...deal ???

I’m 24 years and 7 months…… And I’m so young now…..
When I listen to folks (mostly in the age group of 22-26 yrs) around me saying…. They feel tired.... they already had enough.... they feel old... and want to rest..... I mock them and say “but you are so young now, stop cribbing.. “
It doesn’t take them a moment, to look into my eye and tell.. “If you had the responsibilities/burdens which we have.. you would understand why we get so tired to try and make things just work”... I agree with them.. They seem really tired… I honestly feel so..

But their fatigued expression is not gonna stop me, from reminding them and myself, about the period of life we are in…. We ARE so young now.. At this stage of our lives…we can bring from within so much power and make a difference…. ok.. toning down the dialogues…. Look at it this way… When we were kids, we were dependent on our parents.. and when we grow old, we will be dependent on our younger ones to take care of us…At those stages, even if we want to, we would not be able to do much..... But now we are young to do whatever we want... Its OUR time NOW…. Lets do whatever we can….

This reminds me of the stimulating thoughts, a friend once shared with me….. Those thoughts have been beautifully captured in this excerpt from a book ……
“As children, virtue of our real and extensive dependency, our parents have real and extensive power over us. They are, in fact, largely responsible for our well-being, and we are, in fact, largely at their mercy. When parents are oppressive, as so often they are, we as children are largely powerless to do anything about it, our choices are limted.
But as adults, when we are physically healthy, our choices are almost unlimited. That does not mean they are not painful. Frequently our choice lie between the lesser of two evils, but it is still within our power to make these choices….
There are indeed oppressive forces at work within the world. We have, however, the freedom to choose every step of the way the manner in which we are going to respond to and deal with these forces…. One common problem : the sense of helplessness, the fear and the inner conviction of being unable to ‘cope’ and to change things… Sooner or later , if they are to be healed, they must learn that the entirety of one’s adult life is a series of personal choices, decisions. If they can accept this totally, then they become free people. To the extent that they do not accept this, they will forever feel themselves victims………..”

Now am i being blind to the strange ironies which life offers…. I speak of making decisions, about power from within, about choices.. Don’t I realize that survival here, is only of the fittest… We work hard coz we want to be winners in the rat race …. And when we work hard, we do get exhausted.. And here we tend to forget that the trouble with the rat race is…. even if we win, we're still a rat….

I feel the above words have only added to the misery of realization that we are not gonna be happy anyways…If we work… we are exploited until we break down... And if we dont.. we are not able to satisfy our wants… But that doesnt change the fact that we are so young now and we have each other…….so lets use each other…. “Use each other??".... What do i mean by that.. We have to try and understand that “Life is difficult”..... Still.. we gotta do whatever little we can.. we never know when we have made the difference…

A few years ago when I flipped through my 12th std slam book …. I came across the words of a classmate.. who was not close to me… It might seem silly, but her very words were .. “When my place was changed from Nirupa and Gori I cried, at that time you consoled me and told me what is life.. from that minute onwards I changed and realized that everyone are my friends. This is one I cannot forget in my life..” I havent quoted this now to get assurance from anyone about how nice I was even as a little girl… what I want to bring forth here is..... I do remember her weeping.. But for heavens sake, we were in 12th … what could I have said that made her change… May be... I said a few words of consolation….. May be... I gave her a smile, which I didn’t know she needed…… But after reading this I felt.. that one can never tell when our small gestures make a huge difference in someone’s life…. “Huge difference???”… What am I suggesting… Did this incident help my classmate accomplish and lead her life in a better manner.. I don’t know.. and frankly speaking, I don’t care... its what I thought was right at that time, that matters....

From the book - Notes to myself
“Lasting effect” is a self-contradictory term. Meaning does not exist in the future and neither do I. Nothing I see will have meaning “ultimately”. Nothing will even mean tomorrow what it did today. Meaning changes with the context. My meaningfulness is here. It is enough that I am of comfort to someone today. Its enough that I make a difference now.”

So here I am… encouraging you.. Hear you me, my friends…. all who are tired.. fatigued.. worn out.. exhausted….. Remember, we are so young now…. (Check this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAvJ0R4g5ws )
Lets do what we are capable of.. and move from strength to strength….. and when we get tired.. do not get angry, disheartened and give up…. Comfort each other…. And mind you… it also takes a lot of effort to comfort someone… Coz life is one damn thing after the other … and sometimes we ourselves are drained out….

So when tommorow I am heaped with the burdens of life.. and I am tired…
I don’t care how old I am, but I want YOU, to remind me… That we are so young now… and there is so much we can do………..

What say, ......