The Vertical Escape: A Transit through the Year of Sadness

The thing about the Isra’ and Mi’raj is that it didn’t happen when everything was fine. It arrived during the "Year of Sadness"—a divine response to a heart that was physically and spiritually suffocating under the gravity of human loss. We’re so obsessed with "leveling up" in this material cage, yet the Buraq reminds us that spiritual ascent requires a certain kind of lightness, a shedding of the ego’s heavy luggage. There is a quiet, intellectual ache in realizing that we often fail to rise simply because we are too attached to the noise.

When the Prophet ﷺ led the previous messengers in prayer at Baitul Maqdis, it wasn't an act of replacement, but a "theology of inclusion." It was a profound, minimalist "yes" to all the truth that came before, a cosmic gathering proving that we aren't meant to be islands, but part of an unbroken lineage of light. This gathering in the dust of the earth, before the ascent into the stars, serves as a reminder that our history is not a series of erasures, but a continuous unfolding of the same divine signal.

But for me, the most haunting part isn’t the ascent; it’s the return. After reaching a station of proximity to the Divine that defies language, he chose to come back to the friction and the cruelty of this world out of pure, radical compassion. He brought back the gift of Salah—not as a legalistic burden, but as a daily sanctuary where the world’s volume is finally turned down. Every time we step onto the mat, we are accessing a fragment of that celestial journey, a chance to shed the "heavy things" and find a springtime for the soul.

This vertical escape is not about leaving our lives behind, but about bringing the perspective of the heavens back down to the pavement. It is the realization that while we are tethered to the earth, we are not owned by it. We carry the capacity to transcend our own 'years of sadness' every time we choose to breathe, to pray, and to remember that the horizon is never the end. We are travelers in a temporary skin, gifted with a map to the infinite just so we wouldn’t forget how to rise.

A distilled reflection from Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad’s session last night.

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Review Wardah Perfect Bright Tone Up Cream: Cerah Instan Tanpa Ribet

Beberapa bulan terakhir, saya lagi senang pakai tone up cream, terutama kalau lagi pengin wajah kelihatan segar dengan praktis. Kalau kamu penggemar K-Beauty, pasti sudah akrab deh dengan produk satu ini. Dengan fungsi cukup lengkap, tone up cream mampu membantu meratakan warna kulit, menyamarkan noda hitam, sekaligus memberikan efek cerah seketika. Cocok dipakai sebagai pelembap maupun dasar mekap.

Awalnya krim pencerah instan memang populer berkat merek kosmetik Korea, tapi sekarang merek lokal pun nggak mau kalah. Salah satu yang paling menarik perhatian saya adalah Wardah Perfect Bright Tone Up Cream.

Kemasan dan Kandungan

Ini tone up cream lokal pertama yang saya coba. Kemasannya tube mungil 20 ml, ringkas dan sangat travel-friendly.

Wardah mengklaim produk ini bisa membuat wajah segar seketika layaknya pakai mekap. Rahasianya ada pada kandungan 7 White Actives, Pinkish Bright Powder, dan Vitamin B3. Plus, sudah ada SPF 25 di dalamnya. Meski begitu, saran saya tetap wajib lapisi dengan tabir surya ya untuk perlindungan maksimal.

Tekstur dan Aroma

Krimnya berwarna merah muda dan punya tekstur yang cukup pekat. Jujur saja, butuh sedikit usaha ekstra saat membaurkannya ke kulit. Wanginya lembut khas floral, tapi cepat hilang kok setelah diaplikasikan.

Performa di Kulit

Karena teksturnya yang pekat, saya biasanya pakai ini di tahap terakhir skincare, tepat setelah tabir surya. Saat pertama dioles, wajah memang akan terlihat lebih putih. Tapi tenang saja, setelah beberapa saat krimnya bakal menyatu dengan warna kulit asli.

Tips penting: Pakai sedikit-sedikit saja. Kalau terlalu banyak, hasilnya malah jadi abu-abu dan nggak natural di wajah.

Hasil akhirnya matte dan halus, rasanya mirip seperti pakai bedak gitu. Produk ini lumayan efektif menyamarkan kemerahan dan membuat warna kulit jadi lebih merata. Kamu bisa lanjut pakai bedak atau biarkan polos saja untuk tampilan bare face yang segar. Produk ini sebenarnya cocok untuk siapa saja, baik wanita maupun pria.

Catatan untuk Pemilik Kulit Kering

Satu hal yang perlu diingat: pastikan kulit sudah terhidrasi dengan baik sebelum memakai produk ini. Kalau kulit sedang kering, hasilnya cenderung patchy atau belang karena tekstur pekatnya tadi. 

Untuk kulit kombinasi cenderung kering seperti saya, oil control-nya tergolong biasa saja. Tapi sebagai solusi praktis saat malas dandan atau saat kulit terlihat kusam, produk ini bisa diandalkan.

