On reaching thirty: ‘Occurrences of life’

I had prepared a long post about what does reaching thirty means to me. It went along the lines of saying that, although any time is as good as any other to pause and reflect, thirty is a round number, and perhaps because of that it lends itself for this purpose. I described how, as one grows older, it becomes necessary to set priorities in life, how experiences teach you what is important and what not. How, in life, there are things that we live for and things that we live by, and we should not confuse them. How there are things that bring joy and colour to our lives and others that paint a bleak picture (and they make you stress and you lose hair, definitely avoid those). All of that you already know, and if not, life will teach it to you. And quite frankly, you probably would not care much about how I have learnt it (or to be more accurate, how I’m in the process of learning it).

I also spoke about what I think is important for me going forward. How I have lived my previous thirty years and how would I like the next ones to be, or at least as far as I’m allowed. Knowing all of these is important for oneself, to set yourself on the course of events that you would like to happen and the people you would like to be with. Not too long ago I was asked by someone that is very important to me: which three people you would put in your lifeboat? I was never asked the answer, but it made me think. In another occasion, sitting at a table, I heard that same person saying: “This is the highest that Dunia (this world) can get”, a properly laid out table sharing a delicious meal with those that you love. Looking at it that way, life is simple.

But we make it complicated. I say ‘we’ because life is going to happen. Occurrences is life, and occurrences is change. Change is the only constant in the universe, and I’m quoting here many people that have said this before me (and I could expand the argument of why to quite a few pages, but I think you get the gist of it).

All that I have described in the two paragraphs above is how do we approach change, what is our understanding and response to change, because that is what defines how we are going to experience life. And that is the important question, how do we experience life.

In a famous Hadith, the Prophet, peace be upon him said: “How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affairs are all good, and this applies to no one but the believer. If something good happens to him, he is thankful for it and that is good for him. If something bad happens to him, he bears it with patience and that is good for him.” (Narrated by Muslim, 2999).  

What I would like to present to you is something that I have been working on for a while, something that perhaps (I say perhaps because it is not the first time that I say this) will end up being a book. It is on the plan and because of that, I have been withholding it. I hope that it will help us experience our affair in a wonderful way.

Occurrences of life

In the occurrences of life,
We find:
Incidents,
Accidents,
And events.

Incidents
Will not make
Your heart stop.
Will not explain
What happened before.
Will not tell
What the future holds.

Let them be,
They are like smoke,
The will blow where ever
The wind blows.

Accidents
have an affect,
Beware,
But they will not concile
Your thoughts,
Will not give meaning
To your hopes,
Only the present moment
They control.

Hold your thought,
Know them,
But don’t give them control.

Events,
What we all wish for.
How few,
and how easily confused.

They lead you
To what must be known,
They take you
To a path unknown,
They explain you
What happened before.

After them,
You will regain
What you might have lost.