Consider this scenario:
I am walking up a road and there I see a stone. The size, appearance, and type of the stone is left to your imagination. It can be as big, small, beautiful, shiny, ordinary, or precious as you want. I see that stone and feel a strange and strong urge to pick it up. I know instantly that I have to preserve it. It is as if there is no way I can abandon it and move on. Let me also add that some of my friends who are walking with me, who walked past the stone, are able to ignore it and move forward. Not me. Am not judging them or me. Each one sees things differently.

So I pick up the stone and carry it with me everywhere I go. I suddenly sense its weight, and I start to feel exhausted carrying it around . My ability to keep up with others, the length of my stride, everything suffers. I start to complain, swear, and even break down at times because of how heavy the stone felt. But I never think of putting it down. Why? Because it is something I want to carry with me. Remember, I felt carrying that stone was my purpose in life.

Some of my friends who are walking around without stones laugh at me. “Let it go” they shout. “You will get crushed under the weight of that stone “.
But I hold on. For me, carrying that stone around was very, very important.

Now, let us look at some aspects here:
Why did I carry that stone ? Well, because I felt a very strong urge to do so.
What would have happened if I had not carried that stone ? Clearly, my walk would feel lighter, but I would always feel bad for not picking up that stone.

That stone is symbol of every responsibility, cause, or purpose that we attach to our lives. None of them are easy. None of them might make sense to others . None of them are things that we HAVE to carry. Those are our choices and we pay a price for attaching ourselves with each of them. There are some basic things that all of us HAVE to do in order to stay alive and lead a “normal” life, and let us not contest it; that will take the whole discussion into a different angle.

The responsibilities that I’m talking about include the decision to work on a new project, to write an extra certification exam, to live in a particular place, to start a blog, to volunteer at a community center, or not do any of these activities… the list can go on and on. Note that the decision to not pick up the stone is also a stone, and I will have to live with consequences of it. I may never understand the reason why you picked up a particular stone and you may not see the logic behind my stone. We also always have a choice to drop the stone anywhere and at any time.

I was listening to an audiobook in which the writer talks about all the hurdles she goes through to adopt a child. She waited for 5 years, meeting adoption agencies , being a foster parent , talking to pregnant mothers who were looking for parents to adopt their yet-to-be born child, talking to international adoption aid organizations, and many other sources. She spent a lot of time worried and anxious. She already had 3 children of her own, but wanted to raise another one. Did she have to go through all the trouble? Or, did she have to carry the stone? In her own words, “Heck yeah!” . For her, having that forth adopted child was of paramount importance. No matter what everyone else felt , she knew she had to do it . No matter what, she had to pick that stone up.

We all choose our stones. Then, we face the consequences that come with choosing those stones. Whenever we pause to remind ourselves that these are stones that we picked up on the way, we learn to look at it from a different perspective.

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