It isn’t easy being an HSP — a highly sensitive person — in a world where you wake up to newspapers screaming riots and rapes. From that standpoint, 2015 sent me into an emotional coma.

The refugee with a backpack, which was also his world now…
The God’s child that left behind a broken world even as he lapped up the waves of hopes as he breathed his last…
The Earth that shook, jolting millions of sleeps that couldn’t find a sound sleep thereafter…

And then, I took to bed for two months as ailments came crashing down on me one after the other. You may not know, but an HSP takes greater time to recover as any pain, no matter how small, hits the person’s emotional and mental health with a brutal force.

My numb mind and feeble heart needed cortisone shots. I found some in the seas and sands that was home to the Lord of the Universe.

IMG-20150128-WA0005Pic: Author’s own. Captured in Puri, Odisha in 2015

My two short trips to Puri with family last year top my list of cherished memories. Not because I was holidaying, but because each time the waves kissed my feet, the salt washed away my fears. They left behind pebbles of solace, courage and hope.

The trips were an elixir for a heart that absorbs other’s pains as effortlessly as a sponge, water.

But no pain fades without teaching you a lesson. The sufferings and the uncertainty of life that I saw around knocked my senses out. That afternoon, as I sat by the sea shore, I saw something I’d never seen before: The words clearly floated on the wave.

You’re wasting time. You’re taking relationships for granted. You’re not living each day. You’re holding back your desires. Remember, what you lose today will never be yours; and I cannot assure you will see a tomorrow.

That wave, called 2015, was a life-changer. It gave me my biggest lesson yet: Do what you want to today, because tomorrow may never arrive.

I started having tea with family, and going out more often. I ensured I was on toes about my close friends’ lives. I started meditating. There were days when I shut down my laptop in a fleeting move and spent the rest of the day reading a book I’d bought months ago but never touched. I talked to my plants, and watched movies I’d wanted to but never did.

I felt happier and lighter. It’s difficult to explain what it was, but I felt a deep change within when I started taking life a little easy. Try it out if you haven’t yet. I promise you will come back to thank me.

This lesson of 2015 will define the person that I am here on. This lesson is here to stay, forever.

There’s another reason why I’ll always be indebted to 2015.

Miracles happen.

Out of the blue, one of my seniors I’d never interacted with shot me an email one day. Turns out, he was impressed with my work (I am a finance writer by profession) and wanted to help me do better. Magical, isn’t it? When one of your bosses affirms his faith and confidence in you?

I’d never felt as proud before. I confess I cried when he told me he wants me to improve my productivity, and was eager to help me in every which way. A new journey had begun.

Just before it wrapped up, 2015 gifted me a chance meeting with a friend I’d met when I was five, but hadn’t seen in more than a decade. Some hours with her, and I knew life was a blessing.

And with every magic in life comes gratitude. With the two incidents above, 2015 gave me another gold leaf I’ll preserve forever:

Have faith, and you’ll get all that you want. And once you get there, do not forget to be grateful, because gratitude leads to abundance.

I’ve never felt as blessed before. For everything that I have and do.

Before the sun set ten evenings ago, it left me a hope for each of the three hundred and sixty five suns ahead. Those hopes will be my leap of faith into the thousands of suns that I have yet to see. And I know each will be brighter than the one I kissed goodbye to last night.

Thank you, 2015 for being what you were. I promise to take your legacy forward, into 2016 and beyond.

“I’m sharing my #TalesOf2015 with BlogAdda.”