Being You

There’s a song that goes like this, “It’s not easy to be me.” Most often, we try to carry a burden on our backs. A burden that’s not even necessary – the regrets of the past, the difficulties of the present and the uncertainty of the future.

A conversation with a good friend yesterday left me wondering – Why not let life unfold, instead of tearing it open? I’d liken it to a gift wrapped in glossy wrapping paper. I’ve seen many people with this habit – unwrapping the cover carefully, removing the cellotape stickers one by one and then preserving the wrapper as carefully as the gift itself. Requires a tremendous amount of patience, doesn’t it?

On the other hand, you have people tearing it open, excited..or just plain impatient. And that huge box would’ve contained a tiny piece of parchment. Or that tiny packet contained a precious diamond, worth more than anything you’ve ever received before.

Keep it simple. Life just slips by when you’re busy worrying about your present and why you haven’t achieved what others have at the same point of time. You may cry away the nights worrying if you’ll ever live up to people’s expectations. Here’s the truth – to the people who really matter, it’s your happiness that really matters. So even if you’re not the rock star or powerful entrepreneur that some people are right now, five years down the line, if YOU’RE happy, you’ve done your job. Expectations are guidelines, not rules. So go easy on your conscience.

It’s not easy to be you. Because you have a purpose in every person’s life – friend, lover, sister, brother, confidante, bread winner, bread eater or simply just being there! And it’s not a burden, it’s a privilege.

If you’re still reading this, in spite of pulling through tears, lonely nights, harsh days, good dreams, achievements and you’re still grounded, with your heart in your head and your mind in your chest… you did good. You did real good.

A pat on the back. Now please get back to life. Because nothing’s lost yet, everything is yet to be gained.

Quoted from http://hubpages.com/hub/art-of-japanese-gift-wrap : "The wrapping around the gift is seen as being part of the entire gift experience, with the opening and revealing of the contents viewed as one complete experience. In Western culture, gift-wrapping seems mostly just meant to conceal the gift, with unwrapping often being very perfunctory or even crude. Japanese gifts are aestheic and beautiful on the outside, with the same full expression of the culture's love of balance, nature, novelty and simplicty."