Feeling like a tree

I am aware that being a pet lover needs some patience. Feeding is one thing. Giving food to my pets has trained me to understand that they have their biological clock. If I am late in feeding them, they will be louder than usual.

Playing time is another thing. I don't need to spend longer time to play with my cats since they sleep for almost the whole day. But hanging out with my little chickens is a totally different thing. Just sitting down under a water apple tree while looking at all my chickens walking here and there near me feels like playing with them.

I often feel kind of silly when I have to sit still while the little chickens are about to come up to my shoulders and head just to rest their butts. 

Maybe they think that I am a big tree and they need my branches to sit on, avoiding the attacks from bigger chickens.

While sitting, they like to clean their own body by picking their feathers and then standing a minute to be able to shake their body, letting all their dirt and dead skin fall on to my body.

They also often peck my face, my hair, my ears, and my clothes. And I just stay quiet because I pretend to be a tree. The longer they sit on me, the bigger the possibility they poop on my clothes. And there I am, dirty and happy. 
 

Memanjakan Mata

Setelah dua kali gagal mencari jalan tembus antara desa Bodag (kecamatan Kare, Madiun) dengan desa Ngranget (kecamatan Dagangan, Madiun), akhirnya hari Minggu kemarin berhasil. Buat saya yang juga berasal dari daerah pegunungan, rute Bodag-Ngranget cukup menantang.

Dengan pemandangan lereng gunung Wilis yang menyejukkan mata, perjalanan roda dua melewati Bodag hanya butuh ketangkasan melewati banyak tanjakan yg berbelok-belok. Jalan beraspal memudahkan suami saya untuk mengendarai motor. 

Ketika sudah menemukan jembatan batas desa Bodag dengan desa Ngranget, jalanan berubah drastis. Jalan berbatu menyambut kami untuk menguji kesabaran. Sudah pasti kami mudah bersabar karena suguhannya adalah hutan.

Benar-benar hari memanjakan mata. Walaupun sesekali saya sempatkan untuk memotret dengan kamera ponsel, mata saya lebih sering memilih melihat langsung daripada melihat lewat kamera. 

Ketika telah masuk peradaban manusia di desa Ngranget dengan jalan yang sudah beraspal, kami berpapasan dengan beberapa warga yang selalu menyapa walaupun mereka tidak kenal dengan kami. Sebenarnya saya memiliki teman yang tinggal di desa tersebut. Namun, misi kami hari itu adalah menjelajah, sehingga kami memutuskan untuk tidak mampir. 

Jalan beraspal di desa Ngranget yang kami lewati berakhir di hutan jati. Jalan aspal sudah habis; tinggal jalan berbatu yang menuju ke dalam hutan. Karena waktu masih belum mendekati Dhuhur, kami putuskan untuk memilih melewati jalan berbatu tersebut. Asumsi kami, jalanan itu pasti menuju desa sebelah, yang lokasinya pasti semakin mendekati kecamatan kota. 

Jelajah hutan jati tersebut sering saya lalui dengan cara turun dari boncengan motor dan saya lanjutkan dengan berlari-lari kecil karena kondisi jalan berbatu yang cukup beresiko jika saya tetap berada di boncengan. Hutan yang benar-benar sepi dari orang tetapi ramai dengan suara burung dan suara pepohonan yang diterpa angin. 

Benar-benar puas mata saya hari itu. Hari Minggu yang menyambut datangnya libur akhir tahun itu saya gunakan untuk memanjakan mata dan paru-paru. Mata yang bebas menyaksikan keindahan, dan paru-paru yang bebas menerima oksigen karena saya dan suami tidak perlu bermasker selama perjalanan melewati hutan-hutan.

Trees Communicate

I am going to share a true story about a jackfruit tree. There is one backyard that belongs to my husband's family. No fence separates that backyard with the neighbors' yards. That is normal in the village, plus they have the land certificates to show the ownership of the yards.

The one jackfruit tree there has finally produced its fruit after more than ten years. The first time I saw that tree was in 2010, when I started to live in my husband's big family's house. It was already a big tree at that time. According to my husband, that jackfruit tree actually belongs to one neighbor, but that neighbor planted that tree on my husband's backyard. Whether he did that on purpose or unintentionally, my husband chose not to care. 

Rumors have it that the owner of that tree intentionally planted it on my husband's backyard so that he could manipulate the width of his own yard to become wider with the help of that jackfruit tree's existence. Still, my husband chose not to care.

Long story short, one day that neighbor's son decided to build a bamboo fence along his yard to raise some chickens and geese. Another neighbor, who happens to know about the borders of the yards surrounding, asked my husband to make sure about the right width of the yard based on the certificate before that neighbor's son built the fence.

After some discussion, the fence was finally built and that jackfruit tree was out of the fence. And it means that the width of my husband's backyard is back to normal again, with a jackfruit tree as a bonus.

A few months later something which I think is a miracle happened. Some jackfruits have started to appear on that tree. They grow normally healthy now. That tree is finally able to show that it is still all right after years of no fruit. 

Perhaps it wants to say that humans must not be greedy. If humans become greedy of God's land and nature, they won't get anything except more greed. When that tree is free from the neighbor conflict, it goes back to its nature; producing its fruits for anybody who needs.