Follow Your Own Heart

When my daughter was five,

She asked me :

’ Mum, I want to be a princess when I grow up,

with a lot of beautiful dresses and glittering shoes,

and I am going to have a lot of big parties!’’

I smiled at her innocence:

’ If that makes you happy, my dear.’

When my daughter reached 12,

She asked me:

‘Mum, I want to be the minister of Sweden when I grow up,

so I will have the power to make the change to the world.’

I smiled at her big ambition:

’ If that makes you happy, my dear.’

When my daughter turned 15,

She asked me:

 ‘Mum, what would you like me to be when I grow up?’

Words were ready to pour out of my mouth

I knew I had a lot to say but I swallowed those words

because once I was a child like her

How easily can our parents break the wings of imaginations of a child?

How unconscious people can be to kill –

the divine spark of a child’s creativity?...

When I was at my daughter’s age,

I was made to believe-

that I did not deserve my parents’ love

unless I listened and followed their instructions

unless I fulfilled their expectation as a perfected daughter…

When I was at my daughter’s age,

I was made to believe,

Everything is conditioned –

I will not be loved if I don’t do what people expect of me;

I will not succeed if I don’t do what people expect of me

I will not be made happy if I don’t do what people expect of me…

Therefore I have spent years after years-

to make my parents proud,

to make my teacher satisfied ,

to make my boss not disappointed,

even to please my friends to make them happy…

But the sad truth was-

I have made everybody happy except myself…

When cheers receded into silence

When I was finally left alone

I washed off my makeup,

I took down my jewelries

I wore no more my smiles

Often I felt drawn to stare at myself in the mirror-

Who am I?

So often I felt like myself drowning into that emptiness and that darkness…

my soul wanted to cry and to scream beneath that perfected façade of mine …

So my dear daughter,

I will not tell you where you shall go,

Or what you should do with your life,

You have to figure out that by yourself!

But you have to learn to trust your inner guidance-

That shall do to lead you onto your path-

‘the path is right for others doesn’t have to be right for you.’

and You have to learn to have faith in your own heart’s desires-

That shall do to lead you onto your true happiness and abundance!