Whenever I have heard the word “lucky”, instantly a couple of faces come rushing into my memory.Faces from pictures of social media or some vague memory from in between talks with friends like who tell me,”Did you hear so and so got married to the love of her life and now happily settled at some foreign location”?.Like a filmy dream. Some of my friends who were “lucky” enough to climb corporate ladders and visit onsite and settle down there while some of the faces were lucky enough to pursue an education or their
Some of the faces who I considered to be “lucky” were those who climbed very high up the corporate ladders while some were lucky enough to be able to pursue an education of their choice or even their hobby and build a wonderful career out of it while some of the faces reminded me about those who get time to spend at home with their kids and family.And when the urge of comparison begins, I slowly fall into the category of branding myself as being “unlucky“.
I must admit that this branding episode happened every time I visited FB or Instagram and did affect me a lot.I even feel into a cyclic depression by comparing myself to all others.Then one light bulb moment occurred to me on what I failed to notice.It was that every one of these lucky faces I see had sacrificed something or the other to be where they are now.It made me realise that if you closely think, any luck can be simply be attributed to the sheer hard work and persistence one puts up to achieve a dream.”Ahh haa…at that point of thought, I realise my folly and that I am unlucky not because my work was not good but because my work was weak in comparison to someone else’s.”This gave me the push to revisit my goals for my life and plans to achieve them.Mind you, this did not occur just in about a few days.I had struggled a lot with negativity in my life before I had my moment of realisation.
And in retrospective, I looked for reasons why I am lucky? I didn’t need to dig deep and was amazed by what I found and these are the true reasons, that mattered to me more than anything.
I consider myself to be lucky,
“Because I am alive at this moment.I am able to breathe freely.I have not ailments whatsoever.”
“Because I have something to eat and something to even throw away, some place warm to sleep, clean water to drink.”
“Because I am a citizen of a free country, where I could wear anything I want, where I have my freedom of speech, where I have never experienced any violence or war.”
“Because I can write, read and express my thoughts.I am able to pursue quality education and even now still keep on learning.”
“Because I can work, get paid for my work and live a happy life with my family.”
“Because at the end of the day I can go back to my home to my parents, my brother, my husband and my baby girl.”
“And above all I consider myself to be lucky because I was born.Now just think about it out of all the possible permutations and combinations of sperms and eggs, I was the only one outcome, I was the chosen one to be able to live a life in this pale blue dot of a planet.”
If being the only chosen one does not count as being lucky, I don’t know what else is!! And with this great power comes great responsibility, which I believe is to “live this one life as if nothing else matters”
Linking it with prompt for Friday Reflections “Lucky”
A SURREAL ODYSSEY 