Power to tolerate

This is still about the retreat I joined very recently.

We were accomodated in a dormitory with a capacity of 10 people. When we arrived the accomodation was almost full. For such situation we need to prepare ourselves to share a room with people we didn’t know or never met before. I only met one of them at Changi airport on our way to India and since then we travelled together and became roomates.

We walked in the room which had already been occuppied by the other 7 people. Some of them were in the room at that time. We asked them the unoccupied beds for the two of us. One of them said the first bed near the front door and the third bed were vacant . Another one was across the third bed.

Somehow before arriving, I visualized a bed near the front door and I got it. I was very happy about it. I did not see any luggage under the bed, so I was quite sure that the bed was not taken. I got myself ready to unpack my stuff until one of them said to me: ‘This bed was taken by this sister (pointing the second bed). Better you sort it out. Because you are younger.’

Then another one said : ‘But she moved to the second bed last night.’

My mind was trying to understand what the first person said. I started thinking ‘How old is the sister next to me? What kind of person is she? Is she a difficult character?’ These thoughts occuppied my head.

The way she was telling me to sort it out gave me an impression that she might be a difficult personality. I could not talk to the person who took the second bed because she was not there at that moment.

I was actually feeling a bit dizzy after several hours journey by taxi that took us to that place. That place was situated almost on top of Mount Abu. What I needed to do was to sleep. I decided to sleep to give my mind a rest and not think how I would talk to this ‘difficult’ person.

I woke up at 4 pm. I thought I had a good rest.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I found nobody was there in the room except the one who occupied the second bed. Knowing that I was awake, she said to me very softly and sweetly : ‘Are you Tini from Indonesia?’ While showing her notebook with my name written on it.  I said ‘Yes. How do you know my name?’

‘This sister here (pointing the third bed) told me your name.’ She said.

And she showed me her name and her country of origin written in her notebook for me to read.

I kept telling myseft that I was ready for such situation. To share a room with people I never knew before, from different backgrounds and countries and also personalities was not something new.

I also kept telling myself ‘This is to learn to develop power to tolerate, power to adjust and power to accomodate.’ These are the powers of the hearts. Not physical powers, but spiritual powers. Because it doesn’t refer to our physical heart, but our non-physical heart (the soul).

In life, we need this power more and more. We need these powers to deal with situations and people everyday.

So sharing one room with completely new people for two weeks was giving me a really good lesson to practise these powers.

In fact we could blend really well in just few days. We cared for one another, supported one another and also inspired one another. We really enjoyed each one’s company. They were all sweet and nice. None was a difficult personality. 😊

Actually the two of us became good friends.

This is one of my favourite corners for my reflection during the retreat.

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