There have been times in my life when I feel that nothing has worked out as per my plan, and at others it seems that the gods have aligned themselves, in my favor. The capricious nature of our existence, changes from day to day, as the universe is vast and the forces of nature working with us, are often far beyond our control. We can only do our karma and trudge on, hoping that we are marching in the right direction to our goal. Our goals are sometime opaque, our companions unruly, and our circumstances strained, to meet them.

Daily distractions keep us back from realizing our true nature, and we lose focus on what we need to do. Then one day you find that 10 years have gone and you are no closer to achieving the goals, which you had set for yourself. At that moment of realization it is important not to give up on the goal, but rather to realign your resources, to try and achieve it. It is easy to give up and blame life and our circumstances and say to oneself, that it was just not meant to be. It is harder to say that life has not given me what I deserve, and I must strive harder to turn it around. We are never alone and the universal powers that surround us, are there for us to harness to our will.

When all hope is lost and we are in the doldrums of inaction, it is harder to gather one’s inner strength and move forward again. It is at those critical times that we must listen to our inner voice and ensure we add the right fuel, to our withering flame. The goal we have set is always within our reach and we just have to believe in ourselves, and reinvigorate ourselves to proceed to it. Faith in oneself is the last frontier, and those of us who light this flame; will find that the goal is already behind us, and new horizons have opened up to us. In the end we will realize that there is no lack of opportunities, there is only the lack of our personal will, to make them ours.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. -Edmund Hillary, mountaineer and explorer (20 Jul 1919-2008)