Half-asleep, İpek stared at the ceiling until her alarm jolted her awake. The air coming through the open window chilled her nose. She breathed in deeply; that cool, crisp scent of autumn. She’d always loved this season, unlike most people. After getting ready, she stepped outside for work.
“I’ll take the scenic route today.” she thought, choosing the side street lined with trees. Some leaves were still stubbornly green, others had turned golden or red. A few trees stood almost bare already. She wondered why that was.
The laurel she passed was still lush and green. She plucked a leaf, crushed it lightly between her fingers, and inhaled its sharp, comforting scent. The maple nearby glowed copper, the linden was nearly bare, its few remaining leaves pale yellow. And the horse chestnut, its leaves were fading, its glossy brown seeds scattered across the sidewalk. How often we walk past all this without noticing, she thought. Who knows what stories they hold.
She reached for her phone to look it up, then stopped. She didn’t want to miss the sound of autumn while staring at a screen. Instead, she listened to the crisp crunch of leaves beneath her shoes.
She was waiting for her bus now in the same spot where, years ago, she’d waited for her school ride. Two women passing by pulled her out of her thoughts.
“Ugh, winter’s coming. I can’t stand the cold.” said the shorter one.
Great, İpek thought, morning complaints already. People never stopped complaining.
Then she remembered herself all summer long, walking into the office saying, “I hate summer, it’s too hot to sleep!” The thought made her smile. She shrugged and murmured, “I could live in autumn forever.” Just saying it made her feel lighter, summer was over at last.
As annoying as it had been, even the heat had passed. And soon autumn would pass too. Then winter. Seasons came and went just like the phases of life: spring, summer, autumn, winter; all flowing into each other before you realized it.
Her mind drifted. She remembered the night she got engaged, how she’d been too excited to sleep. That thrill had faded with time, of course. At university, she used to sigh, “I just want to graduate and be done with all this stress.” Back then, she couldn’t sleep from anxiety either. When she started working, she thought life would finally settle down but soon she found herself longing for her college days. Eventually she got used to her job, but when her husband was reassigned to Eskişehir, she had to start over.
Now she was wondering, How will it be this time? Will I get used to a new city, a new job? What comforted her was her grandmother’s familiar voice echoing in her mind:
“Everything in life is temporary, my dear.”
And she realized it really was. She remembered falling out of an apple tree as a child, cutting her leg open, certain the pain would last forever. Yet it healed, so much so that she later showed the scar off like a little badge of adventure.
Even those summer vacations when she’d said, “I never want this to end.” They had all ended, of course.
We live our lives saying, “Let this just be over.” racing through one thing after another as if life itself will never end.
Elementary school, gone.
High school, gone.
First love, heartbreak, gone.
University stress, wedding excitement, gone.
So many summers.
So many autumns.
Thirty-three years. Gone.
And how much of it had she spent complaining? Even when her boyfriend proposed, she’d managed to think, Why roses? Why not daisies? She laughed softly at herself.
Is this another complaint? she wondered.
“No,” she said aloud, smiling.
“This is reflection. Letting go of what no longer serves me.”
Every season has its own challenges, its own beauty. Life is never all autumn and never all winter.
“Yes, everything passes, İpek. Focus on what life’s teaching you and keep going,” she told herself, pulling out her phone.
She typed:
“Good morning, my love. You know what? Thanks to you, I’ve started to love daisies."
The Experiential Design Teaching aims to guide people toward their true purpose.
It helps them reach a state of awareness where they can make clear, conscious choices and find genuine solutions to their problems.
Its programs; beginning with Who’s Who and continuing with Mastery in Relationships, The Psychology of Success, and Mastery in Avoidance are designed to help people become happier and more successful versions of themselves than they were yesterday.
Yorumlar
Yorum Gönder