Life is a journey and there are lessons to learn along as we travel the highway of life. These lessons are meant to guide us in finding our purposes while connecting us to our destinies. Earlier on this subject, we saw how circumstances can lead to finding purpose in life as exemplified by my personal experiences. The story below about a dear friend's experiences are well in line to teach us more about how the wind of life leads a man to find fulfillment and purpose in life. I, therefore, urge you to read with patience and thoughtfulness as we follow our dear friend in discovering his purpose in life.
January was winning out and Jackson still did not find any job. It's been almost two months now since he regained his freedom from a prison cell where he spent the past fifteen years. Since his return from prison, things have been terribly hard for him with no place to call home and no job to earn a living. He was determined to find a job with his General certificate in Education, but it seems no one was willing to employ him, and considering the fact that he is an ex-convict made it seems as though the world has rejected him. At least so he thought. For three months, he trecked from street to street in search of a job where to find a means to furnish his famish soul while returning at night to a particular spot under the bridge to pass the night. Now he was hungry and angry. Life became so worthless to him that he wished he was dead. Everything angered him so much that he easily took offense at everyone's conduct even though they weren't offensive. Various thoughts run through his mind with suicide and robbery on top of the list. After a deliberate thought on all that was going on in his mind Jackson chose to take his life, suicide was more preferable. He should end his tale of sorrows, death seems preferable to a miserable life. He made up his mind and nothing stopping him.
In the evening of the same day, he took a jute rope and set out seeking a perfect location to carry out his action. He found a garden nearby quite isolated, a perfect place to bid the unkind world goodbye. He located a grape tree almost at the far end of the garden near a fence separating the garden from a bread factory. He quietly tired the jute rope to a branch of the grape tree and brought out a pen and a paper to scribble a few lines.
"I got so fed up I know there's no hope for me, maybe there is peace at the other end. The world is hostile and life is poisonous. It pains me, but I must say adieu. I must say okinbue to this odious world of unequal opportunities.
Jackson Okpaifoh"
While he was writing a mysterious aura pervaded the atmosphere around the garden. The place was so solemn and everything in the garden seemed to make a common appeal to him 'Don't do it!' he didn't mind at all. So he climbed the stool that he has placed on the ground like an elevator. He tried to put his head into the noose of the rope, but the rope as if it knew what he was doing swung off refusing to round in his neck. Notwithstanding he dragged the rope back and adjusted it to his neck. Closing his eyes, for the first time since he got imprisoned about fifteen years ago, he decided to say a prayer.
"God if you really exist and are not yet dead or too old to act, accept my goddamn soul in your goddamn paradise"
He opened his eyes slowly and before he kicked off the stool he decided to take a look around the garden for the last time. Then for no reason what he saw aroused his curiosity, something that has since remain a psychic and wellspring of hope and encouragement to him.
Struggling on a not too smoothly plastered fence opposite his view was a lizard, which continuously failed in an attempt at climbing to the top of the fence. It climbed and fell, climbed, and fell again. It continues climbing and felling but kept its determination to reach the top of the fence. Each time it fell it looks around and rather than blaming its ill-luck as humans commonly do, it nodded its head, congratulating itself since there was no one to congratulate it. The poor lizard having neither certificate nor degree knew naturally the power of patience, courage, and hope in life endeavor. Jackson watched this drama with rapt interest, a wave of sympathy for the poor lizard flushed through him and tears kept rolling down his cheeks as he compares himself to the lizard that was panting heavily and drowsily on the ground. The lizard stopped in its desperate attempt at climbing the fence for a while as though to summon enough strength and think on how best to climb the fence. After a while, it made up its mind to try again. This time it noticed a coarse edge on a near side of the fence and climbed easily from that end to the top successfully.
On reaching the top, the lizard congratulates itself once more nodding. Jackson was bemused about this discovery. He wondered how the so-called lower animals that are alleged not to have the power of reasoning were becoming rational than the self-acclaimed higher breeds called homo sapiens. The coinage, patience, and hope of the irrational lizard, Jackson thought are enough to give hope to continue living. Fidgeting, Jackson disengaged the rope from his neck and descended from the stool. He decided to return home to act upon the lesson the poor lizard has taught him, but as he came down he sat down on the stool and perused his suicide note again. He could see a contrast of himself between now and before attempting the failed suicide mission. He went home with resolve and determination to keep fighting until life hands him what he desires.
Indeed the wind of life keeps following us at every stage of our lives and only the thoughtful and observant can hear the direction of the wind. The trials and anguish that you see today are not meant to kill you but to act as a ladder to your desire Haven. Suicide is not an option.
Cheers!
Wonderful writing, keep it up