“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.”
-Dalai Lama
It’s been a year since we began making the house we bought a home. It has just been me and my husband doing all the work. We started our journey of togetherness way back in 2005 as teenagers back in college. Since then, life has thrown innumerable challenges at us, some of which were almost impossible to tackle. But we survived. We thrived. We always have each other. Always.
Now, starting the journey of settling down in a foreign country, with 2 kids, is another challenge we are trying to address.
My husband(let’s call him PK because I am going to bring him up a lot) has impeccable taste, choosing me being the perfect example!! I, on the other hand have an enviable patience for research. Like with everything, we clubbed our strengths into decorating our newly bought home. Every single piece of decor and furniture has been hand picked by us. Each one holding some meaning, some emotional value.
I have lived in Midwestern United States for 2 years now and naturally have started socializing. When guests visit, they complement our taste in decor. But there is this one place, one wall, everyone inevitably stops by.
It is a wall by my kitchen, I call it the “Family Wall”. Even the introverts find a way to talk about those candid pictures. Friends, acquaintances, electricians, cleaners, every human who has entered our home has stopped by this wall. As you can guess, it is impossible to ignore.
When I pause to think about it, it brings to light such a wonderful fact of life. Those pictures represent various moments in our lives that we cherish as a family. According to me, those moments are my biggest achievements. It is not about the money and it is not about the things you have bought with it. It is not about the degrees you have earned and the jobs that you have landed. It is about what you do with all that as a human. It is about the acts of kindness, acts of love. It is about the people you love, the lives you change. It is about how you chose to live your life. The choice is always up to you.
The wall has pictures of my family from various years. From milestone birthdays to pictures from all our trips. Our moments of love, sacrifice, pain, heartache, real emotions with real people are bound to leave a mark. Even after so many years of actually living them, those moments still have the power to bring real happiness, not only to those who have lived them. But also to complete strangers.
So wherever you are in life today, physically, emotionally, career wise, family wise, pause for moment to think about all those moments in your life, the happy ones, the ones you struggled through, even the ones you thought you didn’t deserve. Those moments made you who you are destined to be, as a person. Never underestimate the power of a moment, the present. Focus on living that to the best of your ability. This is actual LIFE!!
Finally, build your wall, and decorate it with the best memories. You don’t actually need to have a physical wall of pictures. Just a mental one to look back on periodically, that will help you appreciate the wonderful life you have lived.