Year 2020 will not be treated kindly by history. It's the year that brought the world to a screeching halt and threatened to build new normals. But we still have 5 more months to go till we go into another year, and I don't intend this post to be a chronological reference.
Somewhere in our lives, we all live through those moments - life altering, earth shattering, world crumbling... you get the idea. The moments from which there is no looking back. That moment when you feel that the rug has been pulled from under your feet. That moment that leaves you gasping and panting, as if all the air has been sucked out from the atmosphere. The moment which will be etched in your memory for a long time. That moment when you feel the full force of a heavy truck hitting you and your body attempting to move away from the impact, except that there is nowhere to move away. The moment that defines your life and leaves a scar on your timeline. Before so and so happened, after I came out of that etc. etc. In my experience, those moments are not the ones we dread. It's the carnival of our emotions that are at play in the aftermath of such moments that dictate the severity of our wound and the pain that is to follow.
I remember one such moment in life. I had the luxury of having a mirror close to me, so I stole a look at myself while I was in it. I silently bade farewell to the old 'me' because I know that this moment needed a new 'me'.
It has been sometime since that moment passed. And while I have recuperated to a large extent from that experience, I have not been the same anymore. I have more insecurities, newly-found courage, restored faith in God and better clarity in terms of my priorities. Most importantly though, I think I appreciate things around me much more. In the daily rigmarole, it is natural to start taking things for granted and that gives us a big jolt when something falls out of its place. I have a more accurate disposition of my strengths but most importantly, my weaknesses. And of course, this experience has humbled me. My source of strength has changed and my patience has grown (there is still a great room for improvement).
The recent events have rekindled our interest on some overlooked areas of our lives. The fallacy of taking things for granted when things around us are fine is something that we, as a society, are also guilty of. One such topic is our mental health. I can understand why this is so easily missed. Our brain needs to actively see things in order to prioritize it. In a way, it becomes the victim of its own limitation. Stress, anxiety, despair, negativity - these are not visible and hard to spot and easy to mask. The weight of these emotions crushes our minds and sucks our soul. The task of living with these emotions becomes harder because we disguise our feelings and put up a facade for everyone, including yourself. This conflict is no less than the famed battle waged by Goddess Durga against the the demon Mahishasura. If lost, we are doomed to an eternity of darkness and despair.
