Everything started from that late autumn afternoon. The sunlight that day came in through the window and shone on a slightly old table. The light was dim, but it seemed to embrace everything warmly. The air was filled with the taste of time, and there was an indescribable silence. It was like everyone’s life, at some point, would suddenly be shrouded in this silence, unable to escape, and not wanting to escape.
I sat at the table, holding the book that had been turned to pieces with both hands, and the world outside the window was in front of me. The crowd was in a hurry, the vehicles were noisy, and the whole city was still running at the fastest speed. But all this seemed to have nothing to do with me. Although I was sitting in the center of the crowd, my heart had already drifted away. It was a helpless escape, a kind of exhaustion from life.
Thinking back to the past days, I couldn’t help but feel a tingling pain. Those countless meaningless days and nights were as plain as a faded wall. The dream that once seemed dazzling had long been deformed by the pressure of life. People are always fighting for tomorrow, and even yesterday’s wounds are forgotten in some unknown corner. But sometimes, what can life bring us? It constantly gives us suffering and frustration, but we are often powerless to resist and can only endure silently.
This reminds me of the man I met in the hospital. I went to visit a friend that day and saw him accidentally in the corridor of the hospital. He sat in a chair with a numb expression, as if he was out of touch with the world. His hands were tightly grasping the handrails, his eyes were empty, and his face was expressionless. The nurse next to him told me that he once had a happy family, a lovely wife and a smart child. But just a few months ago, his wife suddenly fell ill, and after a period of treatment, she unfortunately died. And his child also left him in a car accident a few days ago. Since then, this man seems to live in a world without light, unwilling to touch anything.
I stood there, staring at him blankly. Life is like this, one wave after another. It is always full of all kinds of unpredictable sufferings, and people seem to be lost in this suffering forever and can’t find a way out. The man may have had happiness, but it all seemed to be cruelly taken away by fate. At that moment, I couldn’t help but wonder: What is life for? Why do we have to go through these uncontrollable pains and sufferings?
However, in this vortex of pain, there is some tiny warmth. Just like those small details that we have never noticed, like a warm smile from a stranger, or a piece of blue sky that we see when we look up at a certain moment. These little warmths are like a beam of light cast by fate in the darkness, which makes people feel short-lived but real comfort.
Once, I was sitting in a street cafe with a friend. It was raining heavily outside, and we sat opposite each other in silence. My friend looked out the window and whispered, “What do you think we are living in this world for? Are we destined to experience these endless sufferings?”
I didn’t answer because I didn’t know. Life is like a book without an ending. The more you turn it, the less you can see the plot behind it. Each of us is looking for meaning and exits in the endless rush, but there are always some things that seem to be out of reach forever. And in those unreachable places, there are often questions that we cannot answer.
Life is not always beautiful. It is like a sharp blade that often cuts us inadvertently. We are never ready for pain, and it always comes quietly when we are not prepared. And we, no matter how hard we struggle, seem unable to escape its cage. But in this deep pain and helplessness, can we still find a trace of warmth?
I remember an old man once told me: “The most important thing for people to live in the world is not to escape from pain, but how to find their own warmth in pain.” His words made me unforgettable for a long time. Yes, life is always full of hardships. We cannot change the pain brought by fate, but we can choose how to face it. Even in the darkest moments, we can choose not to give up hope and choose to find our own peace in the smallest place.
Sometimes, I wonder, if life has never had these hardships, then will we really understand the meaning of life? We may not know how to be grateful, we will not know how to cherish the happiness in front of us, and we will not know how to find a way out in difficult situations. It is these unavoidable pains that make us grow, and teach us how to persevere in the wind and rain, and how to find our own little warmth in the absurdity and heaviness of life.
Perhaps, as the old man said, the meaning of life is not how much light we can have, but how much warmth we can find in the darkness. Life will not always be smooth sailing, but it will not always be desperate. In every fall and rise, we gradually learn how to face life, how to find our own peace and tranquility between absurdity and pain.