this community. I was impressed by their kindness and generosity in welcoming us. But, beside that, I also found myself alone. I was put in a different building from the two other friends of mine. Yes, I could find other Malaysian and East Timorese who can speak Bahasa in Building D where my room is located. But, still I found no friend who had the same struggle and difficulties as I had. So, it is no wonder that the other Indonesian Juniors and I often gather to speak Bahasa, and to do something together. By gathering and meeting each other (among three of us), we could share our difficulties, our struggles which are more or less the same. By sharing these, my burden, struggle, and difficulties are lessened and lightened. Sharing was also what Bob and Charlotte did when they found themselves in the same problem. Then, they also found that by sharing it, they could lessen, lighten it.

When I found no one to whom I can share my problem and struggle, then I remember that there is one who would be so pleased to listen to me. It’s God. In this case, God is the best. He would listen to me patiently, He would keep my secret, and he would lessen and lighten my burden though I don’t know it. In this case, God seems to give no solution. But, actually, he gives the best solution, much better than the other solutions my friends give me. I realized that when I am in a problem, I remember him and I believed that he will give me the best answer to my question.

When I turn to God and share my feelings, problems, and whatever else I have experienced, I have successfully turned my loneliness into solitude. In the loneliness, we might find no one but ourselves. But, in the solitude, we find both God and ourselves.