“Even the tragic and negative aspects of life, such as unavoidable suffering, can be turned into a human achievement by the attitude which a man adopts towards his predicament…to transform despair into triumph”.

“I for one am convinced that if there is such a thing as Heaven, and if Heaven ever accepts a prayer, it will hide this behind a sequencce of natural facts.”

— Holocaust survivor Victor E. Frankl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl in his book ‘The Will to Meaning – Finding Purpose in Life’ that I’m currently reading.

I first read and reread his autobiographical ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, several years back – a best-selling book, based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps.

Saturday evening thoughts…There are those of us who at any given time are either just living life steeped in all of its woes or else rejoicing and living it in joy. So we cannot understand how some who seem to be in troubles and worries, as we look at them from our apparently self assured smug towers are seen to be enjoying themselves. We just assume they are always faking their enjoyment and joy. Aren’t they facing this or that problem.

Perhaps even as we look down at them from our smug glass towers, they can look up to see our inherent jealousies and insecurities from a lack of purpose and meaning or a life’s path that doesn’t satisfy their souls craving for the spotlight, more so from a lack of knowledgeable reading and thinking. Creative pursuits heal and elevate the soul.

We writers, poets and authors thrive on our troubles and worries and also enjoy every moment of life – the good, the bad and the ugly, as they are all the fodder for our writing and dreams. So we laugh and cry, smile and snarl, all of it simultaneously. The more sad, scared or despondent I feel, even if I feel my world is crashing on me – people I loved, trusted and gave my soul to betray and leave me, I will dress up and go meet the world chin up. They can take everything away from me but not the fight in me…

I don’t wait for the high tide to recede to jump and play in the waves of life.

Please read Victor Frankl’s first book and you will make sense of what I’m saying. He’s a qualified psychiatrist.

A few random, rough, uncut lines I wrote few years back in 2016 on my blog but I didn’t add to my last two poetry book manuscripts…found them while reading Victor Frankl’s books I can totally relate to – especially his above lines that are my life’s motto and I’ve elaborated in all of my books before reading his. His books give me a renewed confidence in my own positive thinking and purpose in life.

Adding the above to the post below…

*****

Posted on 30th July 2016.

‘My Search for Meaning’

Poetry is such a farce – do you agree:

It usually masks what hurts most –

that which you cannot dare

to share with the world.

You can hide behind nature:

cry in the rain or laugh through pain –

all the while covering what

is really there to unchain.

Poem after poem you write

In praise of nature or the divine:

When in your heart you struggle

To dislodge arrows that wrench.

On a day I accidentally find online

I don’t have a friend, let alone a spouse:

I wake up at five to extol my soul’s

harmonious sanctum no clamour can defy.

Sister, mother, no one cares for months

If I’m dead or alive – also friends I lose

by the dozens, my husband they eulogise:

at dawn, to solitary enchantment I chime.

For days, when lone hill walks and sunlight

cannot harness my soul’s restlessness –

I can bind them in my deluge of photos,

climb the tallest mountain, write on suicide.

— Shuvashree/ 30th June 2016.

#poet #poetry #novelist #authorlife #booklover #books #life #lifeanddeath #victorfrankl #booklover #meaningoflife

shuvashreeghosh.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/poetry-is-such-a-farce-do-you-agree/