It was just like yesterday that we celebrated the old and new year and now we are about to leave the first week. Time flies so fast. As usual, I entered the new year with the hope for changing to live a better life: better in spirit, in mind and in stamina.
I spent the first day of the year visiting friends and families’ houses; eating local food and of course chatting with everybody. There were four houses that my husband and I visited starting from lunch time into dinner time meaning there were two times extra eating. The second day was more memorable since I did not only visit to eat favorite food at my oldest brother’s house and meeting old and new friends at lunch time, but continued to have a small reunion at a friend’s surprised birthday party in which we chatted, ate and sang in old fashioned style facing the first sundown in the new year.
The song “Tolong kemudikan jalanku, Tuhan” that Jefferson, Glen and I sang as shown below, was the theme song of a school male group decades ago. I literally loved the way the group performed it; accompanied by guitar and the style of singing: unisono at first and continue with harmonic style. Later I was impressed by its words and quite surprised that the writer was someone I met many times, Johns Teintang; could be said that I know the song better than him; which was the reason why I agreed to join the group personals to surprisingly singing together in celebrating the school founder’s son’s surprised birthday party. The funny things was, the other two singers have not sung it for decades combined with me who unexpectedly invited to join; resulting in guessing the words by feeling and there were glitches at verses one and two. However, the song received deep appreciation especially from Indonesians who understand the lyrics, from the beginning into the end it has touched people's hearts.
I closed the first week of 2023 by attending two events, attending a weekly church worship, a post wedding church-replying ceremony of a good friend's daughter's wedding and the birthday party of my youngest brother. Most of the week I spent creating new experiencing by giving an old fashioned practical: attending events, congratulating people and singing old songs.
What I mean in this talk is, we still offer something new even in an old fashioned style; the same time we gave something and others receiving and thanked us for the gift. Even our presence is a gift that means a lot for other. The moment we did redo the old music, the same time we gave ourself and other new experience; not only recalling the past memories but creating new memories either.
Tolong kemudikan jalanku, Tuhan (Written by Jhons Teintang)
Tolong kemudikan jalanku, Tuhan; sesatlah kami berjalan sendiri
Ingin bersamamu, bersamamu, Tuhan;
Iring diri kami yang lemah, Tuhan; kuatkanlah dengan air hidupMu
Ingin menerima uluran tanganMu, Tuhan
Tariklah, Tuhan; tunjukkan, Tuhan
Jiwaku yang hilang, jalanku yang sesat; jauh dari kehendakMu
Kuingin berbalik menuju jalanMu, terimalah, Tuhan.
