the subtle art of abnegation

Among the many building blocks in life gently nudging us towards a better and well-rounded future, is a sweet monstrosity that goes by the name of sacrifice. Without the simple act of sacrifice, how will you find joy? However will you know the unnerving chill of self-proclaimed success? 

The sacrifices we make in our daily lives are nothing but vital for the nourishment of our our very selves. Sacrifice; a pure and selfless form of love. The concept of this act is synonymous to that of sugar. Small, healthy doses of it will enrich your experiences, and yet too much of it will burn your insides and become your demise. 

We often find ourselves unable to see the well-concealed line separating the good and the bad, the magnanimous and the destructive. I see innumerable people sacrificing their very selves, their identities, the constellations that make them who they are, all for what? For love? For compassion? For pleasing individuals who are nothing but a speck of chemical concoctions in the grand scheme of things? I refuse to abide by these catastrophic rules. 

We are constantly told that we will achieve nothing if we are not willing to sacrifice, and yet nobody tells us the differences between the right and the wrong form of this act. As a result, we are losing sense of who we are. Our individuality becomes inscriptions in a tattered book somewhere, the pages unturned. We shed and we lose and we sacrifice, not for our hopes and dreams and ambitions. Oh no, we do so for people. We give and get nothing in return. We become hollow for human beings as insignificant as the cracks on a pavement, as an act of pure love. 

We raise ourselves in a world substantially prone to destruction, a lost sense of individuality having been embedded into our skin before much else. We breathe in the aroma of abandoned hopes and desires as we slink into our daily lives with smug exteriors, unaware of our consistent attempts to make an impact, to change our inbred formation for the sake of loved ones. 

Look at us. Look at our collective pathetic existence. We are children of the cosmos, and yet we are willing and ready to let go of the abyss in our eyes and the star-dust in our hearts simply because we are not appreciated by the people we work so hard to impress.