Whimsy

A few days back, someone I quite respect said he reads my blogs which was nice to hear. But then he added that I write bleak things and I should use my writing skills to write something positive and, if possible, funny.

I did tell him my sense of humour is more macabre than cute but let’s try for a positive piece. I do enjoy a good challenge. Plus I was named Miss Sunshine in my last year of high school. That has to count.

There is a lot of bad in the world. But also there’s a lot of good. The trick is to not dwell on the bad. And by this, I do firmly mean being slightly delusional intentionally to focus on the good. There is even a Bible verse on this that says: He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous¹. I find this deeply comforting. Life is a mixture of good and bad things. And everything is relative.

My life, too, if I muse on it, has been a salad bowl of fun and woe, of mirth and sorrow, of anxiety and hope, of joy and anger… so many things. And I’ve taken a gamble on a lot of things that have sometimes yielded results that I liked. I don’t like regretting things. Even the risks I’ve taken that have not ended happily have been memorable lessons and sometimes, experiences I cherish, even though those happiness have been long gone.

You can’t live life and expect to be happy when you can’t be your authentic self. A lot of times, you find yourself blaming other people for the unhappiness in your life, the stress and tension, the poverty and the misery. You can never expect all the people you meet to be good. Sometimes you just have to move past. And if you’re lucky to find people with whom you can be your genuine self, you are luckier than most.

Some families and relatives are not good. Some friends turn against you. Significant Others may betray you. Sometimes people you don’t even know will cause you pain. You can’t dwell on that. Allow yourself to hurt. And then you heal. I don’t even think there is a formula for healing from trauma.

But sometimes you are just that lucky to have family that supports you. You have friends that laugh with and howl at the moon with you. You find someone to kiss you and battle Life with you. You find strangers that will offer you food and gossip while you wait for a bus to arrive.

Life is a series of whimsy. Best to just enjoy it.

¹ Matthew 5:45 NIV