By Aditi Sayil
The world seems to be coming to a pitiful end as two mortals face death looming on them. A gigantic business owner thrust with the luck of Midas and a meek peasant, old and grim. People envied the former and threw false sympathy at the latter. However, it didn’t seem to matter, because all the people who the peasant knew had his blood flowing through their veins. Thought their journeys have come to an end, each has taken a different slice of life they had.
The business magnet spent his last days full of regrets, quashed hopes and neglected dreams. His wife and children fretted more about the impending will and the exorbitant hospital bill than his deteriorating interest in living. On the other hand the peasant, on the deathbed had a mild smile to himself, his family well-fed and satisfied, knowing he lived to the fullest. A happy farewell to be said.
What’s it like to live, to feel alive with zero regrets and nothing to worry about? A life that anyone would vouch for, wouldn’t they? People take birth, people die. Only rarely do people actually ‘live.’ Numerous life experiences have proved that between the highly overrated components of ‘birth’ and ‘death,’ all that counts is the beautiful yet enigmatic journey called ‘life.’ We may have two choices in life- either to utilize this gift or to just exist. Which the Irish poet Oscar Wilde rightly puts as,
“To live is rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.”
Today we find people rushing after monetary pleasure, as the prime factor that will help them be ‘perfect.’ They are the same one who feel that being happy doesn’t mean success.
So what stops us from living in the moment? Why do we try to seek solace in the arms of the past or get beguiled by the ambiguity of the uncertain future?
We can choose to live everyday moments, howsoever small- with gratitude and by cherishing them and living every second, every minute of the day to the fullest or get stuck up in the endless loop of expectation, disappointment, hatred or jealousy or wait for life to end by sitting and brooding in that rocking chair called ‘worrying.’ That won’t take us anywhere.
But, when we learn…
When we learn to accept,
Learn to forgive,
Learn to correct our mistakes,
Learn to understand people,
Learn that life is a precious gift that cannot be rule by the mere notion of ‘perfection.’
This is when, we live.
Like every year draws to end, the curtains closing after a mesmerizing theatrical act, life bids adieu, and leaves back a beautiful offspring called ‘memories.’
By Aditi Sayil
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