The Time I Went Camping - Part 1 by Nicholas Budiman

It was dark when we reached there. The boat rocked when it hit the side. I woke up from my dreamless sleep and looked up. We were on a misty island with a small red brick house, a bed of dead flowers and mist beyond the flowers. We walked up the island and set camp in the red brick house.

I woke up because I heard a sound. A strange, yet familiar sound. I took my flashlight and walked outside. I walked slowly out of the red brick house and looked around. I saw something bright in the lake. I heard the familiar sound again. I looked to the left and walked slowly to the bed of dead flowers. There, the sound was so clear I could feel it in my body. Then I realised it was my dogs howling. A shower of relief washed over me.

I walked up to the red brick house and slipped inside. I was shocked because suddenly the red brick house was full of weird animals running around. 

I shot up in the tent and looked around. I realised that it was only a dream. Suddenly, I heard a strange yet familiar sound. 

~ to be continued 

I Love You As I Love You

It's funny that time and time again people should feel the need to elaborate and define the kind of love they have towards someone. It's true that 'love' has a lot of different meanings in different contexts but when two people truly love each other they should readily know the kind of love that they both share. There should be no need for elaboration.  

To me, love is unique. 

It's unique for each individual that becomes the object of my affection.

I love different people in different ways, at different depths. No two people get exactly the same kind of love; simply because love is as unique as the people feeling it. Thus, love speaks for itself and needs no explanation. 

For me, love goes beyond mere reasons.

At one point in my life, I came to realize that I don't need to have definite reasons for loving someone the way I do. Love exists because of love itself. I don't love someone due to particular qualities that they have. I may like someone because he's kind. I may like someone because she's smart. I may even like someone because he looks stunning. But when I love someone, it's just because I love them. 

The way I see it, love is everything that is not. 

It's almost impossible to define what love entails. Happiness, content, passion, serenity, calmness? Or sadness, wishful longings and hopes, uncertainties, nerve-wracking anticipations, anxieties? Love is everything that is intoxicating, and yet everything that is disconsolating. Because one cannot exist without the other. 

And to me, love is love. 

I don't love someone as a lover.

I don't love someone as a child.

I don't love someone as a parent.

I don't love someone as a sibling.

I don't love someone as a friend.

I love someone as an individual that completes me.

I love someone as they are.

I can't define who and what they are to me because love goes beyond who and what.


Oct 18, 2015
01.23

Also dedicated to a friend who's in a dilema ~ love is bound to bring confusion ☺.