The main entrance to my house has a number of murals and quotations lined up on the wall. Having been settled into this house for well over a year or so, I never paid much attention to the details of each one of the wall hangings. Life gets up and running the moment you open your eyes in that first wake of dawn, leaving you little space to admire things around you. More so when things of beauty worthy of admiration are hidden in the layers and depths around you.
It so happened one morning that I had some time to myself, some time before I would get entangled in mundane frivolities. That was the time I noticed a wall hanging featuring a single quote. The hanging was tiny in size but the line it contained had a terrific significance to it. And standing there and paying more attention to it, it seemed to me that all of the world’s purpose of existence revolved around it. Looking at it, I wondered why had I never looked at and read it more carefully before. It said, ‘enjoy the little things in life’.
Simple and complete. And that is exactly what our lives need to be!
Ever looked at young children playing around you? Well, if you haven’t, then look at them carefully the next time you are around them. To me, they perfectly epitomise that phrase. They take life as it comes to them, and live each second of their lives in full. Not thinking of what came before or what may come next; their present moment is their living-it-all moment. Their young and fresh spirits are not dampened by that first fall or that first failure. They celebrate their inabilities with equal agility and enthusiasm. They are overjoyed with simple things in life, things we older people would almost choose to ignore in our lives right now.
It amazes me to think how perspectives of our lives change with time. As children, we went through the process of enjoying nothingness; we’ve all been there and done that. Now, we have grown up to enjoy nothing at all. We have hardened our souls and minds, trained them to survive the wars we wage every day.
Did we realize that in the midst of all this, our hearts were growing dark as well? Our hearts grew stone-cold while we were busy making stone studded jewelleries to satiate our superficial hunger. Who will mend our hearts? The hearts that yearn for loving and longing, crave being looked after and strive to find the rays of sunshine in the first dew drops on a rainy morning. But all the craving and the yearning takes a back seat as the hardened mind takes control. If only the stiff, cold mind could speak its own story. Maybe. One day.
It is raining as I write. It is raining rather heavily. Heavy drops of fresh winter rain are splashing everywhere. Autumn is slowly giving way to a long winter. As I look out my water-swept window, it thrills me to see the leaves washed over by the rain. A day before, they were all rooted and stiff under the strong blows of the oncoming winds of winter. But one look at them today and I can tell the rain has forced them to turn into something they had not been for a while. As if the rain compelled the rooted leaves to take a new life, even if it was just for one single day. One single moment. Maybe tomorrow they will again get back to being what they are. But, for one pristine moment today, they are enjoying the first spell of heavenly water.
We are in dire need of this spell of rain in our individual lives. Only that spell needs to last a bit longer to force us to see things we have forgotten to see. Hidden beauties we no longer have the desire to admire or stay immersed in. Life can be one-dimensional but what makes it worth living is each and every tiny moment.
Make it count, while you are alive.
The day you die, may the moments absorb you in complete peace and serenity.
Let the rains drench us!
Cover image by Mattes (Own work) [Public domain] , via Wikimedia Commons
About the author
Chris Mallika Bhadra is from India and is a Doctoral candidate in Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia. Besides being a scientist (not a mad one though), she is an avid reader, trained contemporary dancer and now is an active blogger! Her writings mostly serve out her life experiences on a platter for the reading pleasures of all! You can find her on Facebook (Musings of an unsettled soul) and read more of her work here.