Let Us Choose the Colour of Our Life

There are many colours in life.

We must choose the colour that belongs to us.

And the colour we choose should be one that transforms us into better human beings.

Within this simple thought lies one of the greatest truths of human life.

A rainbow has seven colours.

Each colour has its own uniqueness.

No colour is exactly like another.

Yet, it is only when all of them come together that the rainbow becomes beautiful.

Human life is much the same.

Life does not always remain the same colour.

Some days are coloured by happiness.

Some days are coloured by sorrow.

Some days carry the colour of success.

Others carry the colour of failure.

There are periods filled with hope.

And there are other periods filled with confusion and disappointment.

We cannot always decide what colour life will bring us.

But we can decide how we will receive and respond to that colour.

That is one of the greatest freedoms given to human beings.

The same situation may happen in the lives of two different people.

One may see it as the end of his life.

Another may see exactly the same situation as the beginning of something new.

The event is the same.

But the way they look at it is different.

That is why choosing the colour of life does not mean choosing an external colour.

It means choosing our thoughts, our attitude, our state of mind and our actions.

The colour we choose determines, to a great extent, what kind of life we create.

If a person begins to see only the faults and shortcomings in everything, his life gradually takes on the colour of complaints.

If he sees everyone as a competitor, life takes on the colour of competition.

If he begins to measure everything only in terms of money, life appears to him only through the colour of material success.

But when we choose love, the colour of humanity begins to appear in our lives.

When we choose gratitude, life becomes filled with contentment.

When we choose forgiveness, the mind discovers peace.

When we choose honesty, trust begins to grow.

When we choose the willingness to help others, life begins to acquire meaning.

This is one of the most important truths we need to understand.

Our lives are shaped not only by the events that happen to us.

They are also shaped by the responses we choose to those events.

Even the way we begin our morning carries the colour of our life.

A person who wakes up thinking, “I wonder what problem is going to come today,” may create worries in his mind about problems that have not even arrived.

But a person who begins the day thinking, “I will do my best today,” looks at the same life from a completely different perspective.

Even a small disagreement with someone at home in the morning can affect the entire day.

If we hold on to that incident and carry our anger into every interaction that follows, a small event can change the colour of the whole day.

But if we decide, “This is only a small matter. I am not going to lose my peace of mind because of it,” then the incident can end right there.

That is what it means to choose the colour of our life.

Every person we meet gives us an opportunity.

Some will love us.

Some will criticise us.

Some will not understand us.

Some may judge us unfairly.

Some will be happy to see us succeed.

Others may even be happy to see us fail.

We cannot control all of this.

But we can choose how we respond to their behaviour.

When someone speaks to us angrily, it is very easy to respond with anger.

But choosing to remain calm instead of carrying that anger forward is a sign of great character.

When someone insults us, it is easy to insult them in return.

But being able to say to ourselves, “Their words do not determine my worth,” and move forward is maturity.

When someone helps us, expressing gratitude is humanity.

Understanding someone who is unable to help us is also humanity.

Forgiving someone who has treated us wrongly is one of the highest expressions of humanity.

That is why we should often ask ourselves whether the colour we have chosen is making us better human beings.

Success in life cannot be measured only by money, position or fame.

How many people have found us worthy of their trust?

How many people's tears have we wiped away?

How many people have we encouraged with a kind word?

How many times could we have become angry, but chose peace instead?

How many times could we have taken revenge, but chose forgiveness instead?

These too are measures of success in life.

We generally believe that only major decisions can change our lives.

But in reality, it is the small choices we make every day that gradually shape who we become.

When we wake up in the morning, do we immediately pick up our phone and look at other people's lives, or do we spend a few moments reflecting on our own?

Do we spend the whole day talking about someone's mistake, or do we let it go and continue with our own work?

When we see someone else's success, do we become jealous, or do we think, “They have achieved it, and I can achieve it too”?

After a failure, do we decide, “I cannot do this,” or do we say, “There is still something for me to learn”?

These small choices create the larger colour of our lives.

When a seed is buried beneath the soil, all it sees is darkness.

Yet it does not consider that darkness to be the end.

Instead, it begins to grow through that darkness towards the light.

Human life is sometimes like that.

No matter how hard we try, some doors may refuse to open.

People we trusted may disappoint us.

