Shieuli...

 Her life has been short. Yet, she had no regrets. She knew she had just a few more hours……her last night, before going back into the womb of the Mother Earth……the darkness that gives rise to life…..where birth takes place…..life begins, and strangely, where life ends too.

“What happens after life ends?”, She wondered. Though there was no reply, she began imagining things. She would be forgotten, perhaps. But she would be leaving behind her legacy…a part of her soul….her life’s only work…a tiny reminder that perhaps there is life after death. She smiled, knowing that her job has been done, and time would take care of the rest.

The cool evening wind rushed past her. She smiled, as she let the zephyr carry her ecstasy near and far. So what if she would be leaving soon……this was the moment to live…..to smile…….to spread all the love she had. She was just another simple artwork in the huge canvas called the Universe. There was nothing special about her, and she liked it that way……unsung, unnoticed, unappraised…..and yet they say that she had the magic to enchant the October wind, and mesmerize anyone who would come nearby. She laughed.

“I am no magical. I am just blessed….and this blessing is all that I have, to share.”

She looked at the dark sky, illuminated with little sequins of stars. As a child, she had an odd fondness, a sense of longing for them. White…pristine…..five pointed……..she had always wanted to be like them.

“Someday, when you grow up, you would look exactly like them….like a star that has landed onto the Earth, into my lap. White…..pristine……five pointed……..”, Her mother assured her, lulling her back to sleep.

Now that she had bloomed up, she had always wanted to ask if she truly looked like them, just as her mother had told. She had found no answer. She didn’t even expect one. Being a mother was never easy…….and she had come to realise it recently.

She had no idea of how much time had passed. Probably the night was on the verge of ending. Probably it was almost time for her to let go. The Moon yawned, tired of waiting all the night amidst the stars…….the stars that never understood her pain……her compulsion……her exhaustion. All they could do was to envy her. Little did they know that the same light that soothed the Heavens and the Earth was filled with imperfection and unshed tears. She looked down at the little star that blissfully adorned the Earth. White…..pristine……..five pointed……. An irresistible urge to speak to her filled the Moon’s heart with an urgency to tiptoe down the horizon.

…..

“Its time…..”, She sighed looking up at the tinge of pink and golden that has slowly started to paint the eastern horizon. She shuddered. Was it out of fear?? Was it the cold chilly wind that has suddenly started seeming cruel, hell bent on taking her away….sweeping her off from the little anchor she had?? Why was her face suddenly seeming wet??? Was it the dewdrops, or her tears?? Was she crying?? But why?? She had no answer….

And suddenly, she felt a pang of longing….a longing, that she had never felt before, a longing that only a mother could feel for her child before taking the final leave from her piece of soul, knowing that they would never meet again. She let go of herself, and let the wind carry her to where she had come from. And her soul looked back for the last time at her lifeless body, resting peacefully over the dried leaves. Her life has been completed…..her job has been done…….and it was time for her to walk away from the mortal Earth.

“Wait….”

A voice called her back from near the horizon. It was the Moon.

“I have been watching you for the entire night. You look just like a star with those five beautiful white petals……simple, graceful…and yet, you remained unnoticed by most. Even then you had no complaints. And now that you are leaving your world, you don’t seem to have any regrets….”

“May be because I have accepted life as it is. The day we learn to accept our lives, our journeys and our purpose of existence, things become simpler. They day we learn to accept our little blessings instead of cribbing over what could have been and complain about what more is lacking…we learn to let go of regrets. Happiness is an inside thing….it comes from within. Yet, strangely…..we end up searching for happiness in places where it doesn’t even exist….”

The Moon remained silent, as if, contemplating her words. She prepared to leave, when the Moon began to speak again.

“Who are you??”

“They call me ‘Shieuli’..”

“What does that mean???”

“I don’t know…….may be, it means ‘the flower of sorrow’…….”, She smiled, as the dew drops on her face glistened like diamonds in the first rays of the breaking dawn……

(The End)