The Hero

Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. You are the hero of your life. While other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but yours own are always immediate, urgent, more real. In this rather narrow frame of reference we often find ourselves in what we think are spectacularly unique situations.

But the reality is that we are just one of the many who have have been exactly where we are at some point of other in their lives. Some of them who were perhaps better than us, but still made worser decisions. And there were perhaps them who were more naive, still made better decisions. And irrespective of the quality of those decisions, we end up where fate always intended us to be.

I have taken some time tonight to reflect on the vagaries of life. I have come to realize that our destiny, and sometimes even our decisions, may not always be of our choosing, but our sacrifices almost always can be. And by sacrifice I mean nothing noble or selfless or altruistic. Just the private wordless acts and choices made for something bigger or someone dearer than ourselves. To be close to a dear one. To let them do what they think is right, without judging them with our frame of reference. Or to make someone stronger by simply not affecting them with our weakness.

True sacrifice is always a victory, never a loss. It wont take away the pain of loss, but it wins the battle against bitterness. And it helps us do what is right and perhaps achieve what is great.

The hero is no braver than the ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. — Ralph Waldo Emerson