Live in Moments this February

January has passed. 5 weeks, 31 days, 744 hours, 44,640 minutes, and 2,678,400 seconds of January have gone by. 2019 just grew a month older. If I asked you what you were doing on the 588^th hour of January or on the 7865^th minute, you probably would not remember. Neither do I. But if I asked you, what was your happiest or the saddest moment in January, I’m sure you’d know what to say. That’s because we do not live in weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds. We live in moments. And in the moments in which we are truly alive, those moments live with us forever.

As we slide open the doors to the second month of the calendar, let’s walk hand in hand with hope and faith even if our feet are weary. I will not use any marketing gimmicks to sell off February as a month of love. I’ll tell you why. February is the shortest month and how can the celebration of love be so short. Shouldn’t love be celebrated all life long? Like other important things in life, love can only be lived in moments and does not require a month with days labelled as Valentines’ Day, Hug Day, etc. etc. to prove its worth in our lives. Because love is the only thing that makes this world more liveable and tolerable amidst everything that we are served on the blaring news channels, and the white and black fonts of newspapers along with our morning coffee.

Now, when I say love I do not mean only the romantic love. I am talking about all kinds of love here. Love that you feel for a kind stranger, a helpful colleague, or a loyal friend. Love that manifests itself in small acts of kindness, respect, joking around with a friend, teasing a colleague, leaving a larger piece of cake for your roommate and so on. Teddies or chocolates can never be a mirror to someone’s heart. They can never reflect in entirety what someone feels. But then, neither can anything else. Not even Taj Mahal. In time, material objects become suspended as a proof that someone once proclaimed their love but if they loved with their whole heart and soul always remains a question unanswered. Probably even to them.

I have a theory that we all have a heart in our hearts. And this heart of the heart is a turbulent place and often hidden from our conscious self. There are such strong winds of misplaced feelings and tumultuous storms of regrets raging here that we unconsciously tuck it away in a distant corner of our minds hoping that we never have to face it. But inevitably we have to face it sooner or later. We all have those moments when we feel sad for no reason at all. That’s when our heart of heart is reminding us of its existence within us that we keep on ignoring. And this is how we keep living a restless life; a life full of unanswered questions about our feelings; a life where it becomes difficult to know whether we are really in love with a person or just feel a kind of infatuation or attachment towards them.

And that gap is utilised by the marketing gimmicks that try to sell their products and services by portraying February as a month of professing your love. Fall for these marketing strategies or not, but remember your heart of heart and remember that love is something much more than what could be contained in Teddy, Chocolate or February. Live in moments. Love in moments.

If you’re planning a trip to live and love in moments away from your home this February, you can take your pick from the following destinations:

• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Maui, Hawaii
• Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
• Park City, Utah
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Abisko, Sweden
• Venice, Italy
• Beijing, China
• Goa, India
• Cape Town, South Africa