The Journey of Ichi's Family - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
Looking at the choco pie pictured above, for many people, I think there is nothing special about it; it just a children's snack. However, for me, personally, it has touched my heart and I learned about morality, humanity, on how we suppose act toward others especially those who need our help.
My father had siblings, brothers, and sisters. Among them, only my father had a beautiful success in his career and built a happy family. It was the reason why his parent had been prised him a lot, especially his mother which meant my grandma. My father loved his sibling and everyone who needed help would run to my father especially when they needed money. Without hesitation, my father gave the money to them and had never asked to pay it back. What he believed was by helping his sibling, someday if his children (my brother and me) needed help, his sibling would help me too. Well, I think that a good thought on how family supports each other, right? I admired my father's intention.
There is not always a rainbow every day, sometimes a storm comes; it is how I pictured my father's situation. He lost his decent job and everything, he needed a hand who could hold it. But someone who gave it hand was a stranger who did not have any connection or relation to us. This stranger family gave me a school assistant every month since I was in the first year in secondary school until I graduated and hold Bachelor's degree. With this monthly assistant, my father could think and planned what he could do to survive without worry about how to pay my monthly school fee. And me, I started working at 11 years old and earn some money to buy anything I needed for school such as school shoes, a bag, stationery, books, et cetera. Even though someone helped us, but we still worked hard every day.
After my grandpa passed away, a year later my grandma died. This sad event occur when I was at secondary school. And the next thing that happened was my father's sister and her family had come to my father's house, once a year. They lived in the city on a different island, and what my father proud of her was this sister had a successful life. My father had always been happy every time this sister came and treated them like a noble and we were just servants.🙄
Someday when I raked my father's big yard I found an interesting red plastic. I picked it and I read it "Choco Pie." I knew by looking at that plastic that this snack was tasty and good because I saw remaining chocolate in the plastic. We villager children had never seen chocolate nor eat it. Like a lightning struck my head, instantly I remember something about this morning. After finished house chores and prepared breakfast, I went to the house front terrace. I saw my cousins in the yard and suddenly looked shocked when I showed up from nowhere and saw them. They hid one of their hands and left without saying anything to me, typically the cousins who did not have any interest in villager children like me. 🤷♀️ So, this was the snack that they hid this morning from me. Maybe they afraid that I would ask for their snacks. I assumed their mother told them to eat snacks secretly outside the house where my brother was not around, and I had been busy in the kitchen. Well, while I was busy doing house chores in the morning and prepared their breakfast, they ate snacks. What my concern was my brother, what if my brother saw them ate a snack and they did not share it with my brother? What a poor boy😢 My brother loved snacks, cookies, or crackers. He sometimes cried when really wanted something. He was a little boy at the time and he did not speak much. That what I was concern about this "Choco Pie" plastic I found in my father's yard.
Comparing those cousins with my friends, my friends had always been thought about others before them. If you read my article before about the Physalis story, my friends gave me 2 physalises that left in the bush. They let me and asked me to eat it and taste it even though they knew the fruit was only 2 left. At another time, when one of my friends had a cracker, this cracker would end up divided into 5 pieces, everyone ate it and just felt happy. Any kind of food in my friend's hands, without asked they would offer it to others. Thinking about those cousins' acted, what I learned was that we should think about others, and share happiness with others.
Many years later, this "Choco Pie" is just an ordinary snack to us that we could easily find it. In the past, I took a job volunteer by helping one of my father's neighbors to make cookies and cakes when the biggest celebration came. After school, I went to make cookies at my neighbor's house until late at night; usually 9 PM. I worked was not for money but for a plastic cookie that my neighbor gave me after helped her. She did not pay me but offer a plastic cookie instead. Every day I felt happy to do it because I could give this cookie to my brother at home when I came back from work. So, yes, remembering the day when I found "Choco Pie" plastic in my father's yard made me sad because they did not share it with my brother and hid it instead.
Nowadays, I can buy any kind of snacks that my brother wants. We can also take him to the restaurant to eat something special like a Japanese restaurant. Sometimes I grab too many snacks & crackers for him, until he says, "too much."😂 What a funny thing!😅
The moral behind the "Choco Pie accident" is definitely something that I have always remembered. Instead of hiding our hands, we should use our hands to share with others. Sharing happiness will make our heart feels peace, isn't it? That is the reason why I like to give cakes or cookies to our neighbor for celebration. Before moving to Singapore, I would like to share the food that I cooked with our neighbor. That is how we suppose to live toward others by giving our gratitude.
If we have something today, it would better if we can share it with others. For instance, today we have a good life, sufficient food, a decent house, enough money, what we can do about it is grateful to our lives and help others. Why? Because we do not know how the future comes out, it is a mystery. What we have is today, so we should start to work on it today!👊🙂
Note:
- Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Do not copy this article without permission
- Do not reuse this photographed anywhere else without permission
No comments:
Post a Comment