Ruin
The last time we gathered here in this abode, it was the seventh day of the month when all was well and the flowers bloomed. Oh, how blind we were. In this mansion, this house of our ancestors, we could only see the cracks. “This paint is chipped,” one cried, and another said, “I would much like it all a different color,” while neither did anything to acquire the necessary paint and do the work. There was a hidden joy in the complaining, almost as if it justified our ever-present misery.
I remember how we went out to the balcony and cast our gazes upon the array of flowers in the backyard gardens. It only took a few minutes for us to devolve from admiration to sadness. If only the gardeners had planted the white flowers to the right and the purple to left instead of the other way around. If only it was a week further into spring so that the other flowers would bloom. If only, if only…
When did we learn that all of these complaints, all of these “if only” sentiments, were but the seeds of weeds that had yet to sprout. If we knew back then, would we take it all back? Dig it up and toss them away? Or would a secret part of us aimed at destruction snicker maliciously as the weeds grew and spread? Well, our unspoken wish had been granted.
Now the roof is no longer above our heads; it is scattered throughout the acres as debris. The walls have decayed and withered until the wind and rain found no obstacles to invade our spaces. The flowers too, are no more. The drought had transformed our colorful gardens into a desert of gray, no longer capable of providing any sense of its former beauty.
We got what we all wanted. We wanted misery, and it happily obliged to creep in and conquer our house. Ruin is the only beauty here now. But will it remain so forever? Perhaps it only takes a change of one’s mind to transform the wanting of misery to the pursuit of glory. Look, the bricks are still intact. The roof, though scattered, can be pieced back together. If we obtained water, life can be brought back to the gardens. It all can be retained, everything that we so ungratefully allowed to fall into disrepair.
It starts with a genuine step towards greatness.
