The Two Doors

The Two Doors

Lifes Lesson

The Life You Wished For

This is a story about the life we dream about, the life we imagine we could have, and the life we sometimes become so tired of that we wish we could simply walk away from it. Imagine that one morning you wake up and discover that you have been given an extraordinary opportunity. You have been offered the chance to exchange your present life for another life. Not a perfect life, because no such life exists, but a different life. In this new life, you have the house you always dreamed about, the money you once wished you had, the career you thought would finally make you happy, the freedom you always wanted, and the opportunity to travel to places you have only ever seen in photographs. Everything you once believed would make your life better is waiting for you. There is, however, one condition. If you accept this new life, you must leave your present life completely behind.

You cannot take your family with you. You cannot take your friends. You cannot take your memories. You cannot take the person who has stood beside you through the difficult years. You cannot take the dog that greets you when you walk through the door. You cannot take the photographs hanging on your walls, the old chair you have complained about for years, the familiar kitchen, the garden where you have spent countless hours, or even the little things that have irritated you for years but have somehow become part of what makes your life feel like home. You have to leave everything behind and step through the door into this new life alone. Suddenly, the decision that seemed so wonderful does not seem quite as simple.

Because when we dream about another life, we rarely imagine leaving everything behind. We imagine taking the best parts of our present life with us. We imagine having more money while still having the people we love. We imagine living in a beautiful house while still hearing the familiar voice of someone we love calling us from another room. We imagine traveling the world while still having somebody waiting for us when we return home.

We imagine being younger, healthier, stronger, more successful, less tired, less worried, and less burdened, but somehow we expect the people and memories that make our present life meaningful to remain exactly where they are. Unfortunately, life does not work that way. Every life comes as a complete package. The beautiful comes with the difficult. The laughter comes with the tears. The success comes with failure. The happiness comes with disappointment. The peaceful days come after the storms, and sometimes the storms arrive without warning.

There is another strange thing about being human. We are constantly looking forward to the next version of our lives while forgetting to live the version we are currently experiencing. When we are young, we cannot wait to become adults. When we become adults, we cannot wait to have more money, a better job, a bigger home or more freedom. We work hard and tell ourselves that one day, when we have achieved everything we are working toward, we will finally slow down and enjoy life. We wait for the weekend. Then we wait for the holiday. Then we wait for retirement. We keep telling ourselves that happiness is just around the next corner. Sometimes we spend so much of our lives waiting for tomorrow that we fail to notice that today is already happening.

Today is filled with things we often consider ordinary. A cup of coffee with someone we love. A conversation around the kitchen table. A familiar voice asking how your day was. A dog sleeping beside your feet. The sound of rain against the roof. A favorite chair. A meal shared with family. A telephone call from someone you have not heard from in a while. The sound of somebody laughing in the next room. A quiet evening when nothing particularly exciting happens. We rarely stop and think that these ordinary moments are actually pieces of our lives that can never be repeated. We call them normal because they happen so often. But there will come a time when normal becomes precious.

There may come a day when you would give almost anything to hear a voice you once heard every morning. You may wish you could sit once again in the room you once thought was too small. You may wish you could have one more conversation with someone whose arguments used to irritate you. You may wish you could hear the footsteps of somebody who is no longer walking through your home. You may wish you could return to an ordinary Tuesday that you barely noticed when you were living it. That is one of life's cruelest lessons. We often recognize the value of something only after it has become a memory. While we are living it, we complain about it, rush through it, or barely notice it. Once it is gone, we realizehow valuable it really was.

This does not mean we should stop dreaming. We should dream. We should dream as big as our hearts allow. We should want more from life. We should work toward better circumstances, chase our ambitions, travel, build businesses, create things, fall in love, learn new skills and become the person we believe we are capable of becoming. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a better life. There is nothing wrong with looking at your circumstances and saying, "I want something different." Growth is part of being alive. But there is a danger in believing that happiness is always waiting somewhere else.

If you spend your entire life believing that happiness will begin when you finally get there, you may spend your entire life missing what is happening here. You may spend years believing that you will be happy when you have more money, only to discover that money brought different problems. You may believe that a bigger house will make you happier, only to discover that a house is simply walls without the right people inside it.

You may believe that retirement will finally give you peace, only to discover that time becomes incredibly valuable when you suddenly have more of it than you know what to do with. You may believe that changing everything will solve everything, only to discover that you carried yourself into the new life and brought many of the same fears, memories and worries with you.

