You are a phoenix

In response to my columns in this space, I received several emails and messages from esteemed readers asking me to pen a piece on the growing frustration, failures and desperation in modern times. I name this piece to the souls struggling in the face of tumult and tragedies of life.

When life appears to be falling apart; when the spring of hope evaporates and winter of despair shrouds your soul; when failures welcome your efforts and torments greet your pursuits; when your life translates into an insufferable scheme, hopes transform into hell and dreams into despair; when circumstances stare you with haunted looks and when everything around scare you; when your near ones mock you and you have to endure unendurable; when your soul becomes stitched with scares and seared with bruises; when you desperately yearn for a moment of contentment and respite. Take a sigh and deliberate.

When your wounds bruise and life bleeds and your eyes run out from tears and dreams; when you feel like to curse your existence and your soul feels alien in your body; when your survival becomes an epic misery and you do not help screaming your heart out; when winds appear hostile and sail you nowhere and you get dubbed by a failing society as the epitome of failure; when clouds and gloom overshadow the silver lining and your plans and efforts radiate uncertainty and desperation; when you are bruised, battered, and broken beyond recognition. Pause, ponder and reflect.

One day, perhaps soon, your tragedies of life would start making sense. Since you have sailed the insurmountable and endured unendurable, a tranquil and prized life awaits to embrace you. Now cultivate the fruit of agonies. Your greatness lies a step ahead. What you need to do is to switch your life from a victim mode to a victor one. What you need to do is to recollect your shattered self and rebuild your seared soul. Reclaim, refocus, readjust and restart. Rise like a phoenix.

Keep inferno of passion and pursuit lit. Don’t let it to be eclipsed by clouds of desperation. Stay impatiently passionate and passionately impatient. For crisis is fuel to keep burning the passion and priceless pursuits. They push one for a far greater role. They transform an ordinary into extraordinary. When facing a hardship, its either you to cash it or let it to consume you. Whatever you choose decides your future course of experience and texture of life. Amid darkness, look for light. Or be light. The more the darkness in life the greater the need of your light — the spirit. Either you dwell amid darkness or transcend the gloom to radiate hope for the fellows around. Choice is yours.

Choose latter anyway. It’s key to your self-actualisation. Once you grow out of the tragedies, you master your life — a life laced with peace, serenity and tranquillity. Since you survived the odds with indomitable spirit, no amount of crisis can defeat you in the future. Since you rebuilt yourself from ashes, you are phoenix. You have achieved immortality in the mortal abode. Your determination and valour would keep on illumining the gloomy paths of the wayfarers. You are an oasis in the desolate landscape.

And ultimately you would recognise this. You would recognise that the grinding experiences were aimed at teaching you the art of tranquil life. That crisis in life isn’t aimed at putting you down, but at building you up. You would recognise that you have emerged as a lone survivor. You emerged triumphant. That you didn’t give up to odds. That you have transformed excruciating losses into rewarding gains.

That you have reluctantly learnt the art of living. That you have weathered the storms of life. That you are a resilient and maverick soul. That you deserve praise for what you are and what you have done. That you are an epitome of perseverance and strength. That you are dust transformed into a spirit. That testing life has armed you with priceless treasures of experience.

Hold on to the challenges with valour and will. Paying gratitude to hard times is what you would ultimately end up doing.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2022.

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