Rising above oneself requires a lot of courage. I tried doing that and I realized how difficult it is to isolate the 'I' from me. I realized how difficult it is to put myself in somebody else's shoes and empathize with their pain and life-drama.

I wanted to know for myself what makes people the way they are. What makes them laugh cry smile. And I concluded that the reasons weren't any different from mine. Everybody goes through a myriad of emotions and phases in life. And suddenly, I realized I was so much like anybody else. My carapace of self-importance dropped off, and all those whom I had refused even a glance earlier now were suddenly within my sphere of consideration. A small girl, going for a walk with an elderly man (I suppose her grandfather or some such)... what a lovely sight it made! A young couple huddled in a corner of a busy road, old ladies busy gossiping, a bunch of small children performing somersaults at the street, even a beggar on the roadside... all of them are just as human as me!

Everybody has to journey through huge piles of rubble everyday. I cannot speak for all, but I’ve seen His essence in all. I'm as different and as similar as anybody else is.

Chalk in hand, thought I would mark
The circumference of my life,
And tidy up my own little space.

Laughing, giggling I ran till
I could no longer demarcate
Where my life ended and others’ started
How seamlessly they merged into one.

The perimeter of love that binds us all
Was many sizes larger than I thought.

© Archana D