Stories of the open road

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

~ Lord Buddha

There was a time when I surfed through my facebook chatting sessions or Google buzz, when a friend asks me “how are you”, I would reply without blinking “oh.. life is hectic!”. Even I didn’t know how it suddenly burst out from me, but even I believed that I live such a hectic life. That’s story ‘one’…

After I realised that  my “I’m so hectic” attitude affects my lifestyle and penetrates my peace of mind and makes my life a mess, I decided to stop saying the word and stopped thinking of ‘life as hectic’! Then one day I counted the number of times I  associated the sentence “life is so hectic”  from other people. And at the end of the day, I had a tremendously unbelievable  score and that’s the day I thought that I should write this article! Story # ‘two’…

Recently, I listed down my regular work, long term works and total ‘work hard’ And I found out that I do many things per day including ‘earn money’ works, extracurricular activities including writing, music, charity work and organizational work, cinema and music which goes to the entertainment category, and even protracted telephone or chat conversations with girls! And I cannot believe that I am not hectic anymore! That’s my story number ‘three’…

Now, with those three stories you can have a perfect sense of the whole article. All the time we are hectic, we are stressful. Maybe you don’t work that much. But still you are stressful. And that effects not only yourself but your loved ones that are around you. If you go in to an extreme, maybe you will end up as a psychopath. Now my grand question; aren’t we all just making this up, that we are restless and busy?

I say we just make this story up because I have been there myself before. The matter is not the amount or the weight of works we do. It’s all about our ‘attitude’ and lack of management. When I was trying to complete each and everything I had to fulfill and try to balance my life in the middle of an avalanching work load, I felt like I am in the middle of a thunderstorm in a Great Ocean on a little kayak boat. But my mom said “manage your time and make your work fun, just take it easy” and I gave it a try and it was the solution!

I say, do everything you have to do, you want to do and you meant to do. But never make your life a mess. And most importantly, get rid of the attitude of “I’m so hectic”. You will begin to see the colours of life and you will enjoy being busy as I do now!

In this stressful and hectic world, learn to stay calm. We won’t live forever. Humans are like Daffodil flowers. They bloom and instantly they droop… So why would you waste your precious life time in ‘being stressful’ and ‘being hectic’…? You can be a busy bee but keep your calmness, keep the peace within. Then you can say just before you
die, “I lived such a life”…!

By Pathum Punchihewa

Published on Youth Mirror - Daily Mirror (25th November 2010)