Hi reader,

At some point in life, you must have heard a prevalent saying, “out of sight, out of mind”, which in simple terms means, “you soon forget people or things that are no longer visible or present.”. That’s pretty true. Ironically, the person who introduced me to this proverb, is out of sight, out of mind (out of life? maybe) now. I believe each of us has experienced this once in our life. To name a few, how much are you in touch with your schoolmates? Or school teachers? How much of a thought in a day, a week, a month, or a year, you give them? 

Since childhood, we are taught to be limitless and be the one we want to become. Not just taught, it is in our DNA, that even when a baby is born, the fist is closed to capture and hold everything. The younger we are, the less probability that we feel anything is impossible. The Universe can run as we want. The world and each element of it, the stars, the planets, the moon, the rain, the soil, the creatures, and everything imaginable is in our control. And then we grow a little, and our fists open up a little The moment we are able to read and write and comprehend things, we understand that not everything is in our hands. The planets do their work, and so do the stars, the rain, and the soil; nature works on its own, and it is independent. But, our future, our career paths, our surroundings, and the people around us, all this is still in our control. 

We can still become what we want, while the rest of the things will remain the same. This is when the reality hits us for the first time, that our career is not always totally in our hands, but there can be some external factors as well that could change the course of our life, without our consent. Now, some people may disagree on this, but if a person in the remotest area of the world, without any educational or network resources, wants to become an astronaut, and float in space, just because of the desire to do so, it will naturally be a very tough path, and the chances of doing so depend on a lot of hard work, but that same person if belonging to a metropolitan city of United States with all the internet and resources and a mentor from a space agency like NASA is present, the path could be more focused and aligned. The career depends on our surroundings and the resources available. Only when we are able to understand this resource constraint, our career paths change (and often, we start following the crowd, and its rat race).

By the time, we are starting our careers, we have understood that nature is not in our hands, and our career or eventually, the future depends on a lot of external factors as well. But, what is still not realized by most of us, is that other than nature and career, the people in our lives are also not just as per our desire. If you think, that the world revolves around you, be it your family or friends, or colleagues? It doesn’t. 

The world never revolves around us, it never had and never will. Sometimes, things will happen how we planned and intended to have them. We will be able to choose our favourite subjects, buy our favourite dress, eat at our favourite restaurant, watch our favourite movie, read that special book, and travel to that dream destination. But, things could be different for the other times, both overwhelming, extraordinary, out of expectation, and devastative, destructive, annoying. We can not control everything, not even the people in our life.

We have multi-variate dimensions of life attributes, from the social human with caregiving, humble, soft-spoken attitude to a workaholic colleague, creative writer to a rocking guitarist, pet lover to meat-eater… there are so many things about us, and this is what brings the life journey of other people close to our journey. These attributes of our life, lead us in our journey, and in that we come across many people. Some stay for a very short duration, and some for a certain period of time. But, there is no one, who stays with us from the very first day of our journey till the last. There is a quote I recently read in the book, Illusions:

We’re magnets, aren’t we? Not magnets. We’re iron wrapped in copper wire, and whenever we want to magnetize ourselves we can. Pour our inner voltage through wire, we can attract whatever we want to attract. A magnet is not anxious about how it works. It is itself, and by its nature it draws somethings and leaves other untouched.

Shimoda, Messiah

The likes attract the likes, and as we start exploring different spheres of our life, we get to meet different like-minded people. Also, over a period of time, we tend to lose interest in a few spheres or hobbies as well, and we lose the touch with those people too. For instance, a job. Say, we work in one company and then switch to a different one. There is nothing wrong with people, they are still the same (No matter how much we think that people change, they don’t), it is just our paths have changed, and we have come across a turn in our journey. 

We often say, “It was a pleasure meeting you – I hope our paths cross again. “ I hope I illustrated it well now on what it means. So, the cross-paths are normal, and losing people is also normal. Some will come and support you to uplift your abilities and then leave, while some will come to use your abilities and grow themselves, and then again leave.

Don’t be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.

Life is all about the journey and experiences. It is your journey. People will come in insight, in mind, and in life. They will go out of sight, out of mind too. All that is in your control is you! So on this note, I wish you the best on your journey.

I allow the world to live as it chooses, and I allow me to live as I choose.

Until next time,
– Navneet