Hello my dear readers; feeling blue today and hence a little introspective and a bit of mixed emotions. I am sure you all experience the blues some time or the other. It is that mood which sets you up to think and ponder on things in life you gained, you missed, what could have been and what has happened, etc. I am very well aware that nothing can change what exists today but sometimes you just can’t control your thoughts and emotions and they insist on flowing in a particular direction much to your disagreement and you have no choice but to let them flow.
We all actually take life very lightly. We have been given the birth in human form, where we can speak, think & communicate sensibly with other human beings unlike the poor mute animals; still we take it for granted. We all have been given so many people in the form of so many relationships who all care and love us. They all have a different role to play in our lives, but still, we take it for granted.
All of us have been blessed with so many materialistic things and achievements in life. It is true that some have more and some have less, but we always aspire for more, we always compare our possessions with those of others and we always feel we have less and theirs is better. What we have we don’t cherish but what we don’t have, we crave for.
House, food, decent lifestyle, education, knowledge, intelligence, friends, family, peers, colleagues, lovers/spouses – all the requirements to lead a satisfied and content life have been given to each one of us. Yes as I said earlier, there may be a difference in the amounts / quantities in terms of having received more or less. But still, we all have most of the basics to keep us happy and satisfied.
But despite having all this, are we really happy? Are we really content? I am sure majority of the people on this earth will say the answer is “NO” to this question. And the reason behind this is that though we have been given all this, we do not really appreciate the value of these things in our life. Since they have been given to us free by God or nature or whosoever runs this show of humans on earth, we do not really hold them in great esteem or value – we take these things for granted. We have a pre-conceived idea that we are entitled to all of these things and even more of them, so what is the big deal about them?
Since we have all of them we take them for granted. Ask a person who has some of these missing in his or her life. The value which these things will have for the missing part will be countless times greater because that person has realized what it feels like to not have that particular part of your life with you. The true value we only realize when we don’t have it or when something which we had, and which we did not truly appreciate, is taken away from us. That is the time when we learn to understand how foolish we were to have it and yet not be happy with it.
All the time we crave for things and relationships other than what we have – what we see others having because the grass is always greener on the other side. We never try and see the perspective that the grass only appears greener due to your coloured perception, but the reality may be totally different from what you are perceiving. In our quest for more things similar to what others have, we lose the value of the things that we already have – we fail to appreciate them or cherish them. They are not the focus of our attraction.
A simple relationship like a parent, perhaps God’s biggest gift to humanity. Parents give birth to a child and take care of all his needs till he is grown up. They try and give him the best even though at times they may have to cut corners themselves to provide this. But they do it willingly without a thought. These same parents become a burden on children when they grow old and when the children are starting their own lives. Children tend to take their parents and their love for granted and actually display a sense of entitlement to this. Often children become so busy in their own lives that they forget to remember the love of their parents and they often forget to even acknowledge that love and show gratitude. By the time real sense prevails, it is often too late and the parents have left you to your life and have moved on to a bigger role in the universe. That is the time when reality hits you hard and you understand and appreciate their true role and contribution in your life. But it is too late to show that appreciation to them, and you have to live with that guilt and feeling of regret all your life.
“To err is only human” – It is not that we are perfect and have no flaws. Nature and life do realize that and despite all our drawbacks and fallacies, life gives us umpteen of chances to do things correctly again and again and again. We make mistakes, but we need to learn from them and not repeat them again. We need to make the best of the second chances that life gives us. But if we fail to treat our mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow, we must all remember that despite the many chances we get in life to put things straight, “WE ONLY GET ONE LIFE”. After death where we go and what we do and if at all do we exist are all questions that have never been answered and never will be answered.
So at least let us make that one life which we have been given into a beautiful treasure of memories and good deeds and appreciate all that we have received from life and try to make ourselves content with what we have and try and find happiness and peace in these things rather than sit and look at others fortunes and crave for more and more without appreciating your existing possessions.
The leap is high and far beyond and extremely difficult, but yet it has to be made if you want to make your one life count !!!
Dr. Rajesh Mankani
