"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people withwhom fate brings you together,but do so with all your heart.” ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Imagine every emotion to be of a color. Red for rage, Orange for greed, Yellow for fear, Green for willpower, Blue for hope,Purple for compassion, and Violet for love. Where would the rainbow be?
About a year ago, when my then relationship had just come to an end, I was very fortunate to have been surrounded by my friends and family who gave me so much support. For that, I would be ever grateful.
I suppose you could say no less would be expected from people who love you. But of people who have never known you..total strangers?
And yet on a routine visit to the hair dresser those many months ago, I received a wonderful piece of advise from the young lady who did my hair. Expertly snipping away, she went on to tell me of her relationship with her boyfriend of 3 years. He was a delivery man then and they didnt have much financially, but they had just decided on getting an apartment together and getting hitched in a couple of months. She said that so many odds were against them but they had made a promise to one another and meant to see it through.She made me realise that the sloth's parents werent to blame entirely for what had occurred, that being the other half of my relationship, he had not the guts to take a stand. That day made me realise that I had been looking at my situation all too wrongly and it had taken this colourful woman all but 5 minutes to figure it out.
A month ago, Mama S and I had decided to have foot reflexology on impulse. We had not much to do but I am glad we took that decision. For there, we met another colourful character. Hailing from Sabah, he had been in KL for many years and was pretty eager to share his life's tale with us. We were surprised to learn that he was merely in his 20s and was already having 7 kids. His first wife and he were married when they were both in their teens and the most recent (wife no 3) and he were married for only a year. Chatty and humorous, he was a man full of confidence and put the blame on his many (failed and resultant) marriages on the lines of fate. Fate, according to him, has its own way, and each of that marriage had carried a different experience and he said he wasn’t sure if this would be his last wife or fate had more in store
Today I had the grace to meet another Sabahan. A gentle woman in her 40s, she explained to me that she had married many years ago to man in Sabah. After having her son, her husband and her parted ways. Ms K moved to KL and started working in a factory where she made friends of many races. Faces and colours she had never taught she would come to befriend while living in Sabah. A year ago, she met and fell in love with her 2nd husband and they are now married for 3 months. Learning of my single status, Ms K too stressed to trust my gut feelings about a person and that fate has its way and if you were fated to be with that person, there isnt much running away from it. But sometimes, you have to take the wrong turns before you find the right road.
It made me realise that If only I took the time to speak to most people around me and hear their tales, I would find that the rainbow is all around me.
