Wednesday 21 February 2024

Life may be a journey but we decide what kind of journey it is.....................


Life is a journey, some say. 
How we make sense of and experience that journey
is a prerogative that belongs to each of us..
What is not our prerogative is that regardless of how
 we are experiencing our lives, one day, whether we like it or not,
it will end.

The fact the none of us are getting out of this(life) alive
is something that it seems most of us don't really 
want to think about.
(Me included)
The reason I am writing about this controversial subject now
 is that I watched a program called ''Plastic surgery disasters''
a few days ago.
I mean, man, what the heck????
Image after image of people who have paid fortunes
in the hope of preserving their beauty, youthfulness,
their..? Geez, I don't really know. What?
Are they hoping that with the help of plastic surgery
they will somehow be able to by-pass aging,
beat off wrinkles, sagging flesh, age spots and nasty fat
that somehow manages to attach itself to all the places 
on the body where it is really hard to get rid of it?
Yes. Apparently.
Even if it means being sliced and diced, sucked and tucked,
suffering for hours/days/weeks in pain while in recovery.
Not only that, while they are having the procedures done, 
they are undergoing potentially life-threatening 
anesthesia's over and over and over again.

But here is the ''kicker'', ..... it's not always successful.

After watching ''Plastic surgery disasters'' I felt sad,
confused and bewildered.
Maybe it is possible to push back the outward signs
of aging for some time but what about the ''inside'' signs
of aging?
Even if it is possible to look as if one is 45 when one
is 65 years old the fact remains that the rest of the body 
is still aging with all that aging entails.
And this will take place even when we are eating right,
 exercising and living a healthy lifestyle because as far
as I can ascertain, none of us are
getting out of this alive.

As long as we draw breath, there is life and living to be done.
Every moment of life that we are gifted with is an
opportunity for us to love, learn, share, give, listen,
discover, explore, feel, and so much more, and it
is in my view not incumbent upon our ''looks''.
It is incumbent upon us to understand that the ''shell'' 
we live in is just one of the many aspects of who we are.
We are also the thoughts we think, the words we speak,
the hopes we have, the dreams we dream,
the actions we take and the decisions we make.

It can be easy at times to fall down the trap of ''if only'':

If only I was better looking
more people would love me.
If only I was fitter,
more people would love me.

If only I was slimmer,
more people would love me.
If only I was richer
more people would love me
and I'd have more friends.

If only I was famous
more people would love me.
If only I (insert here your own...)
more people would love me.

If life is a journey,
then my observation is that:
 For some of us, it just flows.
For some of us it comes with
a lot of twists and turns.
For some of us it's about
following determined patterns,
and For some of us it's
a mess from the start to the end.

 ''Every day we've got the
chance to make our journey
more beautiful than the day before.''
(Nitin Namdeo)


about the image: ink on cardboard, some editing in Elements

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