Reflecting and Learning

“I was merrily proceeding along a certain route, when suddenly something spins me round and round, and I am off on a new tangent.”

This statement pretty much sums up my life in the past couple of years. Nothing too extraordinary. A life changing event placed me at a completely other end of the spectrum, reminding me how quickly everything we have can come to an end. I learned that true gain is always accompanied with loss, true love always accompanied with a compromise, and true happiness always with pain. I learned how the unexpected can really sweep us off our feet but ironically, can also dig us deeper in the ground. Every end always marks a new beginning. And that, we can always climb up again after many falls. It all makes sense though, doesn’t it? How else would we ever be able to appreciate and truly understand our lives?

The main question here is: How can we react to these unexpected increase or decrease in our lives? I had always witnessed people around me whose lives changed in moments (literally) and often wondered how they coped with the change. When asked, I was given ‘patience’ and ‘courage’ and many more words of wisdom and support. However, I am not too sure how much of these words of wisdom I was able to put into practice during my own trials. Alhumdulillah, I made effort. But is that nearly enough? Is there a way to make your faith so strong that absolutely no trial in the world can ever shake it? Or is it the other way around? When you are shaken, your faith develops and strengthens? Honestly speaking, when I was tested, my reactions were definitely more on the impulsive side than well thought out. One trial after the other was so overwhelming that I felt like a frozen soda pop; ready to explode. Although that phase has now subsided and I am gone stale, I often wonder if I could have handled it a bit better. If instead of a soda pop, I could’ve been a tube of toothpaste; full yet flexible. Suggestions anyone? “Yes…YOU” (I am looking for practical advice, sort of like a step-by-step procedure – fully prepared cake, ready to eat and digest :P)

Hope you all have an awesome day! Reflect. Life certainly has its ups and downs, as you well know. But what you need to understand is that beyond the cloud that hangs over your horizon, there is a rainbow of extraordinary beauty.

Long forgotten,
Hina