the ever changing cycles of life

Recently, I wanted to try a bus route to reach my office, so I left my home very early on feet to get to the station. When I arrived there I got a direct bus to reach my office. There was no rush in the bus and so I got a window seat. I was quite happy to sit near the window and was enjoying cool breeze. However a few minutes later I came in for a rude awakening when I realized that bus routes had changed and the bus got stopped 3 kilometers away from my office. Unfortunately I could not find any auto rickshaws to complete my journey and ended up walking all the way to reach my office. I was irritated that though I started out early I could not reach my office on time and this upset me all day.

On the same day while returning home, I got a cab near to my office which was going directly to my suburb. Unfortunately there was a hectic traffic jam. As the cab driver was in a hurry to reach his destination, he took diversions into various side streets to avoid the traffic jam. One route he had taken was very close to my apartment and so I got an opportunity to be dropped off just in front of my door. I felt relieved and my bad mood dissipated altogether.

This was a simple instance of the duality that punctuates our existence. While experiencing a stressful situation in the morning by having to walk 3 kilometers to get to my office, in the evening I regained my balance as I was dropped off just in front of my apartment and arrived home very early.

Morning it was a pain; evening it was a gain.

This simple experience reminded me that life is about cycles and we must experience complementary opposites in every facet of existence.

Within every 24 hours we have bright daylight and dark nights. Dark nights are automatically followed by sun-drenched days and vice versa. We have gotten used to the cycle and never doubt that one will follow the other.

Similarly our life cycle is about phases of success and failure, happiness and sorrow and so on. But the only difference is that we do not know the time frame for our personal cycles; it is not fixed like the 24 hour day and night rotation so we all tend to get dejected during our down cycles. However we must remember that although we may not know exactly when one cycle will end and the next cycle of our lives will begin….we do know it will happen….It is a fixed law of the universe and in this fact we must find solace and wait patiently for the season to change.