What’s left.
Hey Friends,
I don’t know how to start this read, and hence I’m writing out the perplexity of instigating it as my mind’s occupied with conceptions that I want to address. But anyway, I won’t beat around the bush.
From the day I’ve been trying to make a small presence of mine on the internet, people have conceived me in their own ways. But when I study their opinions, it’s a dichotomy between a bubbly personality- the one with full of life, happy, and high-spirited and another personality that has lived enough experiences to know what pain of losing things, the despair of going through the worst, and the affliction of life feels like.
It’s my own struggle to be the person I am- always joyful- and the person who has confronted life.
I always chose to write about those confronting experiences because I thought that’s what make me the person I am, not realizing that I choose to be that person myself as I actively choose to take those things from my past.
The things I talked about, the stuff I wrote, and the stories I proclaimed were all about what had gone.
People who I considered as the forever left. My friend group, my bestest friend, the people I’d fallen in love with- they all chose to distance themselves and leave me. And all that I had were their memories to cherish, and the cynical account of them going.
But never had I ever focused on what’s left.
Never had I ever talked publicly that if those bunch of people had to leave me, these were my two-three friends who quelled my anguish.
What’s left.
There’s a period and not an interrogation.
Idea
Sometimes you may not have half-filled water in the glass to calm yourself of the fact that half is empty. But you may surely have enough water to be appreciative for than experiencing a void, to perhaps even hope. — Kabir Khanuja
The relationship I share with the people I have in my life is something that I vehemently value. Hence, I think, I return to the same examples when I think of this notion.
Nevertheless, the idea of What’s Left is all about making use of and being grateful for what’s left rather than sorrowing and regretting what’s gone.
There ain’t necessarily a problem moaning about it, yet there has to be an end point. And perceiving the left is the start of something new, something better.
It can be the time that’s gone, it can be a chunk of money spent, it can be the that’s not available, it can be the days that are left.
It’s the idea of changing how you look at things and valuing them more when you see the kind of impact they make in your life- while all along it’s unnoticed for you.
You know they say that we start to value things only when they’re gone? It’s true.
Say, most of the time has gone that had to be utilized for you to study for an exam. Now either you can be unhappy about the time that has already gone and can’t come back or you can actually make use of the time that’s left. You might end up scoring less as a result of not having enough time to study, but you’ll surely not flunk if it was for you moaning and regretting all the way.
And time, still, is a perceivable thing. But what about the very small things that we overlook? That every minute thing that only comes to our notice when there’s a lack of it? Maybe we forget to value those things, those privileges, those people, or that person whose presence does make a huge difference in our life but somehow, somehow we fail to realize, we fail to discern.
Hence I ridiculously value these small things, perhaps I might even miss a lot of them- yet what’s important is that I try to find, I try to self-analyze, and be grateful for these small things.
What about y’all?
I leave this question.
Application
“Meeeeooooow and move on” — Billa
Now this is as hilarious as it sounds to, and easier to say than actually done, but this is something that I do.
See, for instance, you can agree that you have to value what’s left. But how do you actually overcome the grief of what’s gone even when it remains? Does cherishing help it all? No, of course not!
Yet sometimes we just gotta accept — rather gulp the fact that it’s gone. The time has, the person has gone, or the thing’s no more. There’s nothing scientific, but that’s life. Maybe living in the gloom is just gonna destroy more than just meowing and looking ahead in life.
If it’s in the evening that you learn that soon you're going call it a night, or it’s the third last month of the year that you grasp that nine months just went by- you have a choice to regret in all the time left or a choice to meow and restart where you had originally left.
I sometimes see it as those instruments of my life.
A couple of instruments helped me get somewhere, and then I misplaced those instruments or those tools. Now if I try to look for those mislaid tools- I’d potentially be losing out on the instruments that are ready for me ahead of life for me to again start a new chapter.
Hence, meow.
Meow and be happy with what you have today. Meow and accept the reality even if you can’t- and that makes you a strong, responsible version of yourself. Meow and know that this is a part of life that’s temporary. Meow and breathe. Meow and move on.
It’s okay if you can’t be happy today, but even a meeeeeeeooooow won’t cost you anything so try it haha. Perhaps you’d smile.
Emotions
What’s left is also fundamentally about what you’re holding on to.
It’s significant to know what we hold on to while stressing on what’s left.
Oftentimes, we hold on to our emotions. A bad idea I must mention.
We hold on to the idea of “living in gloom or obscurity” and entitle ourselves to it. We even hold on to the hate, to the anger, and then just let it affect everything.
Why can’t emotions play the role of what they’re meant, i.e. temporary feelings? Why should they play a part in our decision-making of our life?
In the course of holding on to emotions like anger, sadness, jealousy- we lose the people, the things, the time that’s left. And then that puts us into another cycle of despair. And this time, it’s brutal.
Emotions will always annihilate. Giving time and understanding it with breathes is the right course of action anytime. Hence they say “sleep is the best cure”.
Else, you can always meditate ;)
Take Away
I think, in the course of giving too much value to the things that have gone also takes away the things that are left.
Hence it’s always important to spread gratitude and be grateful for things you have in life. Appreciating the people who have held on to you is something that you have to value, appreciating the time left, appreciating the food not eaten, appreciating the money that can be made use of, and the list goes on and on if you start thanking little things.
Good things don’t come easy, but when they do, it’s essential to appreciate and show them respect. Admittedly, life can sometimes separate us from these treasures, but it’s our duty to recognize the significance they’ve added to our lives and make thoughtful decisions about how we navigate the path ahead.
I still think that, for most of the people who are reading this, life can’t get this worse that- there’s a void in the glass where you have no water to drink.
There is water if you look closely, might not quench your thirst, but provides you the ray of hope needed in the circumstance. Hope that good things take time, but they do come, and most importantly- they do exist.
Kabir Khanuja.
Think about it…
Thank you, friends, for reading this article, I’m glad hoping that I’ve given some value-addition to your life and you can relate to this. Have a great day, and cherish every moment, until next time, peace!
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Originally posted on Substack by Kabir Khanuja
