A Broken Glass

I heard a glass break when I visited my friend. His wife was upset with their son who knocked of a show piece. Trying to normalize the situation, I went to help clean up the place. My friend let go a tirade on a high school kid. I defended his son saying, "Hey- it is glass, it is made to break”.

We raise our children hoping and believing that they are angels, impeccable, the best gift one could get. And they are. We give them a good education, send them to all activities, sacrificing time and money and feeling proud to see them grow into adolescence. They do make us proud. Then they start to test waters. Difficulty arises in understanding what they try to convey in their own way which is not easy to comprehend.

We get into relationships, falling in love and believing that, “this is the person I want to spend my entire life with”. We start to grow our family. Our responsibilities increase. We work hard, fulfilling our needs and desires. Our time in raising our children and our lifestyle that keeps changing tests us to our limits. We have a home, cars, electronic gadgets, money that brings us the financial freedom, clothes that make us look good and vacations. We forget the price we are paying to have them all. Misunderstandings, lack of communication begin to cause anger and resentment overtime; expressions of love that we once cherished become less visible. The smile and laughter don’t have the same flash and life it once had. A strange situation develops without being noticed.

We get our degrees and settle in jobs which gives us a sense of belonging and making us proud of our accomplishments that resulted because of our hard work and perseverance. And then, we see that our work don’t produce what our higher ups expect, we get passed over for promotions, stagnation begins as we hit a brickwall. We make mistakes and regret at the missed opportunities. People lose the passion they once had because they assume that they are indispensable. The Entrepreneur and self employed lose their vision having forgotten the burning desire they once had which motivated them in the first place.

Why do such things happen in our lives? The simple answer is expectations and a failure to realize that we are human. We have our faults. We live on wishes that need to be fulfilled. That our lives could change at a moment’s notice is not thought of or entertained in our minds. We end up like the broken glass. Knowing that we could break would have given us the pause and prevented the heartaches. Realizing that now will prevent us from getting shattered. That is my wish for everyone