It's 2019

And here comes yet another New Year carrying cart load of hope and dreams. It also gives an opportunity to retrospect maybe introspect too. It lets us make resolutions and hope for the best. We all know this, don’t we?

Since midnight, I have been getting messages saying, “Happy New Year”. I sent similar messages too. But each time I sent one (mostly WhatsApp stickers – well, I am loving the new update), I was also unsure. I mean what’s the big deal about “happiness”.  

Life is a bag of both happiness and sadness, desperation and fulfillment, love and hatred, elation and heartbreak. But, we are always focused on happiness. In our constant wakeful determination to stay happy, we are often left sad and neglected. We feel bad and hopeless too. Life is not perfect; not for anyone. It is challenging and we are mostly expected to face them with courage that could come into existence only through acceptance – not happiness.

We are forced to fall and yet get up – need not necessarily with a smile but with tears. Sometimes we might lose a loved one or maybe there is sheer estrangement. Sometimes our love goes unrequited and sometimes inadequately reciprocated. Life is full of surprises and yet we strive to be happy. And that my friend is nothing but utter atrocity.

So, on this day, let’s vow to embrace the present with acceptance and nothing less. Let’s not wish to be happy or joyful through the 365 days. Instead let’s focus to be content and at peace. Let’s abandon the constant fear of future and the heavy baggage of past. The moment life I accepted the way it is, happiness is bound to follow. In the process, let’s consciously try not become cynical; but practical and skeptical. Let’s just learn to unlearn and unlove thereby discovering our true selves which was drowned into the oceanic attempt to find happiness in everything/everyone.

Let’s just live in the present, taking a day at a time. And that my friend, is the only means to happiness. Remember, finding happiness is not the end; loving the self is!

So, why don’t we begin the year with a note of acceptance and not just a list of ideal resolutions?