Firstly, thank you to the ones who messaged me asking how come they didn't receive a blog yesterday. The usual Friday release. Grateful to you for taking out time to read it!
Well, given how today is the last day of the year I wanted to hold on the release of the blog for an extra day.
This journey of writing started for me on the last Friday of 2019. I pinch myself at times to be sure that it isn't some matrix in which I'm experiencing this - I'm still writing 3 years from that day and I look forward to writing once a week, every week. This is pure joy!
But, it wasn't always easy.
While there were days when I was in the zone and could express myself in my blogs with absolute precision but there were also days when I didn't have clarity at all on what I was going to write that week.
Times when I was in absolute doubt about if I'd be able to write more.
To wanting to write more than once in a week.
Of coming up with a blog which was very well received to the one when even I thought was not my best one.
Moments of being frustrated, lost at times, clouded and sometimes just doing it irrespective of wanting to give up.
One theme and somehow the thing which I have started to be aware of as a main characteristic about myself is the word 'Perseverance'. To show up, no matter how tough it gets!
This last one year was also a roller coaster journey for me. Very much reminiscent of the journey shared above. But, am glad that I showed up. To everything. The good days and the bad ones. And I will continue to show up. No matter what!
There are many things I wanted to achieve this year which I couldn't! However, I look back at this year with immense gratitude towards the opportunities, moments and people who made it a year worth living and I'm absolutely looking forward to dive into 2023 with the hope to make it even better - personally and professionally. Living a life I want to live with fresh starts and the essential continuity of meaningful pursuits.
New year is a fantastic opportunity and a reminder to get it right, once again!
Talking about new beginnings, I changed my phone this week. And to my horror the WhatsApp chats didn't load and I lost all the history. I was in absolute despair for a day but it just reminded me to let go of what was and look at it as a fresh start to have more meaningful conversations.
Call me an eternal optimist!
Here's a poem by Khalil Gibran that I go back to often when I find myself lost. I had referenced this one in my blog #22, when I was moving out of Infosys to join Eli Lilly.
It is a poem about fear, uncertainty, opportunity, hope and more importantly the journey itself.
As I write my blog #137, I want to share this message for the New Year for you to find all that you are looking for in the new year - courage, happiness, joy, meaning, purpose and the pursuit. Happy 2023!
It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river cannot go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.