The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

As we are the largest muslim population in the world, umroh and hajj have become customary. I don't think it's extraordinary nowadays that someone is going on umroh or hajj. Of course I would still be slightly envious whenever I learn that an acquintance is going. Yet I was moved, almost to tears, when a good friend told me that she was going on umroh next sunday. I was also feeling more envious.

"It was unexpected!" She told me. She originally planned to go backpacking to India alone—I rolled my eyes when I heard that— when she was offered, by the graciousness of the company she works for, a trip to Baitullah instead.

Why did this news affect me more than it usually does?

In a way, I think, this reminded me of the things we'd once talked about, of walking down "the road less travelled," of syiar and dakwah on the radio. I might have left my idealism behind for what one considers a more promising future.

One thinks that with that promising future one can then carry out the obligation of hajj or umroh. But shouldn't one have learned the lesson by now? It is not about carrying out obligation, it's about one answering the call and invitation. One would never think that if one stayed with the job, with such level of income, one could go so soon. But The good friend, who had chosen to walk down the road less travelled, apparently has proved otherwise. She has been called.

So I wonder if my call and invitation would ever come...

Gute Reise, May! ..... jangan lupa.... titip "jodoh", ya!