Opportunities we hoped for may pass us by.

The rewards for our hard work may be delayed.

At such times, the colour of life may appear dark.

But even within that darkness, we can preserve a small colour of hope.

The thought, “This too shall pass,” can sometimes become the greatest strength that keeps a human being going.

Not every day of life will be spring.

Some days will bring rain.

Some days will bring storms.

Some days will bring drought.

But no season lasts forever.

In the same way, sorrow does not last forever.

Failure does not last forever.

Loneliness does not last forever.

At some stage of life, many of the people who once surrounded us may move away.

Our bodies may grow older.

Our comforts may diminish.

Many things we once considered important may later seem insignificant.

It is then that we begin to understand the true colour of life.

What matters is not how much we possess, but how we live with what we have.

When we look back towards the later part of our lives, it is not the money we accumulated that will remain most deeply in our hearts.

It is the love we shared.

It is not the positions we held that will matter most.

It is the people we helped to rise.

It is not the houses we built that will remain in our memories.

It is the loving moments that were lived within those homes.

It is not the praise we received that will matter most.

It is the faces of the few people who genuinely loved us.

Therefore, when we choose the colour of our life, it should not be a colour that looks beautiful only to us.

It should be a colour that makes the lives of those around us a little more beautiful too.

If our words lift someone up, we have chosen a good colour.

If our actions give someone hope, we have chosen a good colour.

If our presence makes someone feel safe, we have chosen a good colour.

If someone thinks after meeting us, “There are still good people in this world,” what greater success could there be?

We may not be able to change the whole world.

But we can change the world of someone we meet, even if only a little.

With a smile.

With a kind word.

With a small act of help.

By listening patiently.

Through forgiveness.

Through encouragement.

Sometimes, a few words of hope from us can make a tremendous difference in another person's life.

That is why choosing the colour of our life is not merely a personal decision.

It is also a responsibility we have towards the world around us.

This does not mean that we must always choose the colour of happiness.

We do not have to hide our sadness.

We do not have to deny our failures.

When we are in pain, we must acknowledge that we are in pain.

If tears come, let them come.

When we are tired, we must allow ourselves to rest.

But we should not allow those emotions to determine the colour of our entire life.

Darkness is only one part of life.

We should never allow it to become our whole life.

Just as we should not hate the sky because of the rain, we should not hate life because of one painful experience.

The colour life has given us today may not be the colour we like.

That is all right.

We can change the colour of tomorrow.

By changing our thoughts.

By changing our habits.

By choosing our friendships wisely.

By changing the words we use.

By adjusting our expectations.

By forgiving our past.

By accepting our present.

By trusting our future.

Life is not a completely blank canvas given to us.

Some lines have already been drawn.

There may be stains.

There may also be beautiful sections.

In some places, we may have drawn something incorrectly.

But the painting is not finished yet.

The brush is still in our hands.

So, from today onwards, let us think about what kind of colour we are going to choose.

The colour of jealousy?

The colour of anger?

The colour of revenge?

The colour of complaints?

Or...

The colour of love?

The colour of gratitude?

The colour of forgiveness?

The colour of hope?

The colour of humanity?

The colour of peace?

The colour we choose should not be visible only on our faces.

It should be visible in our words.

It should be visible in our behaviour.

It should be visible in our relationships.

It should be visible in our thoughts.

And when others remember us, that colour should remain in their memories too.

We cannot choose every colour that life gives us.

But to a great extent, we can choose the colour in which our life is lived.

So let us not paint our lives in the dark colour of complaints.

Let us paint them in the colour of hope.

Let us not live in the colour of bringing others down.

Let us live in the colour of lifting others up.

Let us not live in the colour of anger.

Let us live in the colour of understanding.

Let us not live in the colour of revenge.

Let us live in the colour of forgiveness.

Let us not live in the colour of fear.

Let us live in the colour of hope and confidence.

Because, in the end, the colour that we give to life becomes a truer part of our identity than the colour that life gives us.

When we look back one day at the life we have lived, let us not ask only,

“How much did I receive?”

Let us also ask ourselves,

“Because I lived, did this world become even a little more beautiful?”

If our heart can quietly answer “Yes” to that question,

then we have discovered the most beautiful colour of life.

Let us choose that colour today.

“You Can Do It”

With affection,
Sakthi Sakthithasan