Closing Pandora's Box

This is the story of my life,
And I write it everyday
I know it isn’t black and white
And it’s anything but grey
I know that no I’m not alright, but I feel okay ‘cos
Anything can, everything can happen
That’s the story of my life…

I’m gonna write the melody
That’s gonna make history,
And when I paint my masterpiece I swear I’ll show you first
There just ain’t a way to see who and why or what will be
Till now is then
It’s a mystery, it’s a blessing and a curse
Or something worse

This is the story of my life
And I write it everyday,
And I hope you’re by my side when I’m writing the last page.¹

The lyrics of the song posted above, is one that I first heard a very long time ago with a very special person. Though that person is no longer here, this song still reminds me of her and the promises we made together. However this post is not one about Charley, but about life. That same life, which like a credit card that is topped every midnight to a balance of 86,400, many of us forget to exploit to it's full potential. Just stop reading for a minute, and think about it. If you were told you would be given a total of £86,400 to spend each day in whatever way you liked what would you do? At the end of each day however, any money left unspent would be discarded and you would not be able to transfer it to the next day. Would anyone in their right mind let any of that money go? You could use that money to spoil yourself and others, give to those in need, fulfil your dreams and the list goes on and on and on. It’s the same with life. There are 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in each and every minute. That’s a total of 86,400 seconds, which once gone will never come back. What have you done with your balance? Many of us are guilty of not living, but merely existing.

That is not to say that when we are overcome by difficulties, hardships, grief or run out of breath we don’t stop and take a Time-Out. The one that has never experienced suffering never lived and the one having suffered was unable to find happiness never learned.² Sometimes you don’t want to go on, sometimes you’re so tired, exhausted and worn-out by trying to live that you just wish to stop. Like my lovely friend Marshmallow said to me:

It’s okay to say, “I wanna stay in bed today, I’m taking a day off”. Let someone else carry your burdens for you for a day, just like you carried theirs.

It’s okay to hurt and to cry, but it’s stupidity when that same hurt, whether it be due to the breakup of a relationship, loss of a job or the death of a loved one for example, steals your life and makes you dead. The world unfortunately goes on, and unless you jump back on the ride, you’ll get left behind.

Those that sow in tears, reap in joy.³

*****

Fear not when, fear not why,
Fear not much while were alive,
Life is for living not living up tight,
See ya somewhere up in the sky,
Fear not die, I'll be alive for a million years, bye bye…⁴

Conditions of accepting award:

1. Thank and put a link back to the person who so kindly gave this award.
2. Share a few things about yourself.
3. Pass the award onto some mighty fine bloggers.
4. Inform these mighty fine bloggers that they have received the award.

Here goes:

1. I was totally humbled and honoured to receive this award, given to me by the amazing Gary (@Klahanie). If you have forgotten the worth of living, or have realised that you just do not know how good it is to be alive, then I would tell you to read (not recommend) Gary’s blog. Each and every post is written with such honesty, emotion and thought that it is bound to leave a mark on each and every reader. Each and every word written is so beautiful, that it is poetical. Thank you ever so much.
2. This is the first hardest thing I find…
   1. My brother has started calling me ‘red nose reindeer’ as I have a spot on my nose. It’s bright red because of all the poking I’ve been doing to it (any help?).
   2. I appreciate and really value the simple things in life; family, friends, memories, moments and coffee dates for example.
   3. Whenever starting on a project, I always go for the designing first. The writing comes later. If it doesn’t look good, who’s gonna read it?
   4. I suck at remembering in general - names, dates, names of diseases and drugs, the list is endless. If I forget your birthday, forgive me!
   5. I’m not married but I celebrate anniversaries.
   6. If you gave me a jar of green olives, NOM NOM NOM, and you’ll have no idea where it went. They are from heaven.
   7. I want to be a paediatric surgeon one day insha’Allah. But I wouldn’t mind being a teacher.
   8. If you have a packet of cookies, you can bribe me to do pretty much anything (nearly).
   9. I don’t know why I am still making this list, it has taken me 20 minutes just to write the last 8 facts.
3. This is the second hardest thing I find…
   1. Ella Unread (From the STUPIDEST corner of my mind)  is a blogger that I recently discovered. Though I haven’t read much of her writing, but from the little I have read of her poems, I have to say they are beautiful. You may read one of her poems and nod your head in agreement because they are just so…human.
   2. Kamila’s blog (Basket of Dreams), is full of sugar and spice and all things nice. She writes about so many different things I don’t where to start. But one thing is true, after reading her blog you’ll want to do some of the ideas she proposes because they are just so cool!
   3. Apart from the fact that AcetylCholine (Critical Velocity) is a bad influence on me Martian (I think ), she writes about everything and nothing from the umpteen number of Ipod headphones she’s been through, or more recently how cytochrome bc1 complex lead to the invention of a cuss word. Her style makes it worth reading.
   4. Gelovsky (GELOVSKY ^_^) is an optimist, sarcastic and fantastic who is another blogger I have recently started following.
   5. Pooja (Just Breathe) is honest, straight up and living life to the full. No beating around the bush one may say, and that is why I think she is deserving of this award. Keep, smiling, keep eating the Gulab Jamuns⁵ and keep living!
   6. The person with no name an undisclosed name (TheraScribbles) suffers from depression and started writing as a way of helping. The blog is extremely thought provoking, eye-opening and inspiring.
   7. Hijabi Hippie Hypo (Hijabi Hippie Hypo & Overcoming Obstacles) hasn’t written for a very long time and so I hope this gives her reason to change that. Her blog is always a pleasure to read, full of pictures, drawings, book and film reviews; there’s always something new to keep you interested.
   8. Leah’s (My Tasty Treasures) blog is tasty and one of the major reasons why is because it requires the reader to think, and asks questions. There are lots of pretty pictures coupled with wonderful bits of prose.
   9. Furree Katt (The Jackky Bhagnani Obsession) deserves this award because I once gave her an award that she gave to me. That’s like someone giving you a gift and you giving it back to them, which is not very nice. And so to make up for it, I’m giving her this, for her passionate, interesting and funny writing.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. :)

_________________________________

Title: Story of my life – Bon Jovi
¹Lyrics from the same song as the title
²For your story, Part 2 – page 8. 
³Psalms 126:5
⁴Young Forever – Jay Z feat. Mr Hudson
⁵Gulab Jamun – A popular sweet eaten in the subcontinent.