We all have different stories. Someone can share a story that fills your heart with joy, another can share his struggle and how he overcame it, while another talk about his frustration and disappointment from this unfair world or you find yourself focusing on what makes you suffer and honor your sorrow, wearing it like a badge and keeping it alive.
Being alive is a gift; you need to honor it and live. Live with hope and dreams.
I truly believe that every person has a life story to tell, and the chapters and details of life are woven and tailored by one’s choices, whether consciously or unconsciously. These choices determine the type of story they will narrate. Some have a story of love, others a story of success, peace, or perhaps a tale of passion and revenge, among other story genres.
I have learned that life should be seen as a gift and a blessing. Every day is a gift to us.
I met a 21-year-old girl in a state of severe exhaustion and despair, wishing she had joined her mother and sister who were martyred in Gaza in December 2023. She wished she had left with those who passed instead of remaining here, trapped in an injured body with an amputated leg, struggling to accept a prosthetic limb her soul refuses.
When I met her yesterday, her body was exhausted and her spirit was suffering. She is trying hard to accept life and be grateful, but inside she isn’t.
I hope our visit had a positive impact on her, even a little. This girl feels alone, helpless, and tired, and to her, nothing seems worth living for. How could she not feel that way when her entire world has collapsed? Her life turned to ashes, everyone around her scattered, and there’s nothing left but illness and the scent of hospitals. I can’t fully understand her feelings, no matter how much she explains, but I was accompanied by someone who did understand her emotions and was able to convey them to me, even just a little.
Reema, a woman in her fifties, lost two companions she called life partners. The first was the father of her children, and the second loved her children and raised them as his own. Ironically, both died of terminal illnesses, witnessing their final days in the hospitals supporting them, try to do her best to keep comfort them or extend their life span. How difficult her journey has been!
Life is strange when it intersects with the lives of others. This woman lost two lives she had tried hard to build. She felt ashamed by society’s gaze, labeled by some as a “bad omen” or “bad luck.”
Reema entered that dark tunnel of grief, sorrow, shame, and fear, wishing she had left life instead of her second life partner, whom she loved dearly and considered a beautiful compensation after losing her first husband at a young age, leaving her to face the unknown alone.
At times like these, you cannot urge someone to hasten their recovery or handle such a major loss quickly. You cannot belittle their pain or encourage them to numb it by comparing it to worse pain.
You cannot ask someone to forget, ignore, or adapt to the dark feelings that extinguish hope and love for life. I’ve always felt that God sends us messages of support and love in the form of people who light our path and teach us how to live life again. When a person loses hope, they lose the desire to live, adapting to their pain and feeling that it has become part of their identity.
It is as if the pain makes me feel more alive, or that this pain is proof that I lived despite the loss. Because I put my best effort in resistance and did not surrender, I deserve the title of a strong spirit.
But what if you survived, and the war ended? What still is just remain within you? Everyone has left, life has moved on, and you still want to resist because you’ve become accustomed to it. Now, you are compelled to let go of your resilient, stubborn self that doesn’t accept defeat. It is painful to let go of it, but even more painful to continue fighting against nothing.
It is time to thank that version of yourself for all it offered, to begin enjoying your right to reap the fruits of your survival, celebrate a new beginning, and be grateful for all the blessings you’ve received.
You may have lost someone you loved dearly, but you enjoyed time with them once, and that should be enough to make you grateful.
You may have lost possessions, but you once enjoyed owning them, and you will have better ones in the future, God willing. Everything material is replaceable.
You have the right to choose to cherish the beautiful moments as they are, to be grateful, happy, and content.
I watched a video on Instagram posted by a Palestinian girl from Gaza, in which she shared beautiful moments from her graduation a year before the war. Her family attended her graduation, and the moments were wonderful. In the same video, she showed scenes of their house destroyed and wrote that she lost her mother and several family members, but she added: “I am grateful for experiencing the warmth of family, a mother’s unconditional love, and the support of my father and siblings. Even if I lost, I am grateful for what I had and enjoyed.”
This is a powerful message for anyone who wishes for your downfall or sees you broken. If they took what they took, they can never take away my stances, gratitude, love, and feelings.
Resilience comes in many forms, and in my opinion, this is the most remarkable one because it does not break the spirit but builds it and inspires others to learn how to live life.
Some losses are not truly losses if you win yourself and do not lose it.