Time for some illumination

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

Rudyard Kipling (IF)

I encountered both of the impostors mentioned above during the course of the last year and life has not been the same since then. What's worse than a disaster? It's a disaster which follows a triumph. Just when you think that your life is better than ever, you are jolted into reality and reminded how precarious life actually is. It takes a lifetime to set-up something but it takes less than a second for all of it to turn into dust.

You have to find illuminated space within yourself <Courtesy: William Daigneault>

We, human beings are expendable, replaceable and inherently perishable. Yet, we act tough and surround ourselves with hubris for the short while we are here. We feed our fragile egos at every turn and one day when life smacks us we complain that it's cruel. The truth is that we are just fortunate to have a lot of things that we take for granted. There are no guarantees in life, nobody knows how much time is left in the bank so you have to be grateful for whatever you get. 

There's also this inherent need I see everywhere to going back to being the same person that you were after something calamitous happened. Well you can't go back to being what you were and neither should you try. This is because every experience reshapes your life and re-prioritizes what's important for life to proceed forward. The wisdom you gain and the character you formulate while gaining the strength to deal with a trauma cannot be sacrificed at the altar of becoming the same old person. 

Therefore -> Embrace the new you and evolve into something better.  

This was my takeaway from the last year. What was yours? Leave a comment.

 

Until Next Time,

Your Student of Life,

Chaitanya J.J.