The Present, The Gift…Today!

It was as if the pearls from
the string have come undone…or was it like rolling out a movie that started
with black and white era and has now reached the HD, touching base in between to
the sepia and Eastman colours? Or was it like the lone wandering white cloud in
the clear blue skies, looking down at the terra-firma below? All these thoughts kidnapped my thinking mind and held me for hostage. Each one was claiming their suitability to the situation and I suffered Stockholm syndrome!

Oh. Sorry… forgot to give
you any prologue to this! This is what occurred to me when I read this week’s WOW prompt…What one age will you pick for the rest of your life and why? One single line can be so
mighty! With a gentle nudge, it erupted a volcano of thoughts. Life took a pause and I glanced
at the time line of my life! It was dotted with many milestones, some hills and
a few valleys! All made the life so worthwhile, till now… A life well lived.

As I tried to put the pearls
of the memories back into string, I stopped at one particular. I must have been
just 9 years old then! Open spaces around the country side house came calling.
Here I was, wandering in the meadows, running behind the butterflies with my
friends. Leaving caution to the air, I had my eyes fixed on the pair of yellow
butterflies. Running bare foot was not the bothering thought at that time. The
laughter, the panting and joy of being the free bird dominated the existence.
How I wish I could be that always…

But then in those days, I
always wished to be grown up! So I pushed this naive and carefree pearl into
the string. A few pearls after again I took a pause. This time I was 25 years! Armed
with post graduate degree and a job in my hand, I was on the top of the world. I
was about to get married to the love my life as well! The professional life was
full of promises for the young achiever, me. I could not have wished for
anything more…How I wish the time stays still there, when I was the young lady
with dreams to achieve and wings to fly!

Being a woman had a fair
share in what I am today! Did I not wish to have my own kind, my brood? I
always cherished to be a mother someday, one day, in those days…

Moving this young and
enthusiastic pearl into the string and few more further, I reached one shinning,
well rounded, soothingly white pearl… It was none other than my present self! Right
now the kids are grown up and are on right path. Better half is busy making a
mark in his corporate world, scaling new heights with each passing day! I sit
and sip the coffee with a book in my hand, on an easy chair! I pen down my
random musings and have currently discovered the love for writing! I wish I
could be this forever….

But hold on, I wish to have
more grey hair and enjoy the status of being grand mom! I can see myself
playing with tiny tots, telling them stories, watching cartoons with them and
fighting with them as well on trivial matters! I also see my self-wandering across
the globe marveling the man made and God made creations! I could wander carefree because by then I would have fulfilled all my responsibilities as a mother, as a home maker, as the backbone of the house. How I wish the life
freezes there…

Past was perfect and future
is bright! Every age in life had so much to offer…And was I not lucky to grab all
sweet things in life with both the hands? Have I not squeezed the lemons to
make the tasty lemonade when the life threw them at me? While putting the pearls back into the string, was I not peeping into the then “Present” moment of age? That brings me to the
present content self! A profound discovery of sorts for me! 

“Present” so aptly worded, meaning the gift! Past is gone and
future is yet to arrive… Only thing in hand is “NOW”! Let me live this to
the fullest. Past and future then will fall in their right places for sure.

I thus deduced that I wish to be in present,
forever, whatever may be the age! Because the present, the gift…. “Today” is
the only eternal thing!!!