Legends
I've always said that I've been through a lot... that I've been through hell, back, and maybe even back again... but that day... that day was like nothing I've ever seen before...It's been almost a year to the date, but I could still remember it vividly... Jets crisscrossed in the sky, their engines roaring loudly as they whooshed by, and their figures casting silhouettes in the orange sky... For a moment, it was somewhat beautiful, even majestic, as they slowly disappeared into the distance... then...
BOOM!
The airport was bombed...
BOOM!
What took a year or so for a lot of hardworking people to build took just ten seconds to come crashing and crumbling down...
Amidst the bombings, faint gunshots could also be heard...
and then...
plain, crisp silence...
And as the skies exchanged its cloak of orange and red for one of purple and black, I could still see orange flickers from where the bombings had taken place...
but I wasn't there... nor did I give it much thought back then... I was arrogant and egocentric.. It was only last night as I watched the documentary about it did tears slowly began to trickle down my face... It changed my life forever...
For it broke my heart... no... it crushed me... and there was just this undeniable sadness that pervaded every fiber of my being... for it is a fate that I'd never even dream to wish on my enemy... It was a fate that nobody deserves...
and I realize now how lucky I am, how selfish I truly was to always think about what I felt, and what others did to me... I realize now that life has truly been gracious to me all these years; and I just can't even begin to comprehend what I was bitching about all these years... Because it could have been me... Yes I could say I could have been born in a better place, in a better time, but my life certainly could have been a lot worse... I could have been born in Lebanon, or Iraq, or South Africa, where lives were lost to war, to drought, to famine, to sickness... But I am here... and it may not be the best, but I go to school, I eat three square meals a day, I have people who love me... The simple truth that I wake up everyday to a new morning, able to fulfill my dreams, and share myself with others, when others cannot... The simple fact that the people who lost their lives would have given everything to stay alive, to be in my place... The fact that they would probably have made this world a much better place to live in... It certainly is enough to smile everyday, to celebrate and be thankful for...
I have rarely been so emotional, so worked up, so sentimental, but every bit of reality just seemed to come crashing down on me... the reality that it could have been me- the one who experienced all the uncertainty, the doubts of "will I still be alive tomorrow?", or "will I have the opportunity to thank the people that I love?"... the reality that I am not the only person in this world that I have the slightest of right to bicker and whine about every little thing that doesn't go my way... the reality that a lot of people have really been through hell and back a million times... and they never complained...
The choice to be happy has always been mine; the choice to make my life a fairy tale with a happy ending... and I guess I could choose to stay on the road that I took, weigh down the world with hatred and pessimism, and continue looking at the world through the eyes of a cynic... But I think that it's finally time to be reborn, time to look at the world from the other side, through the eyes, this time, of a passionate and happy heart, and in the grace and mercy of the Lord, our God...
Life is what you make of it.. and I'm going to make mine a blessing...
God is great... Cheers everyone...
posted by Dexter @ 2:49 PM
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