The Blog Helper

 

I was recently called by someone representing the organizing committee of a story-telling competition, who told me that the story I wrote about my journey that led me find Subud wins 2nd place, and because of that it was selected to be shot and the video to be uploaded to the Youtube and Instagram accounts of the competition organizer. Not bad a gift for Eid.

Starting as a whim, after being WhatsApped by a Subud brother who knew that I am a copywriter, I didn’t have to think twice about which life story I wanted to tell about.

The most memorable life story for me was my journey of discovering Subud. I started with a disappointment in my religion, which never taught me HOW to have patience, trust, and sincerity, how to let go and let God, but only instilled in me the WHAT and WHY. I then became an atheist, and ended with my introduction to an advertising practitioner in the city of Surabaya, East Java, who is also a helper for the Subud Surabaya Branch.

Winning this story-telling competition gave me an awareness that today’s society, which had just been hit by a global pandemic, is thirsty for spirituality. And that it’s time for Subud to come out of its shell to quench the public’s thirst.

Even before this competition, I have written about my kejiwaan experiences in a personal blog. While most members do not want to share their involvement with Subud, fearing negative perceptions from their social circle, I free myself from such negative feelings. As a copywriter, I have to keep sharpening my creative knife by writing just about anything. It is more useful for me to write down my experiences with the Latihan Kejiwaan. And I never experienced what many of my Subud brothers and sisters were worried about. In fact, I made many new friends from all over Indonesia and abroad, who were inspired by my stories on the blog. Not a few also joined Subud.

Hence, a helper in Cilandak jokingly nicknamed me “the Blog Helper”.©2023

Pondok Cabe, Tangerang Selatan, 29 March 2023