Tuesday, November 25, 2014

A Book called "Life"

Some of us read books and some of us don't. But it’s a fact of life that we all write a book in our lifetime which is called the Book of Life or a Book called Life. A well lived life turns out to be a best seller in the shelves. We have all heard the idiom

Take a leaf out of someone's book
Fig. to behave or to do something in a way that someone else would. 

But have you given a thought about the book of someone, or rather one’s own book. I would like to refer to it as the Book called "Life". This blog looks into that book.

As we are born, we are gifted with an unseen book. The book has a few lines written on every page, which we can read only when we reach the page. Those are the words of god. We call it fate, destiny and in myriad ways. But those are the situations or phases in our life which is a gift from God himself. That’s why we refer to today as "Present". I would like to phrase it as Gods Guidelines to live our day. We write the blank portion of the page and those are our actions. We write in our own ways and that’s what is called freewill. We can choose what we write on the blank portion of our page for that day. How we take the book forward is in our hands.

There comes a time when you have to choose between
turning the page and closing the book.
–Josh Jameson

But the sad plight is that we try to write on pages for the coming days. That’s when things go wrong. We write something on tomorrow’s page, where the first line by God doesn't match and we tend to strike it and try to rewrite it. When we write, we should make sure; there are no misspelled words or wrong usages. That will make the page look shabby and we would be disappointed to see it. Just think of the situation, where we would not be happy to show the page to anyone. But God sees those pages. Just like a father who feels sad, looking at a badly written copy of his kid, we tend to disappoint Him too.

Each events of success in life would become a chapter and get indexed. So all that we strive for in our life and the small achievements that we make also gets written in an Index in Golden letters. A book with many successes adds chapters to the book and becomes a structured book. Pleasure to read and each chapter would be a story. So the more we strive for success, the more would be chapters in the wonderful book called Life.

All the associations and friendship we make become reference points in our book. We are all a part of a big book as these characters in our book have their own books too. Also think of what another person would be writing about us in his book. When we contribute to the success of someone else, his book will have a chapter, and we would be the good character in the chapter. All the bad things will end up casting ourselves as a villain in someone else’s book. Acts hurting someone else or jeopardizing their writing will end up showing us in bad light. I am sure no one wants to be a bad guy in someone else’s book. But acts of kindness, goodness and the like would leave as a contributor in the book. Being in the list of contributors in someone else’s book is always desirable.

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; 
but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
–Gilbert K. Chesterton

And there is a reason behind writing this book called life. We live our life, filling these pages each day. When we die, we write the last few lines and conclude the book. Probably, this is the mythological book which would be added to the library of Chitragupt. The book of life should be the bestseller and inspire others to write a better book. What we leave behind for the future is a book, which can be useful or become guidance to someone else. A well written book, with examples of life situations and how it was well written, is still one of the best sellers called "The Holy Bible".

Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.
–John Green

The question remains that would every book be read by someone. Reading the pages of the book called life and see to it that it was and is well written, makes it even better. When the book is completed, or the life's mission on earth is complete, we leave behind a book to be read by your children. They should feel proud, happy and excited when they read the book. They should never look at it as a trash magazine or a novel not worth reading or sharing.

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.
–George Bernard Shaw

Many of us leave the page blank as it is. The opportunities given to us or the situations we are in, we just leave it as it is. Such a book will never be an attractive one. So each moment we spend in our day is a word added to the book. Making it interesting to read and leave it for others to read and to pick a leaf out of the book would be the goal to be achieved. 

I leave you to think about your book of "Life" with a few quotes by great minds, who left behind or are in the process of leaving behind a great book, theirs, in style.

You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page 
and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.
–Paul Sweeney

I think of life as a good book. 
The further you get into it, 
the more it begins to make sense.
–Harold Kushner

A great book should leave you with many experiences, 
and slightly exhausted at the end. 
You live several lives while reading.
–William Styron

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, 
you cannot expect a genius to look out.
–J.K. Rowling

If there is a book that you want to read, 
but it hasn’t been written yet, 
you must be the one to write it.
–Toni Morrison

A good book has no ending.
–R.D. Cumming

Last but not the least, there is a title to every book. Let me know in your feedback, what would be the name of your book !!!