A few days ago, I was sitting in a cafe, watching a promising vendor explain the nitty gritties of how our social media campaigns can be more effective. At one partcular moment, my thoughts digressed from the topic of discussion. I don’t know what it was that sparked the deviation. It was the use of a word he chose or a distraction in the background that sparked this thought about where my life was headed.

I’m usually the kind of person who does not worry about directions and life paths but I couldn’t shake this thought off for some reason. I’ve dealt with enough curve balls in my life to have the confidence to move forward but at that quintessential time, I found myself on shaky ground. Coherence is a lofty word and those who understand its meaning know how difficult it is to find it in real life. So, a search began in the deserts of Dubai.

I finished my meeting somehow without giving any indication to my dear friend about the distraction that had suddenly surfaced. While I sat in the car and watched the malls and buildings whiz by, my thoughts went back in time to the day when I saw my father for the last time. It was an evening I will never forget. It was late that night and he along with mom were traveling to our home town to attend a function. I dropped them to the bus stop and while driving back, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw my father looking back and we held that gaze until I could see him no more. I was afraid that night; a very strange and unexplainable feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong. And it did. The next evening, he was gone; a blissful soul vanished into thin air without any hint or warning, leaving behind an army of grieving soldiers. He was that kind of pillar in everyone’s life.

Subsequently, my thoughts wandered around the unpredictability of life; events in general and all of a sudden, I was able to locate the origin of my disturbance. The trigger words were ‘life changing events’ :). These were the words that my friend had used during the meeting which set me off course. Realization of how my life had changed in the last eight months; the advent of a mermaid looking to experience the pleasures of the land but bound by the laws of sea; how beautifully she waged a struggle and how it transformed our lives, started to create waves within.

Life path can be tricky. Sometimes, they are like quicksand; the harder one tries, the deeper one goes under. Learning to float through thin air is what I am trying to learn as I move along my life path. There may be few storms and hurricanes along the way but a bit of turbulence is not to be fearful about. To live a life once and fully, I should be enough; I am enough. If one soul remembers me fondly once I’m gone, if one soul thinks I made a difference to their life, if one soul believes I was a force for the good and if one soul finds the courage to live their life on their own terms, that to me is really and truly enough. I won’t seek another life then. I will live on.