Philosophy of life (part 1)

Discovering Life...

I was astonished to see the clock striking 6:50 a.m. just when I had done with bathing. My school bus would arrive right after 10 minutes. I hurriedly dressed up when my mom started shouting at me to get ready faster. Eventually, I skipped my health drink that mom had made and left for the bus stop. Mom came till the gate to bid me ‘good bye’. I smiled back at her and started to run. I looked at my wrist watch. It was 6:58 then, exactly 2 minutes for the bus to arrive at the stop. I increased my pace. Thankfully, I and my bus, both reached at the same time. As I got into my bus, the sweat on my face was remarkable. As usual, I took my seat beside Jake, my best friend ever. He smiled at me and said, “Good morning Jas, how come are you late again?"
I pulled out my hanky and swiped off the sweat over my forehead and exhaled a long breath of relief.
“Good morning Jake. Yeah actually I had been awoken till late last night so I woke up late. It was already 6:50 when I had a bath.”
“Wonderful miss! That’s what I like about you. By the way, what were you up to last night?”
“A poem with last two or four lines incomplete,” I said with disappointment.
“I’ll surely try to help you out.”
“Thanks Jake. You’re such a wonderful friend.”
“Hey! That’s enough girl. Everyone knows how kind and helpful is Jake the great.”
“Oh really? I thought you were an innocent fool.”
“Hey! Jas!’
“Ha ha ha ha ha”
“By the way you look beautiful when you laugh.”
“Are you serious? Not flirting, right?”
“A beautiful face attracts colourless minds. A beautiful soul attracts colourful hearts…”
I smiled at his philosophy. His eyes shone beautifully.
“Do you know who should be one’s inspiration?” he asked with a soft voice.
“Umm… It can be anyone whom one thinks to be having the ability to be an inspiration.”
“Nope. This is where people are wrong. You should be the inspiration to yourself. Only then, you can start believing yourself to accomplish your goal.”
I stared at him for a minute and whispered, “how do you think so perfect?”
“Well, it’s because I can’t expertise in writing as you are.”
Within exchange of smiles the bus reached school. Each got down one after one. And as usual I and Jake sat at our places to be the last ones getting down. The bus driver smiled at us when we spoke him “have a good day.”
Both of us began walking to the classroom. Our school has a huge campus and it is a 10-15 minutes’ walk to classroom from the parking lot. As we began walking, we saw an outsider climbing up a tree outside the school boundary. He was probably aged ten. His kite was stuck in between the dense branches. He reached the kite and shouted “Yeah!” looking down. There might be his friends standing under the tree.
“Jake, if he’d be having money, he’d be a student of our school then. Isn’t it?”
“No Jas, everyone has got life for different purposes. We can’t predict lives.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, that guy is happier than us. We spend our time with books. He doesn’t. He spends his time learning practical things. Suppose there comes a big tide washing away the houses in lower plains near the sea. We may or may not be able to take relevant measures. But that guy will survive for sure because he can climb up a tall tree. So we have no right to say that he’s wasting his life without books. Instead, they’re learning better than us.
“You’re right Jake. But how long can they live a comfortable life like us when they’re out of money? Today, money is a necessity of life.”
“Maybe you’re right. But Jas, I’ve always told you, money matters to those whose dreams are small enough to let them crave to fulfill them. We have a comfortable life, they own a satisfied one.”
I loved Jake’s interpretation of life, as we stepped into our classroom. The class started and I was still thinking of my incomplete poetry. Three classes, and it was time for recess. I took my diary out of my bag and placed it on the desk. He smiled looking at it and asked me to read out my incomplete poem. It read "
Dark clouds when cover up
The infinite blue sky
Gentle breeze blowing
Past the huge mountains
Dew drops on the soft leaves
Gathered moisture over the green grass
Babbling sound raising down the stream
As the water flows past thousand little stones
Sun setting at the west
Makes shaky images on the crystal-clear river
……………………………….
……………………………….
I looked at Jake. His eyes had a different spark. He was lost deep in thoughts. And all of a sudden, he whispered "

“And the one standing over there
Knows not the magical power
Which emerges out of the nature
Lively pictures when falls in front of two beautiful eyes…
I was stunned. How could he be so much perfect? He was the perfect friend I’ve ever met. I hugged him and he, unknown of this sudden hug, moved 2-3 steps back! I thanked him for completing my piece. We sat down, shared our lunch boxes while I asked him “Jake, I dream of being a fashion designer. What about you?”
"Umm… I dream of being a kind and helpful person serving my society.”
“But Jake, how come are you going to get paid out of it? Tell me your dream profession.”
“Dreams are not always great professions, my dear. Profession means money and dreams are your heart’s desiring ways to acquire satisfaction.”
For the first time in my life, I’d learnt such a lesson that perhaps very few people get to learn within their lifetime.
The bell rang and recess was over. Soon, we got back to our respective seats for the next three classes before a fifteen minutes’ break. Classes continued and so did the time. It was 6th period and time for a new teacher to enter. She was good looking with black rimmed spectacles. Her voice was sweet. She began asking each one of us about our names and hobbies. Each stood, explained and sat back. It was my turn then.
“I’m Jasmine. My best friend calls me Jas. And my hobbies are poetry writing, gardening and sketching aesthetic materials.”
She smiled at me. After five rows, it was Jake’s turn.
“I’m Jake. My hobbies include experimenting spheres of life and understanding real happiness of life.”
The teacher seemed puzzled. “Jake, can you define life?”
“Life is an ocean where some are happy with the presence of water, some are unhappy because the water is salty and few have faith that there are pearls deep beneath…”
There was complete silence for few seconds. The teacher broke the ice with her claps. We all followed her. I could see the sparkle in Jake’s eyes. He was different altogether. It was break time then for fifteen minutes. I went to Jake and had a chit-chat with him.
“Hey Jake, you completely rock man!”
“Oh, thanks miss beautiful!”
“I wanted to show you something Jake.”
And I handed him a blue coloured diary. It was the diary of his life lessons, his philosophies. He opened it slowly and was surprised to read his every philosophy penned by me. His eyes didn’t move off my diary. So I broke the silence. “I always note down your life lessons on a daily basis.” He then gave me a quick and gentle hug.