Living an Authored Life: From Gregorius to Grace

Written By Ajoy Bose

I watched Night Train to Lisbon recently, and something about Raimund Gregorius unsettled me. Not in a harsh way—but in a way that left me quiet long after the credits rolled.

He is a man who awakens—not through catastrophe, but through curiosity. A chance encounter on a bridge, a mysterious woman, a book by a long-dead Portuguese doctor… and suddenly he leaves his life behind to search for meaning.

His story is not one of collapse, but of epiphany. Of reinvention. Of quiet courage. Of the question: Is it too late to become someone else? Or more truthfully: To become the person I was always meant to be?

I admired that.

But it also made me pause.

Because my story didn’t begin with small moments. It began with a big one.

My Own Night Train: A Heart Attack, A Cross, A Presence

In 2013, I had a heart attack. Not a symbolic one. A real one.

And while my body was broken open, so was my worldview. I had spent a life climbing, building, accomplishing, controlling. I had done everything “right.”

But lying in the ICU, wearing a cross I didn’t yet fully understand, I felt something I couldn’t explain:

Peace. Presence. Grace.

Jesus met me there—not in condemnation, but in calm. Not in fear, but in stillness. Not with explanations, but with Himself.

That was my rupture. My break from the old narrative.

Unlike Gregorius, I didn’t choose to board the train. The train chose me.

The Role of Epiphany—And What Comes After

Gregorius reminds us that epiphanies don’t always arrive in fire or thunder. They arrive in questions. In voices. In the lives of others.

And while my beginning was dramatic, what’s shaped me most since then has been the quieter moments:

  • The decision to build The Wisdom Ratio—not as a brand, but as a way to live wisely and help others do the same.

  • The choice to forgive when the apology never came.

  • The courage to rest without guilt.

  • The quiet conversations with God that no one else hears.

Epiphanies begin the journey. Small moments shape the path.

Living an Authored Life

Gregorius says at one point that small moments, not big ones, shape our trajectory. I resisted that idea at first.

But now I see the truth in it.

The heart attack woke me up. But what keeps me becoming is:

  • The daily surrender.

  • The slow trust.

  • The choice to respond, not react.

I now believe we are all co-authors with God. We can’t control every chapter, but we can choose how we show up inside the story.

We can choose:

  • Meaning over momentum.

  • Depth over speed.

  • Faith over formula.

And perhaps the greatest choice of all:

To stop reading the script written by fear, ego, or expectation—and to start living from the voice of grace.

Closing Thought

Gregorius left his life in pursuit of a question.

I stayed in mine, but let it be rewritten.

Both are valid. Both are brave.

Whether your story begins with a crisis or a quiet whisper, the invitation is the same:

To live an authored life. Not merely lived, but led. Not perfectly scripted, but beautifully honest.

There’s still time. Even now. Especially now.

Ajoy Bose