Dengan harga cuma sekitar Rp23.000, produk ini juga mudah ditemukan di minimarket terdekat. Memang belum jadi favorit saya, tapi untuk kamu yang mencari pencerah instan dengan harga yang ramah di kantong, Wardah Perfect Bright Tone Up Cream ini cukup layak untuk dicoba!

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The Coffee Ghost

2019 and everyone is holding a plastic cup. Brown sugar boba, Thai tea, or those iced coffee cups with the messy palm sugar at the bottom. The matcha lattes I adore? Not for me anymore.

I’m just here with my mineral water. Again.

It’s been a couple of years since I stopped. No more cappuccinos or lattes. Basically, anything with coffee, tea, or milk is off-limits now. I miss the ritual more than the caffeine, I think. But I remember 2017 too well. The panic, the ER, the realization that it was GERD all along.. and that my chest was on fire. I'm not ready to die for a drink just yet.

So I sit in these "aesthetic" cafes and I just watch. I smell the beans from across the room, it hits me how much I miss it.. and I keep my distance. It’s a bit lonely, being the only one not actually drinking the menu. I’m just the person in the corner, nursing a bottle of water and a plain croissant. Maybe a piece of dry toast if I'm lucky.

Maybe later. Maybe when I’m finally, fully okay, I’ll take one sip. Just one tiny, stupid sip to remember what it feels like to be normal.

But for now, I’m just staying safe. That’s all.

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Our Souls at Night (2017): A Place for the Silence

I read Kent Haruf’s last novel late in 2017. It didn’t feel like a story meant to be finished quickly. The pages moved quietly, like someone choosing their words because they knew there wouldn’t be time to take them back. Haruf died shortly after finishing the book. I watched the Netflix adaptation later. Ritesh Batra kept the film close to the plot, but seeing it on screen changes the perspective. In the book, the loneliness is something you just read about. In the film, you have to sit there and watch it happen in real-time. It’s a lot less private.

People might call this a romance because of the trailer, but it isn't. It’s just Addie and Louis being sick of the silence in their own houses. She asks him to sleep over just to talk. "It’s not about sex, it’s about getting through the night." That's the entire deal. Loneliness isn’t something you outgrow. You learn to keep it to yourself.

Haruf’s prose is famously spare. There are no quotation marks, no excess explanation. The book moves like a single, unbroken thought. The film tries to honor that restraint by slowing everything down. Jane Fonda and Robert Redford aren't trying to look younger or act nostalgic. They look tired, like people who are done pretending. Most of the film is just them sitting in the dark, talking about their dead spouses, and the children they failed in ways that still hurt. In the book, these conversations feel almost unbearable. In the film, they feel like two people trying to stay warm, without the promise of comfort.

The town of Holt is where the difference between page and screen becomes clear. In the novel, Holt feels like a cage. You can sense the neighbors watching, measuring, waiting. It isn’t cruelty that defines the town, but regulation. Everyone is making sure loneliness is performed correctly. The film softens this pressure. Holt looks almost too beautiful, with its open landscapes and warm, golden lighting. It makes their choice feel like a personal habit rather than something the whole town is judging. Most of the friction in the film comes from family dynamics anyway. It’s more about the kids and grandkids than the town itself.

If Addie and Louis are about finding some peace at night, her son Gene is the harsh reality that hits the next morning. He brings the outside world with him. In the book, Gene is aggressive. He’s loud, manipulative, and a direct threat to the room. The film softens him into a lingering shadow. He just stares, but the pressure remains. The book makes you want to hit something, but the film drains you. It’s family guilt. You can’t really explain it, and you definitely can’t get away from it.

The trailer looks like a story about companionship, but it’s actually much colder. There’s no void being filled here. Only two people sitting in their own emptiness, side by side, finding that the dark is slightly less terrifying when you aren't alone. This story doesn't care about "the one" or big sparks. Real intimacy starts when you finally admit you're lonely. The rest can wait.

Batra and cinematographer John Toll don't need much to show this world. The camera stays still, observing Addie and Louis from a distance like a neighbor watching through a window. It makes their intimacy feel fragile, almost ordinary. The lighting tells the whole story; the cold blue of their lonely evenings slowly shifting into the warm amber of a shared bedside lamp. The warm light from the lamp isn't there to be romantic. It’s there so they aren't sitting in the dark. With nothing to drown it out, every sound comes through. The sheets, the bed creaking, and their voices. The clock keeps ticking in the background as a way of saying that this isn’t going to last. 

The ending isn't a warm hug. It simply stops where it has to. Both versions show that liking someone doesn’t undo a life already lived. The book is rough and cold. The film is softer, but the ending doesn’t change. Love doesn’t win here. It runs into family obligations, into age, into habits that can’t be rearranged this late. It’s a familiar kind of sadness. Not dramatic. Just quiet. They don’t stop because they want to. They stop because there’s nowhere left to push.

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Friday, October 18, 2019

“Life's greatest gift is the freedom it leaves you to step out of it whenever you choose.”

– Andrè Breton (Anthology of Black Humor) 

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Beauty Thursday: P.O. POWDER M.B.K.

