Colors of love in Bromo

Cheritera Cinta Kita by Matsuda Mashimaru/ Tales of Our Love Story

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu
~ Lao Tzu

Prologue: It all started with me tagging along with two(2) of my childhood friends and we planned to test our friendship by joining a group of Malaysian and Singaporean photographers (total strangers). People said the best way to test the compatibility of your friendship is through surviving a tough trip together and comes out still emotionally intact.

This is my 2nd visit to Mt Bromo. A well-known fact that a photography trip is a tough trip for non photographers. Chasing sunset and sunrise at some odd places for 7 conservative days can deplete your energy tank faster than usual. We woke up as early as 2.30 am and battled for a comfortable sleeping spot inside the cramped van while still hilariously teasing at each other like children.

I am happy to announce that not only the three(3) of us passed the best friend forever (bff) test but … we fell “head over heal” in love with the rest of team (total stranger) too. Now I am part of the “Gang Penghambur Tegar Bromo” team. My lil sister Ruth Agatha wanted a drama out of our photos during this trip but I want to make it clear that I am a tough girl and lovey dovey drama has never been in my element.

But heck … I just give it a try. So, Geng Penghambur … this is session 1 of our “Cheritera Cinta Kita” and session 2 will continue during our Maiga Island trip next year.

There are all sorts of love in this world.

Each of us seeks a different kind of love. Some found their true love, some still wandered for their soulmates and some were traumatized and judged for the love that they had. We explored love for 7 days and found love among us.

Common Love: The Romeo and Juliet version of love. The lovey dreamy kind of love … you were infected by it when we were so naive and immature ☺️.

But at our adult age now, Romeo almost always seeks another new love and Juliet still hunts for the everlasting love oppps! I better just stick to the script. And, Romeo found his Juliet and they live happily ever after …. the end ZZzzzzZZzzzz.

Common Love: This is where they met. And, their love confession looks like this
And, their cat fight look like this … again and again … repeat this for 1001 times
at 1002 times they made up again …
And, they got married … they live happily ever after
And, they got seven(7) hyper active, noisy and chatty children
Who love to explore the world to the core!!! ….. the End

Freedom to Love: Some seek greater love … the love for Freedom.

Freedom to love God the Creator, the ultimate owner of love and this whole universe. And, being able to express the act of devotion and love towards God publicly without being oppressed and judged.

Freedom to love another soul of your choice regardless of who and how they looked like. And, being able to express that love openly between each other without expectation, pride and ego attached.

Freedom to express our love towards ourselves without fear of being labeled. Free to be “IAmWhoIAM” ….

Freedom to love life
Freedom to love ‘time’ on our own, me time
Freedom to love yourself as a unique individual
Freedom to love our creative self

And, lastly the Patriotic love, endless love for our country.

Despite the nasty words thrown by those “toooot’ keyboard warriors, I still can feel the love towards our country. We celebrated Malaysian Day together on top of Mt Bromo. We had a few dedicated teachers in our group, they surely knew how to educate and spark the patriotic spirit among us.