#remigius

I couldn't name any other game for myself that has squeezed my soul like a rag and clung to it as tenaciously as a hook

Latsar bagi saya, adalah 51 hari penuh cerita. Ketika ekspektasi tidak bertemu realita, itulah latsar. Saya kira 51 akan membosankan dan penuh tekanan. Nyatanya, ini cukup menyenangkan. Serius. Bertemu teman yang kemudian jadi rasa saudara itu wow. Kemudian, kapan lagi coba gendong-gendong ransel sepanjang waktu, makan pakai atribut lengkap, dan mau apa-apa harus laporan.

Latsar adalah tempat bertemu orang-orang hebat yang tetap rendah hati terhadap dunia. Para binsuh yang bertampang preman tapi hati roman. Bapak widyaiswara yang seorang hipnoterapis, ibu widyaiswara yang ternyata dulu dosennya mas suami, bapak kepala bkd yang super keren, bapak "attention" yang sudah tua tapi berjiwa muda, hingga bapak narasumber yang 'memaksa' kami untuk berani ambil janji.

Latsar ini mungkin sebenarnya adalah latsarnya Gaharu. Si mungil itu harus rela jauh-jauh berpisah dari kasur nyamannya, ikut ibuk berkelana. Maka saya yakin, setiap kemudahan yang saya dapat selama latsar adalah kemudahan yang Allah berikan untuk dia.

Ini juga adalah latsarnya mas suami. Berpisah sementara dengan saya sih biasa mungkin ya. Tapi dengan juniornya itu lo. Biasanya bisa 'nguyel-nguyel' pipinya Gaharu, sementara nggak dulu (pipinya emaknya gag pernah malah😬). Nah kan, ini adalah latsar untuk kami semua. Termasuk mbah uti alias ibu saya yang dengan senang hati menemani Gaharu sepanjang hari.

Ternyata berlalu juga ya. Selesai saudara. Sepertinya bakal rindu.

Apel selesai, ketua kelas laporan...

Bye,teman...

... ASN tak pernah bersedih, hanya dongkol dalam hati.. 🎶

Kaida, 21.12 waktu Srondol bagian barat, sambil dikeroyok nyamuk.

( @ninjacat1515 )

The desert was a deceptive place.

The dusty, sun-bleached landscape that smelled of nothing but hot, dry dirt was seemingly lifeless. It seemed that there was nothing but the sky and the ground, the place a dead blemish upon an otherwise thriving world. Though that was not entirely true, as nature’s vigor still had a presence— It’s raw elements reigned here.

There was fire here. It made up the environment. The heat from the sun, beaming down from a nearly cloudless blue sky like the watchful gaze of a god, some of the most intense. It made an imprint on everything around it, turning the sparse vegetation tan and making the distance nothing but a foggy, rippling blur.

Earth was here as well, and in multiple forms. Sometimes it was dry and cracked, long gone waters making it so chapped that it crunched under one’s heel. Though the most notable was when it was nothing but grains— grains of sand. Over millennia, the countless grains had formed dunes, which spanned endlessly across the horizon. Consistent yet ever changing.

Air accompanied the earth. Heated, arid wind intermingled with the sand, kicking it up and swirling it around. Sometimes enough to cause a funnel stretching up into the sky, and other times so small that only minute, wavy trails in the dunes are the only evidence of it’s presence. Either way, it always flowed freely, cresting over every sandy peak, tireless in its shifting work.

Water was even here. It’s visits were very few and far between, but it occasionally flowed within the region. The rain would bring a— if fleeting —bloom of life. For a time, it’s life giving substance would turn tan grasses greens, making long forgotten blossoms rise to the surface again in all their splendor. Then, if it was not here, there was always evidence of where it had been. The baked salt flats and parched river beds were all pieces of history.

And as ever changing worlds did, it always seemed to bring someone new.

Remigius opened his eyes, glancing over his shoulder from where he sat upon the cliff, staring at the horizon. The sands whispered....