One of the lessons I have learnt in life is ‘When you are feeling down or confused, just look around you for inspiration. You won’t have to look too far. You don’t have to hold a celebrity or someone famous as your idol for inspiration. There are people around you who can give you plenty of inspiration and teach you life’s lessons.’ As an example, let me tell you about two people:

My Mother – I was talking to my mother a few days back and complaining to her about how difficult my sister and I are finding to raise our children and keep everyone around us happy. My mother simply said “Haven’t your aunts and me gone through all those things. We managed fine”. So I said to her, “But, that other aunt got away without having to struggle at all and she is not even a good person. See, God and life are good only to bad people like her. Look at you! You have slogged all your life for our family, sacrificed so much for us, do you have any happiness?” To which she responded, “God always takes care of me.” I was taken aback by her undaunting faith. Throughout my childhood and even now, in my adulthood, I have not seen my mother’s faith fade. She has consistently maintained her goodness and faith, in every situation. I hope I could be like her someday.

My Aunt – Another person from whom I have received immense inspiration is my aunt. She has gone through a lot in her life, and has been so resilient and persevering. She never gets flustered by any problems or humongous tasks. To me a ‘humongous task’ would be coming home to a sink full of dishes and her reaction to it would be, “You have to do it anyway, why not do it with a smile?” To her, no work is too difficult to do and no problem is impossible to solve. She has been my model of strength and perseverance.

These are just two people I have talked about, around me. There are a lot more people I look up to, from my son to my family to my friends around me. If you look around and notice the strengths in others around you, you will realize that there is a lot you can learn from them. Never undermine anyone’s ability or strength; even the smallest person may have the biggest strength in them.

By,
Mary-Ann Roche

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