“What if I were this or that…what if it was turned this way…if only…”

These are the few phrases that started my statements when I continued my self-rehabilitation. In a beautiful Sunday evening, after a night of beer and skittles, I found myself momentarily free from the world’s burden. I stood like I never had those puzzling moments. Once, I was free. For once, I had a time for myself. However, problems can never be betrayed. You cannot escape from them. They’ve got to be faced and solved. So much for the problems, I have a new view today. This article would surely draw a crowd because for the first time, I put into writing the many questions revolving around human life. And that’s not only my personal side but it is also others’ too.

Human complexities—these are the usual enemies of the body and soul. Complexities come in different forms. They may be through life’s questions which seem unanswerable. These are human questions that need pain before they can be answered.

Complexities also come in the many ironies of life. For example, good friends of mine whose names I choose to keep in the dark are presently experiencing this. Love and charisma are both present in them yet they have to give in to the call of giving up because of their family decisions. Their complexity is found not from their own selves but in another party which is obviously of heavier weight. They had to bear the difficulty of losing love all at the expense of their own happiness and in favor of their families. When tears fell down each other’s eyes and when I saw those nostalgic hugs, I wasn’t able to hold myself but breathe deeply for such a selfless love I witnessed. They agreed, they were both in crossroads but they promised, they both shall meet again.

This would read familiar to you: a piece of life’s daily happenings that you never ever dream of suddenly appears right at your doorstep. Familiar? I am referring to those life’s difficulties that have become your phobia and have entered into your path like a curse or something.

Lately, when I was distributing short stories to my fourth year students for them to analyze, I was reminded of Oscar Wilde’s work, The Happy Prince and found myself soaked in the sweet message of it. The story told of a huge statue of a Prince towering over the entire city. it was a statue embedded with precious stones like ruby and was covered by leaves made of precious elements. No wonder it was called the Happy Prince. But the prince wasn’t happy at all. He couldn’t dare to look at the entire city with suffering mortals just to die of complexities. With the help of a swallow, all the precious stones around the prince’s body were distributed to those in need. It was in a winter day and time came when the prince’s body finally gave up and the little bird’s health didn’t make it, both died. When God came into the city, He commanded His angels to look for the most precious things in that city. The angels brought the prince’s cracked heart and the bird’s dead body.

Lesson time: the prince’s state of sadness was his complexity. He was in a crossroad of enjoying his entire being and giving his aid to those in need. Right at the time he bore his difficulty, he did something about it that made him glorious. This may be applicable to all of us. Our difficulties can our instruments of love and charity. I have no concrete example my dear friends but surely, as what Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, Pope John Paul II and many others did, we can also make our difficulties our ticket to better living. This is the primal reason why we should not question everything that comes along our path because each single leaf along our way is a part and parcel of the wonderful journey we are traveling. No doubt about it, religious people remind us from time to time: everything has a purpose. Our complexities have purposes. They may not be at hand now but they will come, in God’s perfect time.

To end, care for another food for the soul? Take this: Life is a series of choices; what to do, where to go, when to leave, etc. Life, complex as it is, is a series of choices. What will you choose: your fall or your glory? Get up; never let life’s complexities deprive you of the sweets it offers.