• Happiness is like a warm summer breeze that goes through the heart and settles over the entire body. It can make one look radiant and mesmerizing. It is like the delicious food that one can finally eat after fasting for a month. It is like fire keeping one warm in the middle of a snowstorm. But of course, fire burns out, warm breezes pass, and the fasting season comes once again. Those are the days when everything is dark, and cold settles over the body making one shiver and search for warmth.

    I remember now the story of a girl who entered the realm of bitterness and cold. She used to be filled with…what was the word? ah yes, enchantment. She would laugh at everything. She would make light shine in a dark room. That is when the cold slowly crept in, wrapping around her like a cool blanket against the heat of the blazing sun. It had felt good….at first. It had all started with a single book.

    She was never the type to believe that real evil existed in the world but the breathless moment she had finished this book, she felt as if an arrow covered with the icy frost of winter had been pointed to her heart. The book began with a simple, happy everyday story. Then everything changed, and the world went upside down. There were girls getting raped… husbands raping their wives's younger sisters..young ladies throwing away their life and becoming prostitutes… people murdering their own family members for money… a population almost swept out because of the jealousies and prejudices of their country. Oh god… she thinks. The only thought she could even come up with. She was stricken with cold sweat..fear overpowering her optimistic thoughts of the world. Her fear of becoming one of those people was almost too much for her poor heart to contain. Her radiating light filled with pure innocence had been tainted. And all because of this one book.

    Of course others tried to console her and some even attempted to make her smile. All their efforts were useless. She was no longer in their reach. Time passed but it did nothing to heal her. She started to question things. what is good? what is evil? what is life? Somehow almost everyone failed to answer her questions. She was tired…she needed sleep..sleep and some answers. That cold and chilly winter she was forced to go to a religious camp by her parents. She did not want to go she told them but they ignored her and told her that she might find some answers if she went. She did not believe that. Nothing could give her the answers she wanted.

    A week had passed at the camp and nothing had changed. None of her questions had been answered. At least not until she heard some of the priests singing religious hymns. These hymns seemed to be holding power and enchantment. She soon got the meanings translated to english and right then she froze. The answers she had been desperately seeking for so long were finally right in front of her. It took her several minutes to process these answers and then in her heart she knew……spring had come…flowers were blossoming everywhere and children were laughing. She could see light again. She felt as light as a feather and seemed to be floating. Floating? Yes she was, she was floating in ecstasy. Happiness seemed to be in the very air she was breathing. She could finally breathe again. She also came up with her own answer for the last question. What is life? Life is a gleaming diamond twinkling more than ever in the warm sun. Sure it can sometimes get dirty with everyday dirt makers but in the end it could be polished and look as new and extravagant as ever. Life can get clouded with questions..but sooner or later answers come and one can smile again.