Perhaps the real question is not, "What would I change about my life?" Perhaps the better question is, "What would I miss if my life changed tomorrow?" What would you miss? Who would you miss? Which familiar sounds would suddenly become precious? Which irritating little habits would you secretly wish you could hear again? Which places would you suddenly realize were never just places? Which people would you suddenly understand were not simply part of your life, but part of what made your life yours? Sometimes we spend so much energy focusing on what is missing that we fail to recognize what is already there.

Most of us have dreams that never came true. Some dreams disappeared because circumstances changed. Some disappeared because we made mistakes. Some disappeared because other people made decisions that affected our lives. Some simply became impossible as time passed. And that can hurt. It is perfectly human to look back and wonder what life might have been like if we had made different choices. What if we had taken that opportunity? What if we had stayed in that relationship? What if we had moved to another country? What if we had taken that job? What if we had followed that dream when we were younger? The list of "what ifs" can become endless. But there is a point where looking backward stops teaching us and starts stealing from the present.

You have survived things that the younger version of you never believed you would survive. You have walked through difficult days that you once thought would break you. You have made mistakes. You have lost people. You have been disappointed. You have probably disappointed others. You have made decisions you wish you could change. You have experienced days when you wondered how you were going to continue. Yet here you are. Perhaps your life does not look exactly like the life you imagined when you were younger, but that does not mean it has no value. A life does not have to be perfect to be meaningful.

Sometimes the very things we desperately wanted to escape become the experiences that teach us the most. Some difficult years teach us patience. Some failures teach us humility. Some losses teach us how precious people really are. Some disappointments teach us that not everything we want is necessarily what we need. Some closed doors force us to find another road. Some people leave our lives and make space for people we would never have met otherwise. Some painful experiences become lessons that we eventually use to help somebody else who is walking through the same darkness.

So imagine that mysterious door is standing in front of you again. Behind it is the life you always dreamed about. Everything is there. The money. The success. The house. The adventures. The freedom. The recognition. The perfect circumstances. Everything you once believed you needed to finally be happy is waiting on the other side. You reach for the handle, ready to open it, and then someone asks you one final question: "Are you willing to leave everything you have now behind?" Suddenly, you stop. You think about the people. You think about the memories. You think about the laughter and the arguments. You think about the difficult years and the beautiful years. You think about all the ordinary days that once seemed unimportant.

Perhaps, for the first time, you realize that your life contains far more value than you have been giving it credit for.

Perhaps the life we dream about is not always about having more. Perhaps sometimes it is about finally understanding that we already have enough of the things that matter most. Enough love. Enough memories. Enough people who care. Enough experiences to have shaped us. Enough scars to remind us that we survived. Enough laughter to remember that life was not always darkness. Enough courage to continue. Enough wisdom to understand that no life is perfect. And enough gratitude to recognise that even an imperfect life can still be a beautiful life.

The greatest dream may not be getting everything we ever wished for. Perhaps the greatest dream is reaching the end of our journey and being able to look back and say, "It was not perfect. It was not always easy. There were times I wanted to run away from it all. There were things I wish I could change. There were people I lost and moments I will never get back. There were dreams that never came true. But I lived. I loved. I laughed. I cried. I made mistakes. I learned. I got back up. I kept going. And somehow, through all of it, I made a life that was mine."

So before you wish your life away because it is not the life you once imagined, stop for a moment and look around you. Look at the people. Look at your home. Look at the things you have collected over the years. Listen to the familiar sounds. Look at the person sitting beside you. Look at the animal sleeping peacefully nearby. Look at the photographs that tell stories you have almost forgotten. Think about the people who would love to have just one more day with the things you currently take for granted. Maybe this is not the life you once dreamed about.

Maybe there are still dreams waiting to be fulfilled. Maybe there are things you genuinely need to change. If so, change them. There is still tomorrow. There are still roads you have not traveled and dreams worth chasing.

But while you are chasing tomorrow, do not throw away today. Because one day, tomorrow will become yesterday. The future you are waiting for will eventually become the past you remember. And you may discover that the life you spent so much time wishing would change was actually filled with moments you would later give anything to experience just one more time.

Dream about tomorrow. Learn from yesterday. But live today. Because one day, the ordinary life you are living right now may become the extraordinary memory you would give anything to have back. And perhaps that is the greatest lesson of all: you do not have to have the life you always dreamed about to appreciate the life you have. Sometimes, the life you have right now is somebody else's dream. And sometimes, the greatest happiness does not come from finally getting everything we wanted.

It comes from finally recognizing the value of what we already have.....

Composed and Created by: VETERAN DSF

Life Coach, Author, Novelist, Writer, & Poet

Marius F Robbertze

AKA (MFR ™) ©®

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