The Middle Word

Let me begin this by asking a question, a very simple one, "Do you have any regrets in life?" Think.

There is a very famous Chinese paradox which says, "There is no greater power than having the foresight of a hindsight!!" Tell me, answer me, If you were to be given a power to change your life, your deeds and actions of past, the moments gone by, would you really wield that power?

Perhaps, all of us would wield that power with utmost furiousness in our first thoughts. But ponder a little, and you would begin to doubt your very first thoughts. Yes, there might have been few circumstances which had not been favourable to you, and you would like to change the dictum of those moments. But are you really ready to take that tortuous route? Are you really ready to face the consequences of your actions which are visible to you in shorter means but are nothing but a dark haze enfolding the rest of your life? Are you really sure that you would stick to this new journey of life and would not like to change it again, if provided with the power to do so? Confused? Wondering? Thinking? Good!

Allow me, to succinct some more. Think of one moment in life, that one moment, which you would really like to change in your life. There is got to be some moment, at the least one, which you would like to change. Take your time, dig up that moment.

Done? Now, take that moment, and change it the way you want it to. What do you foresee? A picturesque life of beauty and happiness in the twilight of your actions. What after that? How is the life beyond that moment? Can you see it? Is it crystal? No, it is not, but you would like to believe that it is a beautiful life. Now, the question is, are you ready to trade off that belief and hope of a beautiful life with the life which you have lived and have been living?

There is nothing more fascinating than the thought of a glorious future, and there is nothing more enchanting than the power to have a glorious past! And, both are so intertwined to each other, that it is barely impossible to make a distinction. We will always be in constant questioning of our actions and would always be speculative of our destiny. There is no nectar quenching this thirst of human inquisitiveness. We are servants of our thoughts, and not masters as you might like to believe or have been taught. If we are anything at master of, it is our actions. What we choose to do and act is completely and solely our decision. No one can take that away from us.

But you might be the master of your actions but are you free to do what you want to do? Are you ? The answer is no. So, then how come you could be the master of your actions, when you do not have a free hand in doing what you want to do?

Choice, it is the key. At every moment, when we have to act, when we have to decide, life presents us with choices. And we decide. We pick one path and then life meanders along that path. But we keep wondering about the others paths that we did not choose, the ones which were present before us and about the future that those paths might have been treasuring for us. No one has the answer. Not even GOD, because what you do, what you choose to act, every moment, also this very moment, right now when your are reading, takes this entire universe into a different realm. Every second, every action that you are doing is constantly changing this universe into a completely different and unique dominion and there is no way to go back and beyond, but to just speculate and wonder.

And then, you ask yourself, did I make a right choice?

Yes, you did.

"What you did was the right thing to do, otherwise you would not have done so. And what you did not do was not the right thing to do hence that shall not bother you, but it will always do. So, let it be.

We always do and try to do the best of our abilities and capabilities. Everyone wants to be a winner. But everyone cannot be a winner, and never all the time. It might descend upon us at times that our choices have not yielded the most fruitful of lives! But, life is no garden of fruits, life is a journey, a road along which comes many gardens, barren lands, seas, mountains, deserts, rivers, plateaus, fields, and that’s the beauty of it. Why loose it in search of fruits only. No one is perfect, but every one makes a right decisions all the time, best to his abilities. And whatever you are and whatever you have is because of the choices you made and what you chose to do. And perhaps, you might argue for better things on part of different choices which you might have made. But there is no way, absolutely no way to assure you that other choices would have landed more fruits in your lap than what you have right now. Perhaps, you could have been better off, and in equal measure, perhaps, you could have been worse. There is no denying or curbing that instinctive thought of hindsight, that act of retrospection, but do not yield to it. Look upto your future, which in itself is a very intoxicating thought, and which awaits you at every juncture with numerous possibilities and abundant of choices.

Before I ward off, remember this, if you don’t know it, "IF" is the middle word in LIFE !! And, that’s what it will always remain – The Middle Word !

Gracias !