In the last few days whenever I talk to my friends and ask them how are things in life, one common answer I always get to hear is “Nothing”! Its as if nothing is happening in life. As a matter of fact even I have used this answer every now and then. “Nothing new is happening in life”…indeed! This always makes me wonder how exactly we look at life. Do we want to have some adventurous life, that keeps changing at the drop of a hat? Perhaps. Or do we want an exciting and non-stop travelling life? Perhaps the age of quiet and serene life is over.

We say nothing is happening in our life. I ask what exactly do you want happening in life. Its just a way of looking at things. Life is still running at the same pace as before. Its just that our references have changed. There are times when the time passes by in a flash, and there are times when it is tough to live through a day. But in times like these, its not that the clocks around the world are running slowly! Its the state of our minds which keeps changing its pace.

Then there is the consideration of mental satisfaction. Today if I say ‘nothing is happening’, then you can infer from it that there is something for which I am waiting. And yet I can’t wait for it to happen! If I am happy with the way things are happening, perhaps my answer would be different. Or at least conveyed in a different kind of tone.

Now turning back to the original answer of ‘nothing’. There are so many things happening around the world. Our world. If we feel like nothing is happening, its because in some way we have alienated ourselves from the current affairs. Or we feel we are no more relevant in the madness of the current affairs. Does that convey a lack of happiness? Possibly. Does that convey a sense of sadness and gloom? Perhaps.

Then there is the consideration of human age. Perhaps its a state in the human life when the person may not quite understand and appreciate the calmness around him/her. A state of balance may be being mistaken for a state of “nothingness”. After all a person can see only as clear as the number of his eye glasses! We all have some eyesight problem, except that some of us know it, and some of us do not.

In the end it boils down to choices that we take, choices that we make. It is all about the perception. Remember the classic example of two trains – one stationary and the other moving. A person sitting in the stationary train may feel that his train is moving. Or think about another example – a glass of capacity 1 lt containing 500 ml of water – it may be half full to some, or half empty to some others. All the talk of looking at the glass as half full being positive thinking is nothing but a load of crap. For it may also signify that the beholder is satisfied with the things in his life, so he is happy thinking that the glass is half full. He is satisfied with the ‘half full’ glass and will not take any more action. Someone who says that the glass is half empty may actually be quite eager to work and make sure that the glass is completely full, and his ‘half empty’ remark shows an underlying sense of getting on in life and doing what it takes to fill the glass fully!

Its a fight between two voices. One that says ‘nothing is happening – lets add something’, and the other that says ‘nothing is happening – God it can’t get any gloomier’. There are some decisions in life we have to make – looking at a glass as half full or half empty, and looking at it from the correct perspective are indeed some of them. You have to find your own voice.  So next time you answer ‘nothing’ when someone asks you whats happening in your life, you might want to give them the complete picture of thoughts in your mind! I guess I should now stop typing any further, or I will have ‘nothing’ more left in my mind!

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. If you are going through hell, keep going.

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