Wisdom from Pumukli

Happy New Year everyone!
I just re-watched Benjamin Button, one of my favorite movies of 2008, and I would like to share something with you. This is a letter that Benjamin Button sends to his daughter from India. Please read the words very carefully and think about them. Ask yourself if you are living the life you wanted and if you are you the person you wanted to be. And if you are not, remember that is never too late.

"For what it's worth, it is never too late, or in my case, too early, to be whoever you want to be. There is no time limit; stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no limits to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it.

"I hope you see things that startle you.

"I hope you feel things you ever felt before.

"I hope you meet people with different point of view.

"I hope you live a life you're proud of. And if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

When I was baptized into the church at age 15 I learned an important lesson, something everyone should be learning about every day. This life is a lesson we have to learn, and there will be a test of everything we learned here. And one day we will stand in front of our creator and he will ask us if we have used our time well on this earth, if we have become the people we really wanted to be and could be.

In the past years I forgot who I am! I forgot that I'm a person who who can live the way I want to. I forgot the purpose of my existence, I forgot to live a life worth telling about. One thing not many people know about me is that I used to love being free, I used to like to fly with the wind. I used to love everyone, and I could talk about anything to anyone. I tried to look at people from God's point of view, no matter if tht person was drunk, scary, or kind, black or white. They were all the same in my eyes. But something happened a few years ago. I slowly started to hide inside a box, from where I couldn't see things straight. I couldn't move the way I wanted, I couldn't do the things I liked. For a long time I tried to explain the situation to myself with all sorts of excuses, such as it's because of the death of my mom, it is because I live in a different country or different culture, it is because I gained weight, it is because my friends left me, it is because I was forced to do things I don't like, it is because of my religion, it is because of God, it is because he has abandoned me.

I kept telling myself all these things, so much that I started telling myself that I'm too old and I can't ever have fun anymore. Even though sometimes I tried out fun things, traveling, etc., I still kept convincing myself that I'm already 27 years old and I have missed out on doing all the things I used to love.

A few weeks ago I was playing a snowboard game and I mentioned to a good friend of mine how my entire life I wanted to try snowboarding. And she asked me why don't I try it out? I honestly answered her and said because I have already missed the years I could do it; it is too late. Her automatic reply was it's never too late. At that moment it didn't make that big of an impression on me, but ever since then it has been on my mind, and every day something whispers in my ear and says, it is not too late to be the person God wants me to be. It is never too late to spread my wings and fly on high mountain tops, it is never too late to love like crazy. It is never too late to became a millionaire, and it is definitely never too late to start a new life.

And that is the reason I have started to change things around me, because I realized that all the things I blamed on everything else are really my fault. I became the person I let myself become, and I didn't became the person I really wanted to be. I want to be free. I want to fly! I want to have children who one day I can tell sincerely that to be happy means to be free: free of blame, free of guilt, free of things that hold you back from becoming who you really are capable of becoming. There are so many tools around us that give you the opportunity to change the world by starting with yourself.

One day I will stand in front of God and will be able to say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7)