Life lessons from a DOG
I had my eyes glued to my laptop screen and I was fully immersed in work when my phone beeped. I usually do glance at my phone when it beeps and discreetly read the text in the notifications so that the sender doesn’t know that I have read it. I do this just to be sure I don’t miss an important or an emergency message. Mostly, it’s only random messages which only serve to distract me from my work but now it has become a bad habit, and bad habits die hard. But this one time when it beeped, I was rather indifferent to its sound. I defied the principle of predictability (if there exists any, that is), broke the pattern and didn’t give in to my bad habit, this time. I continued working, rather gazed at the walls idly and completely ignored the text message I’d received.
To continue feeling this sense of pride, I ignored it a bit longer on purpose. Finally, when I became relatively free and it was lunchtime, I decided to see the text. It was from my best friend. I hadn’t spoken to her in a few weeks, though she had been trying to reach me. I felt immediately guilty for ignoring such an important text. Before the feeling of guilt could sink in, I was tight-slapped by feelings of shock, concern, and disbelief as I read her text which said,
“I met with an accident this morning.”
With shaking hands I called her, my heart throbbing at the thought of my friend being terribly hurt in an accident. I pictured a huge patch of her long, beautiful tresses being cleared, to stitch her wounds easily. Thankfully, before I could drift any further into my imagination, she picked up the phone and casually greeted me. I asked her if she was okay and how did that happen, somewhat bewildered. However, she narrated the whole incident in a calm tone.
After confirming and reconfirming that she was okay and that no one was hurt badly, we digressed from the topic and started gossiping. We discussed how all the bad things in life are happening to her at the same time (because she recently suffered heartache and her parents discovered something they should probably never have). I tried to instill hope in her, consoled her and tried to cheer her up. Amidst all the serious talks and the pensive mood, we suddenly burst into fits of laughter. Reason being- the way in which the accident took place. Though an auto-rickshaw losing its balance while swerving to save a dog that jumped in front of it, out of nowhere, causing the rickshaw to topple and turn upside down with two human beings present inside it, is not even slightly funny, but we somehow did find it really amusing. What was even funnier was that after dragging herself out of the upturned auto-rickshaw, when my friend looked around for the poor dog to see if it needs help too, it was nowhere to be seen. After upending a vehicle, the dog fled the crime scene. Now, how is that not funny? As if all of this wasn’t enough, a Sherlock Holmes of a man justified the dog’s cowardice by claiming that “the dog even shat on the road, in fear and fled.” Seriously, that is by far the funniest accident story I have ever heard of. I CAN’T EVEN….. :D
Actually, I think it wasn’t even the way in which the accident took place but her narration that tickled my funny bone. Also, it was the fact that the accident happened at a time when a slew of other unfortunate events had taken place in her life. But it's funny how I was trying to lift her spirits up by diverting her mind from these events but instead it was because of these events that we laughed the hardest. That day, I understood the verity of the sayings, “Happiness is a state of the mind” or “Happiness is a choice.” It really is.
Happiness is a choice
I am quite taken aback when people ask me “how can you ask somebody to be happy?” Because one CAN. If you choose happiness, you will be, no matter what! What about “What goes around, comes around?”
Your problems might be smaller than my friends’ or tenfold bigger than hers but the essence is that “ You create your own happiness.”
Also, had it not been for the dog, I and my friend wouldn’t have laughed so hard in the middle of an emotional turmoil. So, thank you dog, for being our guiding light. Oh, and the dog vanished, just how spirit guides do after directing a person onto his path. OMG! Could that dog have been my friend’s spirit guide? I must go tell her.
