It has been a long ride so far. There are not words enough to describe this path. While some might call it a winding road, others will call it a difficult path, without forgetting those who call it an unpredictable path. And while I wouldn’t agree any less with them, I also wouldn’t forget those who see it as a learning road, a healing journey and a process that leads to a greater outcome.
While others have their own definition of how best to describe my life, it was my responsibility to either agree or disagree with them. And while searching for my own definition, I find myself agreeing with everyone else except myself.
What do I really think of my life?
This was a question I couldn’t find an answer to while sitting in my comfort zone. It was definitely not an exam paper I had studied for but a question that desperately needed an answer to. I then found the answer in the most unexpected way, and this answer gave me a definition that best defined my life.
As the sun rose, I decided that my body needed some sort of movement to increase my blood circulation. With this in mind, I went jogging which was something I hadn’t done in a long time. While jogging, my muscles were stretching. My thighs began to hurt and my breath felt suffocated. I wanted to stop but I had a goal of where my stopping point should be.
I was hurting and my stopping point was far away; I couldn’t go any further. So I saw a peaceful, green and beautiful place and I knew I needed to stop. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue jogging. I wanted to quit and walk back home but after gaining my strength and my heart rate slowed down, I continued. I had a goal and knew why I needed to reach that goal and although there were many times I stopped to regain my strength and to ease the pain, that didn’t stop me until I reached my goal. Although I couldn’t find a perfect definition to describe my life, my jogging experience helped me in defining it.
So how do I define my life?
I view my life as my jogging experience. I know where I want to be in life and what I want to achieve without forgetting the type of influence I want to have on people. As much as I have this idea of how I want my life to be, that does not stop any hurt, disappointment, pain, neglect or rejection along the way.
I get exhausted and unmotivated at every path of my life and the willingness to give up arises. I want to stop and sometimes I do stop and then I look at how far I have come and how far I want to go. And maybe get overwhelmed and take two, three steps back.
The truth is that life isn’t like jogging. I don’t always see a beautiful, peaceful green spot to stop and take rest or perhaps to regain strength. This is what I see, in every step of the way, when I am tired and exhausted, when I am unable to go any further and want to stop. I see a beautiful, peaceful green spot in a form of a human.
This human doesn’t come by chance, he is rather sent by God to create an environment where I can breathe out my burdens. Every step of the way God sends a different human. Some of them are permanent while others are like a breeze. And this is the reason why I never give up because I allow myself to stop when it needed.
Remember to take a break when needed, to rest when you can’t go any further but while resting, make sure to find a perfect, peaceful green spot to ensure that you do not only rest but also gain the energy needed to continue the race.
Tell us: What do you think of this essay?