Vicissitude

“This, too, shall pass” is a statement that we’ve heard way too often now, haven’t we? Especially during the current times, which have shown us nothing but the uncertainty that times bear for us. Therefore, let’s talk about the unwelcome changes that we face in our regular, everyday lives.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
― Rumi

Crazy times in which we live! Our lives, as we knew them have come to screeching halts. Whatever we figured defined our lives has been taken away from us. And as scrappy beings, many of us are doing whatever we can to hold on to it with both hands. People into fitness, who used to run outside or work out in gyms have opted to take on home workouts. People who ran businesses are doing so from the confines of their homes.

Things sometimes just happen. No rhyme or reason. And they worst affect us when we least expect for them to happen to us. I’ll try to substantiate this point with an example. There is an exam upcoming, and no matter how much I’ve tried to comprehend the gibberish written in the books, I can’t seem to get the hang of the subject. I go in to the exam hall, nervous as a cat and come out of the hall not looking very ecstatic with life having put me in such a situation.

Continuing the illustration, let’s take another situation, but flip the script a bit.

There is a make-up exam for the same one which I failed earlier. However, by now, somehow I have developed superpowers and I understand every single word that is printed in the book. I study day and night, put in every ounce of blood, sweat and tears in to clearing the exam. I take it with the utmost confidence and come out of the hall with complete expectation of having aced the test.

Let’s think about it for a second. Which one of the two statements would be more devastating for me? Of course, the second one, because I was expectant of passing the exam with flying colors.

Unfavorable events, especially the ones that find us with our guards down are more likely to hurt us deeply. Right now is a time that is particularly apt to talk about such state of affairs. While we are looking at news for a little glimmer of hope that would help us restore our lives to what we can deem normal, we are being apprised of budget cuts, and hence sackings, revocations and other drastic measures in organizations that once seemed like such behemoths that even tornadoes couldn’t have brought them down.

This is just an example of the professional world. We face aberrations in every single facet of our lives; relationships, health, wealth; what have you. Everyone of us has been taken aback by something or someone, when we least expected it or them to.  Does it hurt? Yes, very much. Do we at times need time to grieve? Yes, and at times, it could take months to do that.

Sadness is a very natural emotion to feel in such circumstances. And what makes it even worse is the judgement, from the society, but more prominently the inner judgement that we have for ourselves. “Stop crying like a baby, people are doing way worse than you are!”. Being our own worst critics while pushes us towards betterment, acts as a deterrent in this ball game.

We experience a complete roller coaster of emotions in this state. One question, however, that we ask ourselves constantly in such circumstances, is the core of what I’ve been trying to dig down to. The question is asked with hope and despair alike, with energy and torpor alike, with freedom and captivity alike.

The question is, “What am I going to do now?”.

Every single twist and turn that life has to throw at us, leaves us with two choices. The first one, and the easy one, is to sit down, reminisce of the time that passed, the days in which we were in all our glory. In essence, we could choose to live in the past and become very shallow, lacking, futile impressions of the self that we truly are capable of being.

While the second one, the one that seems more challenging at the time, and not in a fun way, is to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and try and grab that proverbial brass ring, bring back that old self and make every single effort to relive those days of glory.

I’m not one to motivate anyone. That’s something that’s beyond my ken. I’m just one of many, who are experiencing things and I just am lucky enough to be able to present them in front of a willing readership (Thanks to free speech and the internet). However, I’m sure it is evident by now that I like to leave the reader thinking and hence I like to ask a very daunting question at the end of my musings. The question that I’m leaving YOU with is, “Which one do you choose?“.