Lessons from Nature :
All is not lost as it seems. God is working in background to give us a new lease of life. Keep the trust and have faith, do not end it all soon. When I saw a miracle in my garden, I could immediately relate it to the recent unfortunate event that has happened in Bollywood. More on what happened in my garden towards the end of the post.
Life teaches us so many lessons especially our garden. Most of the time a person seems to be down in dumps and we all as a society give up on them. But the person needs to trust the nature and God. They are working behind scenes to give you a new lease of life. You need to pause and not interfere. If it had to let go, then it will in it’s natural way.
I am not a big fan of Bollywood stars, or follow their life on social media platforms etc. I feel most of these profiles are fake, shallow with nothing more to offer than their drama or their movies/shows promotions. But recently post the news of demise of Sushant Singh Rajput, I also read couple of posts about how his Instagram posts are different and philosophical et all. When I checked them I was in awe of this person, so much curiosity, so much of wisdom.
Most of his posts were always about space and universe, the world beyond this planet. His dream list/ bucket list so to say was so diverse and unique. And he did tick off some of them I believe. The thoughts, the likes the tastes of a person depict his intellect is what I always believed. It is then after reading his posts, I personally felt shocked how such a person who wanted to teach coding to poor kids, provide education to them, one with a keen eye in science still got sucked into the fake world of survival in Bollywood. I believe money or finances were not an issue for him so why not dump this Bollywood which doesn’t have takers for talent. Why not start afresh? How I so wish he had his close friends around who could pull him out of this mess and get him going on a new path.
I am not an expert on mental health and do not want to trivialise the real issues. People should seek help and families and society should support them. We should not judge someone as we are not in their shoes at that minute, however for all of us who let small issues pile up one day at a time, we can see how we all can make some small changes which may help us in long run.
Even though we are aware of how to be positive, what to do what not to, how not to unnecessarily stress ourselves, not to give such importance to anything that it becomes a life threatening issue — we all still inevitably get pulled into these. But we need to learn. constantly and repeatedly till we become perfect.
Confession
While I put my thoughts below, I as a human keep faltering very often, get stressed out, and pass on the stress to loved ones around me. But have realized over these years that I am slightly wiser and these stress periods are much shorter. I am still on my journey.. The thoughts below are not about what we should do for others or expecting others to do things for us, but what we can do for ourselves. We are all not perfect, everybody cannot love us blindly or hand hold us, but we can make ourselves love us, try to improve ourselves one day at a time. Doesn’t matter if we are constantly failing, losing our temper, behaving not so ideally with people around us, what matters is we acknowledge the need to improve and keep trying. I am trying, failing and I keep trying……
Step away- Look from outside and seek within
We all always frequently get pulled down by self or friends or family or society about dream job, dream house, promotions, perfect figure, ideal husband, ideal family etc etc. When we are in the midst of these storms we feel these are the major issue at the moment and nothing is more important. Now step outside and look at the problem as an outsider. You will see God has given you such a beautiful family, but still that one job which you are unhappy about is shutting you from all that good and pulling you into that which is causing sorrow.
Next level of suffering is where we all most often compare ourselves to our peers, friends, even siblings and create sorrow- “Why am I the only one to suffer when everyone is doing well”. Not really, every one would have some issue or other, small or big, its about how they cope up or how much we know about them. Even the worlds richest person will have his share of worries and problems, but may be at a different level and magnitude.
We always seem to know the source of the sorrow. I am unhappy because of this person, or boss was unfair or this thing didn’t happen etc etc. Never give power to anyone or anything to steer your energy. Keep reiterating to yourself that you are in the driver seat of your machine and not others. This needs long dedicated practice sessions, but if we do not take our first steps how will we reach our destiny, so start now.
For inspiration look up to successful people, but to fight your problems look at people who seem to be worse situation, you will instantly start feeling grateful for what we have .
Spread positivity – You never know who is receiving it
It is important to read inspirational and positive news, quotes, watch interviews or talks by the survivors, it creates an impact even though temporary. Slowly as you keep feeding this positive attitude to yourself, you will reach a state where you will start looking at all problems more practically.
Also keep sharing positive messages inspirational quotes on your social media platforms, you never know who is reading these and may be it will impact them. One sentence, on picture may change someone’s life, pull them back from a point of no return.
Keep yourself busy – Idle mind is devil’s workshop
Pick up a hobby music/ cooking/ gardening/ teaching underprivileged anything that is constructive or artistic. Gardening helps us be close to nature, learn many lessons, lessons of survival, lessons of patience, resilience, sharing, caring… apart from the fact that there is a scientific evidence that says gardening and working with soil increases Serotonin production which makes us happy.
Always have that one friend with whom you will not have a conflict of interest i.e. a friend not from your workplace, not from your residential community to avoid any future conflicts or negative gossips. Best bets are old college friends. They always make you feel young. Keep in regular touch with them. Never hesitate when there has been a long gap , you pick up a phone and I am sure you will know that there never has been a gap.
Meditate – It helps
One need not ascribe or subscribe to any specific school of spirituality or listen to their doctrines. Just slow down, close your eyes, observe your breath. Meditate at exact time everyday and at same place. This helps build in discipline, calming down faster and helps set body clock over a period of time. This is good for a beginner. As you get used to this, your inner being will automatically seek newer paths.
During third week of May I had cut 2 stems from sweet potato plant and planted them in 2 diff ways. One I kept in water for rooting and another I planted directly in the ground that day. The one in water rooted pretty well and was thriving with life and I gifted that to my sister when she visited us in June. The ground one seemed to have sad luck. The leaves dried and wilted out in 2 days and within a week the entire stem dried out too. I had to search hard to see the dried stem when I went to check on the status. Wanted to pull it out and declare it a failure and write a post too. But being a permaculturist by heart I decided to leave it there to compost in a natural way. Today morning while taking a stroll in garden clicking pics I saw a tiny fresh sprig of leaves popping up. I was wondering when did I bury a sweet potato there ( thanks to my goldfish memory).. and suddenly I remembered the stem I planted few weeks ago and which I had given up on, but not Mother nature.
And here goes the picture of the sweet potato sapling that popped out with the dried out stem in the background teaching me how to be patient and trust.
Oota ayita 