At Crossroads

Eat to pray love, reading this novel my thoughts drifted into a different plane. Is that what a woman seeks all her life? She goes through the journey of life surpassing all the hurdles with dignity and inner strength. At the peak of her life she suddenly realises how alone she is in this journey called life. With prayers as her strength holding on tightly to the love of her life, she tries to cope with her life giving a bit of herself to the relationships around her. A perfect daughter, a perfect host, a perfect wife, and a perfect mother, all her life she strives to give her best, balancing relationships and never thinking about herself, compromising and seeking happiness in others smile. Is this what she always wanted from her life? Yet at this juncture of her life why does she seems so lost, why does she feels incomplete. Why is she disconnected from her surroundings. Why does every incident make her weep what does she seeks. Home, money, husband, kids. She has everything then why does she feels a stranger to them. Will spirituality fill her emptiness? Yes she in content and the storm within her is silenced. But for a little while. Her quest to discover herself is so strong, the urge to explore new horizon makes her so vulnerable. Now when she is all set to discover herself she lacks the courage to do so. Living in her so called ' protected ' cocoon her self confidence has taken a beating and she feels in her a fear to face the big bad world. She feels suffocated, lonely and alienated. I see my friends that struggle to come and breathe easy after being choked with the do's n don'ts of life. They want to fly and touch the sky. I have seen the pain in their eyes seeking freedom from suffocating relationships, seeking a little space for themselves where they can think, laugh, cry and fly with their thoughts. Into the far horizon into their own secret dreamworld, trying to fulfill their fantasies, their unfulfilled dreams. At the crossroad of their lives standing lost and deprived don't you think they need a push to discover themselves. All they want is a caring hand to take them to their destination. A soft heart to understand without questioning and judging. Giving them an exit to this new found freedom, guiding them motivating them to achieve the impossible. After interacting with so many friends, counselling them, I came to a conclusion only one in hundred marriages is perfect rest of ninety nine percent strives on adjustments and compromises. That's why after a certain time span all their energy is drained out in pretending to make their marriage work. And at the mid of their life even pretending seems to be a waste of time but still they keep plodding maybe the reason are the children to keep this marriage working. But once the children are all set to fly. The most difficult phase of loneliness seeps in leaving them with lots of questions and regrets, emptiness and what not. This is the time to work out on relationships with a whole new perspective, with a new eye of care and compassion towards your partner and giving them the space to discover themselves. The question is being the partners willing to give each other that space and freedom? © Aarzoo Mehek