"It goes on"

Robert Frost, one of my favorite American poets, summed up what he leared from his life with this sentence - "it goes on."

Lately, I have been wondering about that, life, and the way that it goes on.

After an intense discussion about the recent project that I am undertaking, I felt positive energy rolling itself back to me slowly because of a gentle dialogue that I had with Paula. I work with Paula, a retired lawyer, who is a one-year volunteer at my organization. She said that, "Supalak, this is what I have learnt in my life - I am not in charge.".She calmly elaborated that we can put all of the effort in the world to control others/things/life; however, things are destined to their own ends. If your dog is going to die, you can try every way to save its life, bringing it to the veterinarian, and feed it the best food, but it will eventually die. If you have a difficult family life, you can seek all the support and counseling, and can change your perspective, but you cannot change others.

I told Paula that her statement, "I am not in charge" reminded me of other expressions, such as "let it go," or the Japanese term "wabi-sabi," which means "the beauty in the imperfection of things," and even the Thai term "mai pen rai," which refers to the state of calmness and an accepting mind that knows that things will eventually be O.K. In other words, life will go on.

Robert Frost, Paula, and I are reflecting various life philosophies based on our different cultural framworks. However, all lives must carry some sort of imbalances - grief, anger, love, peace, hate, jealousy, greed, etc. Those abstract thoughts are so vibrant that they not only shake our status quo, but boldly ask, "What have you learnt from life?"

I would like to answer each time, "It goes on."

TAN