A Year Off

Wouldn’t that be something? To have the luxury of signing out of reality and swan off into the sunset and just do me! Unfortunately, not many of us can afford to live in reverie except in our dreams and so the monotony of routine has to be maintained…

As much as I wouldn’t want to rely on anyone totally to maintain my lifestyle anyway, I do hope that my sons will ease my load a bit when they become fully-fledged working adults. They have promised as much. Although I don’t demand that from them, I do expect a reciprocal gesture of support when they are able to do so one day, inshaAllah.

But would I retreat or retire for a year? Probably not. The guilt of not doing any paid work wouldn’t allow me to relax in complete abandon. To be honest, I wouldn’t like the life of a princess anyway. The idea has never sat comfortably with me. Even as a kid, when I lived in a developing nation in Asia, I recall growing up in a neighbourhood where we lived without wanting of any material things and yet feeling strangely uneasy at the juxtaposition of others’ poverty and our own wealth. Our neighbours were acutely poor and lived in a makeshift shack. Whilst I didn’t process it much at the time, I believe the retrospective reflection of all that had a lifelong impact on me and shaped my outlook on life thereafter.

For that reason, I have ever since been determined to help raise others out of a deprived state and alleviate their misery. Whether that be through formal charity work or a small random gesture, I hope to continue this quiet mission.

So, taking a year off would be used to do more of that. I’d hope in that time to try to take up my writing ambitions more seriously. I have long had a secret desire to refashion and develop my blog into a cathartic book of self-help for my readers in the hope it will have far-reaching positive outcomes both in terms of its breadth and depth. (If anyone reading my blog has a few constructive suggestions, I am all ears!) As a follow-up activity, I would love to be invited to talk to others in the hope of helping them heal and rebuild their lives. Even to get them to set out on that journey would be good enough!

In the meantime, I pray that this blog is already doing that and more. If I can help positively impact even one life, then every word I have written would have been well worth it. Maybe, even without my own version of a gap year, I will muster the courage and strength to compile a book and publish in wider circles. After all, if something needs to be done, it is a busy person who often is the one who accomplishes it.