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April 17, 2022

Why Do We Wait for Painful Events to Awake Us?

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.

Daily, I met people whose lives could have been different if they put a little more effort into them.

Also, I met people who are letting days pass without noticing, unworried and untouched by the idea that their future demands their help and that it won’t build itself.

At the same time, I notice myself worrying too much about them. Even though I consider myself to be fine with having discovered my purpose, my path, and the journey, it still perplexes me that I’m not able to spark the same inspiration in their eyes.

Life is challenging. Yes. It’s even a disaster to some. But you do have all it takes to turn your life around. Others who don’t. They simply don’t, and all we can do is pray for them.

Those kids fighting against hunger, and those trapped in war. There isn’t much they can do to change their lives and what is happening to them, but you can. As long as you have all the limbs, as long as you have the food on your table each night and a bed to sleep in, you do have the potential to turn your life around.

Do we hurt our children?

The primary events that spark change are the painful ones. But our parents don’t know this. All their lives, while raising us, they’ve tried with everything they had to keep us away from pain, from knowing what it’s like to stay one day without eating, without purchasing what we desire, or without having access to the latest technologies.

They successfully fail at showing us what life is really like, but not because they want to. It’s because we hurt them, unconsciously hurt them with our whims. They surrender to most of them and grant us what we wish. It’s love that creates this comfortable space where growth is not permitted because it usually means pain.

Our loved ones don’t want to see us in pain.

When we turn around, others are behaving the same. As long as we feel good eating our meals, playing our games, and chatting with our peers, there’s no reason why we should change. And this lays the foundation for a miserable life afterward.

No motivation, discipline, or desire to set higher goals that lead to a more fulfilling life.

The horizon is limited to what our screens can tell us, and we stay there, wallowing in our comfort, feeding this desire for a never-ending comfort, which is worse than any other craving.

But maybe we have our own unique paths.

I’ve failed to prove my point in conversations with my friends, where I usually retreat until I make sure I have something worth saying. I’ve been wrong before, and I can be wrong again. Maybe we all have our paths, and I shouldn’t be much concerned with the fact many others concern less about life than I do.

However, not being able to prove my point has led to another realization: just because my perspective doesn’t make sense to others doesn’t mean I should stop talking about it. Positivity, optimism, these are rules I live by, even though I have my kneeling moments.

Just because you can’t see the opportunities I see, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. You haven’t seen the face of misery to have been terrified by it. Maybe you haven’t had a reason to be thankful for what you have. You haven’t had the “punch” life gives all of us one day, and that’s okay. Life keeps going. We keep breathing. But please remember, you don’t have to wait for that moment to start striving for a more meaningful life.

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