Wednesday, 1 October 2014

This is what happiness looks like...

Almost 3 months back, when I had started this blog, I had written an article about how I had become tired of trying to make good things happen to me. Especially when I met with failure every time I tried. Life had become all about reaching the milestones that were considered desirable by society, or by my peer group. And I had lost the ability to live in the moment, to appreciate the ‘every-day’ good things, because I kept waiting for the ‘big’ good things to happen.
This trimester I had resolved to sit back and savour what I already had. And to wait for the ‘big’ good things to find their way towards me. And they did. Good things happened to me, least when I expected them to happen. And what made them all the more special was the fact that I wasn’t waiting in anticipation for them to happen. Allow me to explain. I was fine before they happened to me, really. I wasn’t waiting for them to happen to change my life. No. Before they happened, I was just fine, my life was just fine. And then they happened. In fact, they crept in to my life so stealthily that I wasn’t aware of them until they were well into the process of happening. And when they happened, my life didn’t change around its axis. No. I wasn’t sad before but for a very very long time, I had forgotten what being happy felt like. The kind of happiness that made you giddy and breathless had proved elusive for so long! The kind of happiness that you just can’t regret even if things go awfully downhill later.
I have always believed that happiness is not a phase in life. If asked, I can very easily point out the sad/trying phases in my life. But I have been the happiest in my life in moments. Yes, I am a firm believer in the theory that happiness lies in moments. Tiny fleeting moments which often don’t register when they are happening. But on a long lonely evening, when one gets the opportunity to sit back and take stock of life, these are the moments that stand out. Moments, which, if could be crystallized would be like old photographs, the kind which were probably taken without one's knowledge but which somehow managed to capture that tiny part of one's soul that one never knew existed. Moments that are like twinkling fairy lights in a dark room. Or like a wash of stars in a moonless night. Yes, those are the moments that one will always look for in retrospect, not the long endless nights when sleep had proved elusive nor the never ending listless days when things had not gone the way one wanted them to go.

How can one grudge oneself such moments when they are so few and far between and difficult to come by? For in long lonely cold nights, what will keep one company are not doubts and insecurities. No. The only source of comfort will be these moments in time when one had felt warm and comfortable. Safe and content. Happy. And one can never be thankful enough when one gets the privilege to add some such moments to the collage of life’s memories.

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