Seasons of a Lifetime : Blog # 123

Seasons of a Lifetime

        I remember going to Hamleys, the world renowned toy shop. It is a child’s paradise. As grownups, my friends and I found it difficult to get out of that shop. It was as if the shelves were stuffed with childhood dreams on sale.

There was a kid who came with his parents. He was so overjoyed that he started running from one section to the other – from Cars to Guns to Superheroes- across the shop. If I were a kid, I would have done the same. His parents asked him to go through each section slowly and then decide what he wanted to buy. He gave it a futile try and started running again J.   

Come to think of it, all of us are like that little kid. We are busy chasing Life. We are constantly aspiring – for a better education, a higher paying job, a better standard of living and what not. We are scared that if we pause and ponder too much, we will miss out on what is to come.

Before we finish taking first steps and exploring nature, we rush to school. From school, we start dreaming of the college life. Right from day one at college, we fret about finding a job. As soon as a job is found, we are looking out for another one. And this goes on and on and on.

In a candid conversation over tea with a friend or at a quieter time all by oneself, we all would have looked back and wondered – “How happy I was back then! How good those times were. Why didn't I realize it back then?”

It is not that we don’t enjoy Life . We all try to do that and would have known people who do an envious job at it – Living Life to the fullest. But even they fail to recognize the goodness of Life right when it happens to them. 

The impatience to get ahead leads to our failure in recognizing the seasons of Life and the bitter sweet memories they bring along. We become so myopic with our impatience that we refuse to understand that whatever is happening will turn out to be fond memories later on in Life.

 Much later, we look back and take stock of all that we failed to realize. – How happy the childhood was, How vibrant the adolescence was, How spirited the youth was! Why not acknowledge its goodness then and there?

We need to look ahead in Life for want of not stagnating. We should know where we are headed. But equally important is enjoying each phase of it.  If we are constantly worried about where we are headed, at the finishing line, all that we would have covered will be the laps with no memories of the blissful pit stops. It shouldn't so happen that we come to think of Life as being lived in a rush.

Our Lives shouldn't resemble those years where one saw the beginning and end of it yet have no memories of it's entrancing seasons.

                                                                                                             Arun Babu         

Tweet