A Work in Progress

As I settle into my daytime job, I realise that one of the things I relish most in life is meeting and existing alongside people. Of course, not just random or irrelevant people but in a context where I am building relationships with others who are, more often than not, so different from me. I say that and yet I know human similarities are usually greater than the differences because at the core of every normal person is basic decency, respect and compassion – the qualities that supercede the individual variations between us.

We all experience happiness, sorrow, pain, anger, fear and so much more. The common human experience is what binds us together – as it should. Sometimes I think of my workplace as a microcosm of what should be going on in the greater world: an example of mutual tolerance, respect and teamwork. Alhamdulillah, that’s a huge blessing as no job is worthwhile if the people you work with are the most difficult to be amongst. And all I say about them, I hope they reciprocate about me too.

I don’t seek to climb the career ladder at this stage of my life. In fact, I’d rather step off. That’s not to say I want to jump at the first opportunity to stop working altogether. No. For me, working outside of my home with others, is my key to sanity. I can have real conversations with others and not through a virtual medium. The nuances in speech and body language are important cues to navigate and from which we all learn our social skills. I recall working from home during Covid and feeling that if I had died at home, it wouldn’t have made any difference to anyone outside. Not that my eventual passing will make a difference to many people’s lives anyway. It’s inevitable that life has to continue for others long after one individual passes away. But, with my desire for human interaction on a daily basis, I knew that the online world, with its emotionless and mechanical exchanges, was not going to be a permanent fit for me at all.

The mention of death in my writing here isn’t meant to be a depressing thought. It actually is the one impetus that motivates me to get the most out of life as much as possible. As I write, in the past few days (including just today) I have come to learn about the passing of several people in my own life. It’s a reminder that my own time in this world is becoming increasingly limited. So, I want to be out there and doing things which I can do whilst I have the health, time and energy. In my daily interactions with others I want to give and take away things from this life. But not in a way which is just a form of selfish accumulation. I want all of those things to help make me better prepared for what lies ahead beyond this temporal existence, inshaAllah.