When the Road Home Becomes a Test Between Silent Prayers and Clarity of 2026 — Chapter II

Part II of reflections and hopes of 2025. The question is, does the sun appear after heavy rain? Yes, the sun appears when the storm has passed. Medium becomes an interesting place to write about things that bring inspiration and change, recorded as small notes for the future. 2025 feels like a time machine, becoming days of happiness and, at the same time, days when you feel free, while on the other side you face heavy days that were never written in the calendar of your life plans in 2025. All this time, you realize that you have felt too uncomfortable saying no from the requests and to many other things from people around you until you forget that you are more valuable than everything else. And when you turn around and begin to question some of them, there is no reply, perhaps you are not even remembered in their memory and that’s life :). 2026 certainly brings a valuable lesson, not everyone can be helped with your two hands, not everything must be agreed to, and not everything can be controlled. Prioritizing yourself and loving yourself become meaningful parts of the journey of 2026.

Someone came and left a deep wound, in July 2026 connected to a few names you remember as tests in your life, and maybe because of that, this journey chose to take a short break from the noise and busyness that once filled your daily routine. June to August 2025 became a time of survival in a journey you never imagined would show you the worst treatment from one to three people in your life after 2 years survive too (but I am happy with that experiences (2 years) before cause with lovely good friends), making you question your own worth and causing you to think two or three times before meeting new people again. Their presence was short, but the pain felt long-lasting, until in 2026 you realized that you are worthy, you matter, and you are valuable for all the abilities you have and for everything you once questioned when you met that woman and a few others.

“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it.” — Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

A quote from Daniel Kahneman’s book became a source of light during this journey 2025. It’s reminding me a deeper meaning behind events that happened in the middle of darkness. The mind becomes the key, because our thoughts often forget the bigger picture of the past and the possible future when emotions take control this also called cognitive bias.

That book also became a second reflection in 2025. It shows that people naturally feel loss more strongly than success, the pain of losing often feels heavier than the happiness of achieving something. Because of this, the hurt caused by a few people can feel bigger than all the efforts, skills, and achievements built over time. In 2025, there was also an important realization like the mind often repeats painful memories that are hard to forget, as if they are the only truth. In fact, life is much wider than one event or one phase, and this understanding becomes part of the process of rising again in 2026.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman explains how fast thinking works automatically and emotionally, pushing us to react quickly to say yes, to endure, or to carry burdens that are not fully ours. Yet this journey slowly teaches the importance of slow thinking: taking a pause to reflect, having the courage to set boundaries, and understanding that not every act of kindness needs to be repaid with self-sacrifice. Slowing down is not a sign of weakness, but a form of wisdom shaped by experience.

So, 2026 does not come as an instant answer, but as clarity that grows from awareness. An awareness that not everything can be controlled, not everyone must be saved, and not all silence means loss. In that quiet space, prayers begin to take shape, the mind finds balance, and the self rediscovers its worth. The journey home, which once felt like a test, slowly turns into a learning space about accepting, letting go, and moving forward with greater honesty toward oneself in the future.

2026 is a year of awakening, a year when everything that was once tried is slowly understood again, when hobbies are rediscovered, and when certainty continues to be pursued, until you finally realize that your dream is already in motion. The words of others no longer feel like a burden, and you understand that you are valuable, worthy of happiness, and meant to reach the heights determined by God. Your plans and dreams are moving toward their place in the quiet stillness of this morning, as you look at the wide rice fields and feel the cool breeze, as if they are gentle signs of hope for 2026.

Lombok, 2026–08.45 am