Do you know what is the most precious gift I get at the year-end? Any guesses? Okay, I will drop a hint.
You all get it too.
Another hint, we all get the same thing, yet it’s entirely different for everyone.
Okay, one more hint, look at the picture at the top.
Well, good if you guessed it right and no problem if you didn’t. You have another year to learn how to guess well. 🙂
My most precious gift is A Jar filled with experiences of living undiluted 365 days. A bountiful jar of sweet and sour memories to be cherished for a lifetime. We all get this jar. Whether you are the common man of a country, or its president, whether you are an IIM professional or have never been to school, whether you are a child, a youth, a middle-aged person or an oldie. Life is a great leveller and reveals itself to everyone alike.
Now, the choice is ours what we do with our respective jars. We flip them carelessly, we keep them safely in a closet, we fret and fume over them, or we look into them closely, learn our lessons, and grow.
Year-ends are a bridge between the past and the future. As you walk on that bridge, leaving behind the past on one end to embrace the future at the other end, you experience myriad of emotions on the way.
The whole previous year runs through the mind like a movie playing in a theatre. You get to see yourself as an actor and analyse how you performed. No one else gets to judge you. You are the critic, you are the box office success.
Sometimes, I think we human beings are such strong absorbing sheets. We go through so much in a day, leave alone the year, and yet we continue living to the best of our abilities amidst endless life’s situations. We manage a torpedo of extreme emotional upheaval and yet stay afloat. Imagine a mother in labour who goes through torturous pain on one end and experiences a gush of happiness and fulfillment on seeing her little bundle of joy. So much emotional extremes in one moment.
Such is life.
Sometimes, the things unfold so fast that we don’t know whether to smile or be sad. We marry off a daughter into another family. It’s such a gratifying feeling for parents but not without that tingling pain in the heart of giving away your piece of heart to someone else.
How do you find the balance amidst such extreme emotions?
Yet, we live through that and survive. We laugh and cry at the same time. Be it the pain of a lost cause, the inability to perform in spite of the undying desire to do so, the frustration of not getting what you badly want, umpteen challenges, soul-breaking failures and humiliations, failing yourself, losing a loved one, seeing relationships fade that you nurtured so devotedly…
…or be it the success well deserved, job promotion, becoming an entrepreneur, receiving unconditional love, travelling the world, achieving the impossible, outdoing yourself, forging new relationships, renewed friendships, getting married, becoming a parent, settling abroad, etc.
We cross so many milestones in our lives and accumulate umpteen life impressions year after year. No wonder old age is seen as the treasure trove of life’s wisdom and lessons.
As 2018 comes to an end, the time is ripe to look into our jars and reflect. On the life we have lived, the life we aspire to live and the life we never want to live. There is a hope and promise of a better life always. Let the hope and love prevail.
(PC: All pictures are from the Internet)