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Live the life, not the lifestyle....

I read a simple little sentence recently : Live the life, not the lifestyle. Outwardly, this is a very simple sentence that sounds very intelligent and all, but really, it seems to have so much of meaning hidden that I just couldn't stop myself from jotting down my thoughts on its manifold deep ramifications.

How many times have we heard our elders say "such was not the case in our times..." Why, even we tell our kids so many times, "you are lucky, you know; things were much different when we were young..." What does this tell us? Times change....so do circumstances. What is there today may not be tomorrow, and what was yesterday, might have disappeared somewhere down the line...without us even noticing what happened...
Now, if you are moving to better times from trying ones, then your journey is always a happpy one; but unfortunately, if you are moving from good times to bad (this has nothing to do with the king of good times, mind you) then things can get tricky for you. Take the story of Cinderella, for example. A true blue, rags to riches story. The girl must have been only too happy to jump into the palace life with Prince Charming. But look at Snow White, how much of cooking and cleaning she had to do staying with the dwarfs! Why go abroad, look at our own Sita, from the Ramayana, or Draupadi from the Mahabharata.....Or take the case of Ram and Laxmana, the princes of Ayodhya, or the Pandavas of Hastinapur....Kings and Queens and princes and princesses....all of them used to all the riches of the world. But circumstances threw them a curve ball that would've been difficult for anyone to manage. But they did, and how!    

This is what intrigues me, the ability to sustain, no matter what. Stand like a rock, solid, be it high tide or low tide. There is a saying, 'when the going gets tough, the tough get going' and this is what is a sign of perseverance. Not all can do this. Most fail. But what is it that does not make those others fail? What was special about these people who could stand tall despite the circumstances surrounding them..? They were all good at heart, courageous....but most of all, they lived their lives...as wives...mothers.....husbands, kings......good people.....and not their lifestyles as princesses and queens and kings......
They lived the life, not their lifestyle! 

How many people we see in real life today who are not able to take their down fall; while so many others, who stand up each and every time they are knocked down? It is not possible for us to ask that life never knock us down; but what we can ask for is that we have enough strength to stand up again...and again....and again! So pray ask for life.....lifestyles will change with time...what matters is your life, as you know it.  
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