Obstacles

You ever had one of those days that started out really badly and got progressively worse. and the more you wish it would end, the more it just stretched on and on and you have to ask yourself "What did I do to deserve this?"

The year after I graduated from college I stayed in Miami to get some experience working in the field of aviation. The industry there is much more vast than it is at home in Trinidad and I thought the experience would do me some good. My then girlfriend didn't stay on with me. She had decided to return home. The thing is this was only six months into our relationship.

The following year was the hardest of our lives...at that time. Phone calls were expensive but since she didn't have a high speed connection at home phone calls were all we had. When she did get the interned connection we would have to schedule times to meet each other online which didn't always work out because of my work hours. We hated the fact that we were so far apart and many a tear were shed. At times we thought it made no sense continuing the relationship and talked about ending it but neither of us wanted to. She once came visit me in Miami and it was the time of our lives but after that week was over I had to watch her leave at MIA again and the pain was worse than before. Eventually I came back home to Trinidad and we thought that our suffering was over. Surely we could be together now that we both live on the same little island. But sometimes this proved to be worse than the 1600 miles of ocean that had previously separated us.

During our time back in Trinidad we had to face many obstacles but what we realized was the year we spent apart had built our relationship up to the point where it was strong enough to withstand those obstacles. We had learned to communicate very well because of all the practice we got talking with each other over the internet. We had learned to trust each other because neither of us could see what the other was doing. We had learned to be faithful to each other because neither of us want to betray the other's trust. We learned to love each other because no matter what obstacle we faced we faced it together.

When we got married in April of 2009 we had an incredibly strong relationship built on a foundation that was laid during that year spent apart. Even though it was horribly long and painful it strenghtened our relationship so that it would be able to withstand any obstacle we may face. Now,when we look back at that year we thank God for the lessons learnt and we apply them daily in our new life together.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is my life all about?

I think its very simple: we were born to help others by doing what we love doing.

Today my wife started her brand new job. She quit her well paying old job and took a month to decide what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. It wasn't too hard for her to decide what to do but what took so long was convincing herself that it was the right thing to do since it wouldn't pay very much.

I've spent all my adult life trying to accomplish one thing which I was blessed to have done pretty early in life. As long as I have known myself, I have wanted to fly and I have been fortunate enough to have achieved that dream. I am still really unhappy though but today for the first time I think I've figured out why. I believe that we are all here for one and the same reason, to help each other, and we each have our uniquee way that we can do this. I think that until I use my gift to help someone else I've will not fully experience in its totality, joy that flying can bring me.

I think that when we are not fulfilling our purpose it brings us the most unhappiness we can ever experience. We force ourselves to sit in traffic on our way to jobs that we hate. We monotonously perform tasks we abhor and interact with equally unhappy people who can't seem to find their own happiness either. Day in and day out we go deeper into the void of despair and the sad thing is most people accept this existence as life but that couldn't be further from the truth. Life is to be experienced not spectated.

When God created the earth, I think everyone was happy because everyone was fulfilling their purpose. Adam never complained about tending to the garden and Eve never complained about helping him. Unhappiness only came in when they acted on the desire to abandon their purpose and assume someone else's role. The serpent told them they could be like God and suddenly their purpose was too small for them. You see, in a way we all are kind of like Adam and Eve. We see the guy with the nice house and the nice car and we decide that we want that and we want it now, but do those things really make us happy? Now don't get me wrong, nothing is wrong with wanting or having nice things, but can you really say that you are happy being consumed by desire, going to work day in and day out so that you can afford material nicities?

My wife and I survived for an entire month with no jobs while we both chased our dreams and we never went hungry and we've never been happier. Don't let anyone or anything stop you from doing what is in our soul, that one thing you would do for the rest of your life even if you never earned another cent. I truly believe that if you can help someone by doing what you love, you'd have answered the questions at the top of this page.