An Open Secret!

Tears rolled down her eyes when I asked her 'When did it all start?'

Did it start in her toddler-hood when she was forced to get her ears pierced??

Or did it start when she had to sacrifice a lot of things for her younger siblings?

What was it? Was is only the physical pain or something else too?

Yes, I was talking to a woman, the strongest one ever. Having a conversation about food, cooking, fashion, marriage etc. I asked her "You are 50 now, How was your journey so far?"

There was a lot of silence on her face and pain in her eyes. After a while she replied, "It was painful but beautiful.." Painful yet beautiful?? How? And the reply she gave me still gives me goosebumps. Many things she told and a few, I couldn't believe.

She being the eldest in her family had to sacrifice many things for her younger ones, killing her ambitions and not studying further because her parents couldn't afford, leaving her family and moving away to a different state after getting married and she had to bear a lot of physical pain like forced piercing, menstruation, penetrations, deliveries that too normal ones both the times and so on... So common in every female's life right?

When she started explaining about each of that physical and emotional pain, I was just wondering is it really that painful but later I was convinced because I being a female have experienced a few of them too. These being common, What was it that made her the strongest? Its the willingness to live and having the courage of bluffing her death. She fought for her life and over came her demise. Being attacked by cancer twice, she managed to survive. She had an option of not getting treated and not losing her body parts and just leave because going through its treatment is much more painful than death. The chemotherapy not only vanishes that person's beauty but also gives numerous side effects for which she'll have to suffer through out.

'She' or 'Her' here doesn't refer just to this lady but to the millions of other women around us including my mom. Yes, its about her. It was for us, my brother and me that she wanted to live. The fear of who'll take care of her husband and children after her gave her the strength of fighting that evil. I still remember how one day after losing all her beautiful , thick, black, long hair including her eye brows she asked me , "Am I not looking beautiful?" I couldn't reply..I just hugged her tight. She looked beautiful. That smile and spark in her eyes.. as elegant and simple as she always was. It was tough but she smiled through out to give us the strength. There is a lot more that she has faced and I have just seen, not felt.

It was almost an hour that we were conversing and at the end I managed to ask "Then how come Beautiful?" and she replied, "Pains vanish, Problems are solved and Everything else is Beautiful."

She made me realize - 'We CAN only if WE want to' and 'We are our biggest Strength'

True! Problems are common, Pain is natural, In the world we live in, failures are obvious.

You might have thousands of reasons to die but just one small reason can keep you alive.

Find your reason and lead your Life!

#WLOO ( we live only once)