How to Craft Your Life as a Masterpiece?

Let’s create an impactful story that remains alive even after our last breath

A writer or an artist relentlessly spends nights after nights, days after days, and forgets to eat, bath, or even sleep on time to produce a masterpiece. The entire world of a passionate artist revolves around preparing the craft as perfect art as possible.

I am sure most of us are thrilled to imagine our creative works will exist in the world even after our death.

We can nurture that dream of leaving meaningful footprints to reignite our passion for our work.

But a question popped up in my mind — do we ever pay the necessary attention to shape ourselves as better people? We give our best shot to have a dream job, career, to make our name and fame, etc. Apart from that, are we giving our best to grow as a person?

Our work, success, wealth does not define us. These are like delicious fruits while we are the tree or the entire jungle.

“You may hike through a jungle and find a flawless piece of fruit hanging from a tree. This fruit is akin to Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A person is not so small as this, they are the tree — or the jungle itself” — Martin Vidal.

But do we ever think about how we will be remembered as a person when we leave the world?

I was thinking about a relative of mine who left his good deeds in this world. His good deeds keep him alive in our memories even after many years of his death. His graceful words, kind acts, the pure soul have created a permanent place in our hearts. It’s not the success, name, and fame that have kept him alive, its only and only his good deeds.

How Can You Weave a Meaningful Life?

We are not perfect, and that is okay.

We only have to be honest about who we are and our genuine intention to make us better. If we are honest with ourselves, we will feel the urge to do justice with our souls.

I think our good deeds are the feed for our soul.

Do the small acts of kindness and feel your soul is blooming and smiling.

We don’t have to do big things to nourish our souls.

Every night, a respected 62 years old man feed the street child secretly. I can see the sparkles in his eyes, the smell of peace in his breath. He is a happy soul, and his happiness is contagious.

Every winter, we donate warm clothes for the underprivileged that bring us a bundle of joy to our family.

Sometimes our smile can give someone relief. Every one of us has different stories; we don’t know how people are struggling internally. If our nice words and smile can give someone a bit of help, what’s wrong with that?

Sometimes giving time can be a wonderful gift for others. My mom-in-law is a retired banker who is a bookworm. She is fond of reciting poems and reading various novels and expects us to listen to her. When I give time to her, I can see her face lit up.

Giving time to the lonely soul is also a wonderful gift we can offer.

These are some simple examples of acts of kindness that create beautiful moments.

There will be ups and downs, positive and negative, beauty and beast in our story line of lives. That’s fine. But we have to be careful enough so that our life story overall sets a positive tone and leaves a positive footprint. All it matters is our good intention and sincere act driven by our pure soul.

Leave Your Footprint in this Mortal World

Once upon a time, there was a fisherman named Dinesh, who lived from hand to mouth. One night, he was on the way to returning home with only a loaf of bread. He saw a distressed widow with her small kids begging for help. His heart meltdown, seeing them starve, and he gave that bread without thinking for his own family.

The child smiled, and the woman started weeping gratitude.

Dinesh went home with an empty hand that night. A few days later, a surprising thing happened to him; he got a good amount of wealth from a relative as the deceased had no close heirs.

As luck favors, Dinesh became one of the richest men in his village within a few years. Gradually, he turned arrogant, selfish, and dishonest with his increasing wealth. To show off his generosity, he started to donate money among the villagers.

One night, he saw a dream of Judgment Day, and names were being called out to measure the good and bad deeds.

His turn came, and angels put his evil deeds against his good ones.

His evil deeds were as heavy as a mountain and his good deeds as light as a bundle of cotton. He had given thousands in charity, but it was in vain due to show-off and lack of sincerity.

So the angel asked, “Is there anything left?”

And there was only one thing left — the small bread he had given the poor woman.

It was added to the good deeds that got heavier but the evil deeds still outweighed them.

So the angel asked again if there was anything left.

Then the ‘smile of the child’, was added, and the good deeds became equal to the evil ones.

Again the angel asked. At last, the ‘tears of the woman’ was added which was as heavy as a sea of tears when added.

It outweighed the evil deeds, and he heard the angel saying that he was saved!

He woke up that night with self-realization.

Let’s create our masterpiece of life…

I would like to shout out Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles for one of her brilliant stories what Are Your Precious Gems .

I would like to shout out to 3 Reasons Why You Should Live in The Moment by Yousuf Rafi

I would like to Shout out another inspiring story Kindness Begets Kindness, But Can Be Unconditional by A.H. Mehr

Originally published in Coffee Times Newsletter. Link here