Small joys

If isolation tempers the strong, it is the stumbling-block of the uncertain - Paul Cezanne

It is funny how everything seems to be interlinked with life, especially in a crisis. You look at life with new eyes and things which you might have ignored at another period that now holds a meaning to you.

Take the weather for instance. Some say that when an exceptionally precious being is lost even the sky breaks down and cries on behalf of him or her. Another example is the phrase ‘which side of the bed did you get up from’ when everything seems to go wrong for you on a day. Likewise there are many who hesitate to set foot out of the house if they hear a gecko crying.

My experience is linked with a song. There is a song I particularly like and it used to be the one which I played over and over again on my iPod whenever I set off on a long journey.

I would not mention the title of the song because it is sacred to me. It was only after out escapade that I saw the link.

Each episode the song described was meaningful and beautiful. The song has a positive ending. It makes me nostalgic. How could every verse in this track match except for the last?

I used to think that the song was penned especially for me. I used to take it as a sign from God that things would work out for us. Then one of my friend’s relationship broke up. She inserted a song as her ring tone. It was Michael Jackson’s ‘You are not alone’. She said that she feels as if the song had been written with her in mind. Then I realized that the feeling is mutual.

A strange change had taken over me in the past few days. I appreciate even the tiniest things that I come across. The smile on my friends’ faces, giving someone something they value, spending time with my friends, seeing a kitten play with its mother, looking at the sunny sky... All these are small joys. I realize that I have been fortunate but I know that things were not handed out in a platter for me. I had to earn them and luckily, I am not one to back off easily.

I do not rebel in public except in cases which I believe great injustice is done. I am a peace-lover but also a fighter... and now I know that I am a survivor. Someone told me that the beauty of life lies in the fact that it is ‘unpredictable’. It makes it exciting. Pain makes you a stronger person. There is beauty in sorrow. I did not believe it then but I now do. I wait for God to give his judgment but I will also follow my conscience. And you never know that some day he might have saved the best for last.

Shehara

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