'Is life just this what I am living or is it much more or maybe lesser?'

Thoughts like this cloud my mind day in and out. At times, I look at life objectively, chalking out my role in it, my responsibilities, my stake and the risks. At other times, I subject it to being a mere state of existence. Or how else can I justify all those incidents and situations that I have been a mute, passive spectator to? They came, blew everything that seemed to be in their perfect places in my 'life' and left behind rumbles and ages of agony and suffering. And what could I do? Just watch it happen to me.

But no, life could not be just this. I have seen the other phase of it also. The one which has dreams turning into reality, angels blessing you, hard work paying off, love pouring in - the life with the perfect Midas touch to it. And do we complain then? I didn't.

But then, however and whichever way life may treat you and me, I firmly believe that miracles do happen in each one's life and there are incidents that need no proof, no justification; they happen, leaving you feeling blessed and thankful. In those truly dark moments, when the entire world seems hostile, each moment spills pain and even your own shadow turns its back to you, an angelic wand sweeps away all the misery.

There have been many occasions when I have felt the magic wand show its magic. On those fateful times when the entire world seemed to have collapsed before me, a strange power made me hold on....hold on to faith...hold on to life. A voice within me told me to stay put; it echoed that this too shall pass; it affirmed that if He has brought me to it, He will give me the strength to survive it.

Patience, faith, perseverance, trust - all these reduce to mere words in hard times. However, it has been these words that helped me pave my way through those difficult paths. Patience with other and my dealing with them; faith in the Supernatural, the Almighty; perseverance in my endeavor; and trust in those who held me notwithstanding the heat and pressure of those times. And I moved on, making my way to light.

There have been many occasions when life seemed futile and I know that there will be many more. But then, I even know that the same wand will brush its magic on me again, shaking me out of negativity and giving me the vision to realize and be thankful for all the truly wonderful people and things I am blessed with. And the first - this Life. For without it, I would have never been able to live all the beautiful moments that I have and those that I will.

Will life treat me as positively as I think of it? I know not and I don't think so. It is full of uncertainties, I know. But then, does it not depend on me how I take it? They say that happiness is a state of mind; then is living not the same. Or are we calling existing, living?

Whichever way and however it may be, life is surely much more than what I have lived until now. And I look forward to living it to its fruitful completion, whatever that may be.