Time flies, wounds heal, scars remain – and life goes on, regardless.

A little more than 5 years have passed after that moment when the world cracked open – sucking me in. I also saw the sky closing over me. There were two options : I could accept that everything was over, resign to the fate and disappear into the irrelevance. That was the easier option. For a while that was my option.

OR cry your life out, wipe your tears and slowly claw yourself out of the hole. That was the difficult choice but the one I ultimately took. 🏊🏊🏊

To all those who stretched out their hands to help me to get me out of that hole, I thank you. You were so few; so I will never forget your faces too. 😇😇😇

To others, thank you nonetheless – for, I came out stronger. 😎😎

And to all those, who may find themselves in a hole, big or small, don’t let yourself get buried. Cry, if you must – but pause for a moment, take a deep breath and reflect in silence. Then grab your fate by its collar, shake it and say, “You can’t kill me”, and move on. There is no greater satisfaction than beating the greatest of odds. There will be no greater regret than giving up. Many choose the latter. You shouldn’t.

Fate, more often than not, deals you a heavy hand. Play with whatever you are dealt with. Don’t believe when people say things like, it happens for a reason. That’s rubbish – a mere rhetoric. There is no reason for things to happen unless you caused it. If they do, try making sense out of it, a motivation that will drive your further. Turn it into THE reason for you to launch yourself. Run with it, fly and then dunk it.🤾🤾🤾

You will also hear old moralistic cliches like, forgive and forget. Of course, you should forgive. That will make you feel much better. There is no point bottling up inside you. But unless you are going dement, you shouldn’t forget. Remember the faces, especially of those who stood by you.

When you are back on your feet, don’t forget to look around with your head held high and smile at the world. Most likely, it will smile back.

To paraphrase a line from my favourite movie, Shawshank Redemption,

Get busy living or get busy dying

As Andy, the lead character in that movie says, “It all boils down to that one choice”.

Make the right one.