Turning the leaf of age surely feels different each year. Like everyone else, I tend to zoom out and peer at what all have I collected all these years. “What was” forms such a deep nostalgic connection in our lives, so much that we protect it, nourish it more so that “what is” has more semblance to “what was”. But “what is” is never like “what was” though it is the same thread, same ingredients — it is a new fabric, a new recipe that takes shape.
Zooming out gives some interesting perspectives — about the choices you make, people you value, about experiences that shaped you, relationships that moulded you, your influences, your triumphs, your despairs, your screw-ups etc. I guess it takes enormous level of equipoise to look at all of them and take it all in stride. I am far from mastering that, but one thing I have learnt over years, is to acknowledge and appreciate “what is”. They are, after-all, a result of “what was”.
You are a sum of all experiences and conversations you have had in your life — with people and with yourself. So cheers to all those experiences and conversations, that manifested multiple emotions, feelings, curiosities, thought-journeys and discoveries in me and for me.
Quoting Kahlil Gibran — “We live only to discover beauty, all else is a form of waiting”. I can say that much of the life has been spent in discovering beauty, thanks to those experiences and conversations.
Now the waiting… is to discover more beauty!