Tattered Canvas

By Simrat Kaur Hora

It is the 124th day of the year, and I don't know who started perpetuating the idea of a new year giving us a 'new canvas' by romanticizing "new year, new me" without considering the scars and traumas that we have.

This pressure of painting a perfect picture on this "fresh canvas" is absolutely unnecessary because the canvas is not clean or fresh in the first place.

It is tattered! It has a few splashes of dark and bright colours here and there!

And acceptance will set us free.

The thing with having a tattered canvas is that you either stop painting at all because you are so scared- that you just let life pass by; or you have the choice to accept that the canvas will get older, but will it necessarily get uglier? You will not know unless you try painting it.

In the first case, you become a person who is full of resentment and regret.

In the second case, however, you realize that it is possible to make the tattered canvas look beautiful- and the magic lies within you.

But, by all means, avoid staying in limbo, for it will damage even the most beautiful things that might be laid out for you.

Regret is the most painful feeling that one can ever feel, but indecision will kill you day in and day out- much before you physically die.

So when you have to choose between courage or fear, choose courage- give yourself the freedom to make the canvas uglier, because in it lies your capability to make the tattered canvas look phenomenal ; in it lies your capability to reignite the spark in your life and fill your heart with love and only love ; in it lies your capability to get rid of all the resentment and anxiety ; in it lies your capability of letting go and just breathing and enjoying your present moment.

Because, many a time, all we need is to take a deep breath and realize that life is not meant to be lived in fight or flight mode. So stop trying to put out fires that do not even exist.

Breathe and paint the canvas!

Stop pressurizing yourself to make the tattered canvas look fresh and new, because what's worn out cannot look new.

But it can definitely look so much better than the new canvas.

A tattered canvas with a few splashes of different colors (read: traumas, scars, insecurities) has the ability to exhibit the most surreal painting- provided we don't fret too much about the already-existing colors.

For we are not getting a brand new canvas anyway.

All we need to do is add colors and strokes and see where it takes us. Beauty lies in the unknown.

But the billion-dollar question still remains-

Are you willing to hold the paintbrush or will you just let life splash colors on your tattered canvas?

By Simrat Kaur Hora