Last night's outing with the Wednesday provoked a profounding realisation upon me. Our life is such a routine that we all need something to look forward to. A detour. A pinch of spice or a splash of colour to what's grey and dull. Taken the average working week, we spent nearly 12 hours (sometimes more) working and/or commuting to work and what's left after deducting 8 hours of sleep (if we are lucky) is nothing more than 4 hours that seemed to whizz by in Bullet Train style. There is not much social hours, not much cup-of-tea-time, not much My-time and not much to keep us going unless we work in the entertainment industry, PR, or anything to do with a hip-hop beat, which most of us don't.
Its such a routine, doing the same thing week after week and yet the grim fact remains, we are stuck in this lifestyle. Like the adults always say, welcome to the working life. The closest friends you make at work are a chosen few : - heart attack, stress, hair loss, boredom and lost of sleep. There may be loads of tedium and toil but little of excitement and joy. The hamster wheel of work has become our life and sometimes we ponder, "how did we ever get here?" Soon after, we drone on in the fog of a mundane life for so long that we forget how to enjoy life, how to have fun and how to catch the silver linnings in the dark clouds. Is work all about sustaining ourselves financially? Has everyone fall prey into believing that if we don't work, we are lazy bummers? Actually, it is not a myth. Its true that the society place an importance of bringing home the bacon and topping up the figures in our bank accounts. The rat race to be employed, to ascend the corporate ladder, and to be a workaholic has all been programmed into us...or some of us.
We all need that rainbow to keep us going. That promise after the storm. A silver lining for us to look out for. A purpose to drive us. Humans were made to have meaning, without purpose, life is meaningless. Rick Warren wrote, "“Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning.” Are you caught in your daily dilemma of the hamster wheel? Going round and round, day in day out, just drifting along life and your motto is, "come what may"? A purpose produces passion and by knowing your purpose, you will be passionate about achieving it.
I think sometimes, it no harm to take a little break, take time off to contemplate on how life has been? Do you realise that everytime someone ask their perfunctory, "how are you?", we reel our automated answer of, "I'm fine, thank you?" Is our life really fine? Or are we satisfied with just being fine?
God, grant me the serenityto accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