Hari gini masih pakai bedak ketiak? Hehe.. tentu, dong! Seperti banyak orang pada umumnya, sejak remaja hingga sekarang saya juga bergelut dengan masalah bau badan akibat keringat berlebih, terutama di area ketiak. Namanya juga manusia, wajar banget kan kalau mengalami hal kayak gini?

Entah sudah berapa banyak jenis deodoran dan anti-perspirant yang pernah saya coba, tapi sering kali hasilnya justru mengecewakan. Bau ketiak malah makin terasa, noda kuning di bagian ketiak baju pun muncul, belum lagi wangi parfum deodoran yang terlalu menyengat. Dari pengalaman itu, akhirnya saya memutuskan untuk kembali ke pilihan yang lebih sederhana dan klasik: bedak ketiak tradisional. Produk jadul ini bahkan sudah populer jauh sebelum saya lahir, dan menariknya, masih tetap relevan sampai sekarang.

Jujur aja, awalnya saya agak skeptis. Masa sih bisa pakai bedak buat menghilangkan bau ketiak? Karena penasaran, akhirnya saya coba juga P.O POWDER M.B.K. ini dan ternyata nggak mengecewakan sama sekali, kok!

Bedak MBK ini sudah diproduksi sejak tahun 1970 dan sampai sekarang masih tetap eksis. Ada dua varian yang bisa dipilih, kemasan putih (versi lama) dan kemasan perak (versi baru). Dari segi isi, hampir sama saja. Produk ini hadir dalam kemasan sachet berisi bubuk putih yang sekilas mirip dengan bedak tabur biasa. Keduanya sama-sama punya aroma klasik yang segar dan lembut, tapi menurut saya, parfum pada varian perak aromanya sedikit lebih kuat dibanding yang putih.

Komposisinya juga sangat sederhana, hanya terdiri dari tiga bahan utama: tawas, talk, dan parfum. Bedak ketiak ini dapat digunakan baik oleh pria maupun wanita.

Sesuai petunjuk penggunaan, bedak MBK sebaiknya dipakai setelah mandi pada kulit ketiak yang bersih agar hasilnya lebih maksimal. Buat saya pribadi, performanya malah lebih jempolan dibanding roll-on atau semprot. Hasilnya? Bau ketiak jadi netral, jadi nggak perlu panik wangi parfummu bakal “tabrakan” sama aroma deodoran.

Teksturnya pun nyaman, nggak lengket, dan cukup membantu mengurangi keringat berlebih. Nggak ada lagi tuh drama “basket” atau “burket”. Plus, produk ini juga nggak meninggalkan noda gelap di baju maupun membuat kulit ketiak menghitam, yang biasanya jadi masalah besar saat pakai deodoran biasa.

Uniknya, sebagian orang bahkan memakai bedak MBK di area lipatan tubuh lain yang gampang berkeringat. Ada juga yang menggunakannya untuk mencegah bau kaki dengan cara ditaburkan ke telapak dan sela-sela jari kaki. Multifungsi banget, ya?  Tapi kalau saya tetap setia pakai di area ketiak saja, sesuai fungsinya.

Nah, sayangnya, bedak ini nggak sepenuhnya cocok di kulit saya yg cukup sensitif. Pemakaian rutin justru membuat kulit ketiak saya terasa sangat kering. Jadi, meski performanya oke, tetap harus diperhatikan reaksi kulit masing-masing, ya.

Oh, ada catatan penting! Hindari langsung menggunakan bedak ini sesaat setelah waxing atau mencukur bulu ketiak. Kandungan tawas di dalamnya dapat menimbulkan rasa perih atau iritasi pada kulit yang masih sensitif. Beri jeda beberapa jam hingga satu hari agar kulit sempat beristirahat.

Kalau bicara soal kemasan, di sinilah saya agak merasa kurang nyaman. Karena dikemas dalam plastik biasa, bubuknya mudah berhamburan kalau nggak diletakkan dengan benar. Supaya lebih praktis, saya memilih menuangkan isi bedak ke botol talk kecil agar lebih aman, praktis, dan higienis, terutama saat bepergian. Tapi tenang saja, buat yang malas repot, MBK juga menyediakan varian pot plastik dengan isi lebih banyak sehingga lebih awet dan mudah digunakan. Bahkan sekarang MBK punya versi roll-on, lo. Jadi makin penasaran, kan?

Bedak MBK jelas bukan jimat anti-bau ketiak permanen. Buat sehari-hari, menurut saya produk ini lumayan banget bikin ketiak aman terkendali. Apalagi harganya cuma sekitar Rp2.500,00 per bungkus, murah meriah terjangkau semua kalangan dan mudah ditemukan di warung, apotek, swalayan, hingga toko daring.

Dengan pemakaian rutin dua kali sehari, satu bungkus bisa awet dua sampai tiga minggu. Hemat, praktis, dan nggak ribet. Jadi, nggak ada lagi deh alasan buat drama bau badan yang bikin nggak pede!

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