Demain...

“When I lie down to sleep
I am not sure
That I shall see
The blessed dawn again.”
                                             Kamala Das (Words are birds)

How uncertain everything around is. The winds change their course in moments, seasons come and go, it rains all of a sudden and then the sun shines again, we find beautiful flowers around and the next day it perishes. It is change all around. Few past events in life has made me really wonder the permanence o f anything to everything. Then again, there is nothing as permanence. Everything that we see around are there for a few moments, even the feelings we have are momentary. Be it pleasure, sadness or any other form of emotion. On this entire planet I find only one species that relies on permanence, on future, on tomorrow. That is us. When I come across this word on a daily basis, I often think, what its meaning would be. Even when I myself bring it into my speech, I pause for a moment to brood why did I just use it.

The concept of the existence of tomorrow or the next day is something we all have taken for granted. We plan for the future, years from now not even knowing that we might wake up to live the next dawn. Some say that tomorrow presents hope, it very well does. But it also is a way of escapism, a way in which we succumb to the demons of procrastination and rest in our shell of tomorrow. The shell that we think protects us from today.

Just give it a thought people; aren’t we actually making an excuse these days while using tomorrow? Aren’t we running away? Aren’t we trying to escape from the truths of today?

Though we are far reluctant to accept it, we are using this word for our convenience. When you set an alarm for the next day, have you ever sincerely given a thought whether everything would be the same the next day? Or whether you will be there or not? These words sound scary but it is the plain truth form which we run away every day. This is the problem with us that we think a lot on something that is not yet here. Postponing, procrastinating and dreaming… that’s all we do. In this rush of planning and procrastinating, we often forget to live our today which is the most valuable asset that we have in our possession.

It is indeed an asset, invaluable. How gifted it is, with the whole of twenty-four hours in it, and the little but precious minutes and seconds. It is often unpredictable, unless we have such a monotonous schedule.  The voyage can never become worth enough if we stop living the present and get stuck in the thoughts of coming days. We must try living with the thought of future at the back of our mind, not letting it govern everything that we do now at this moment. They shouldn’t hinder us from exploiting the day we have in hand.

Living our today to the fullest secures our future and gifts us precious moments to reflect upon. It adds colours to all the todays that will come ahead.

There are many actions that we so wish to do, right now but due to moments of apprehension or self-doubt, we plan to do it the next day. And the next day we might simply forget that we had to do something or the worst case scenario, we might plan it on yet another tomorrow. The same goes with some habits that we wish to change, then we think that why not change it tomorrow! What I do not understand is the fact ‘what is wrong with today’ that we wait so eagerly for tomorrow to drop by our doorsteps and greet us with a warm good morning. None of us know whether the tomorrow we are waiting for will be a pleasant one, it might be worst or better who knows. So the underlying point being that why wait for the perfect moment to come by.

There are no perfect moments in life, there is only one moment that is here, now!

If you wish to do something, do it now, if you want to confess your love do it now, if you want to follow your dreams take the first step. Because unless you take that first step, you will never start your journey. You will forever remain thinking about that future that might never greet you the way you want to.

Now let me jostle you by a simple thought…

…….you are so ardently wishing to go grab a bite with your besties ‘the next day’ in your favourite resto, you wake up in the morning, go there with your friends and then suddenly learn that the restaurant has recently stopped preparing that dish you loved the most…. [I actually planned on blowing up that restaurant with a tiny bomb and then again thought that it would be a little too exaggerated thought for the moment ;) ]

Though it is a hypothetical situation, wouldn’t that be a little disappointing, given the fact that you could go there any time before?

Such little things keep happening in life just because we kept things to enjoy it the next day. Life is short or long, I do not know and I don’t wish to go into the details of that but all I wish to say is that life is just a day long. You are born the moment you wake up and you drift into an uncertainty the moment you close your eyes to sleep.

From this moment on make it a point to forget the existence of tomorrow. Forget permanence, know that nothing will ever remain the same even if you want it to so badly. These thoughts will propel you to take that first step you were waiting to take until your so called tomorrow came. Waiting for the right time is like waiting for Godot, it will never come and there you will be staring into nowhere with nothing but empty thoughts for future. The thoughts that you might never realize if you go at this pace.

You will slowly lose your energy in that wait. Never let that happen. Think that your life is just that of twenty four hours, and do all that you are capable of, all that you ardently wish for in these hours. If you see the dusk again, consider yourself lucky enough for having given one more life every time. Live in a way that every moment becomes worth cherishing when you look back, remember to have a beautiful smile in your little life. It adds life to your life.

Do it!