I once happened to read a story titled “Story of a Mosquito,” written in Urdu by Khawaja Hasan Nizami. A person asks the mosquito, “Why don’t you let us sleep? Whenever we lie down to rest, you start buzzing around.” The mosquito replies, “This is not the time to sleep; when the time to sleep comes, you will sleep without disturbance. Now it is time to get up and get to work.” The story is thought-provoking. Life must move on, come what may. Life is meant to progress always. One will rest only when the time to rest finally comes.

I will walk through the timeline of my life, which I am sure happens to most of us, if not all. This journey of life, I believe, most people can relate to. It is a reminiscence, an honest and candid review of some crucial phases of life and how we traveled through them. I believe it holds true for most people in general. So, let’s begin the flashback.

The first crucial phase of our lives began with school life. We were made to believe that this is the most critical phase of our lives, so we should work hard for a better future. A better future translated to a life full of comfort and pleasure. Our entire childhood was spent eagerly trying to achieve maximum marks or top grades. High marks were the most important achievement in our social lives, earning us the highest commendation from our near and dear ones. Every year, this keenness to achieve high marks was repeated. Each year, we would receive new justifications as to why this class was more important than the previous one. The final standard, class 12, was the most important because we knew that getting admission into a good college required top marks. There was no time to rest during the entire school period. The 14-year journey was relentless, like clockwork.

The second phase began when we entered university. We believed this was a midway point to the final destination, and that dedicated effort in our studies would yield rewards in our final professional qualifications. So, there was no chance for rest here either.

During the last phase of our academic life, we toiled with unprecedented hard work to gain a recognizable and reputable professional title. Finally, we achieved that prestigious title. With the grace of the Almighty, we reached our target. It was now time to relax, time to rest. We thought that the days of struggle had come to an end.

But as we considered relaxing, the buzzing of mosquitoes began again. Another struggle commenced: to find a good job, a better company. The corporate world has its own challenges and competition. At the same time, just as we were beginning to learn about the cold-hearted real world, we got married, embarking on an altogether new journey. As the family expanded, we went into overdrive to generate more resources for our children, to provide a better life for our family—a life we never enjoyed ourselves. Initially, we were restless about achieving a better life for ourselves, and now we are even more restless about a better life for our family. At times, when we felt tired, we reassured ourselves that once the kids grew older, we would have some time to rest. However, as the children grew older, our responsibilities also increased. If we ponder over it for a while, we would realize that we were working harder than ever. The part of the day known as evening was lost. We started our day with the rise of the sun and finished at night. We kept our noses to the grindstone.

In our quest to find a restful life, we never rested.

During this relentless journey, one day we realize that the time to return to the hereafter is looming. This is a bitter truth that holds true for people in general.

Having said that, the truth is that we all need some rest or a pause from our busy lives. We need a break somewhere in our journey—not to stop, but to rejuvenate ourselves and breathe new life into our own existence.

Life needs a pause to travel, to explore, to find new things that please our hearts, that give us peace and tranquility, to discover avenues of happiness, to love, and to introspect in solitude.