Life is beautiful

Eliseo Orefice: "You're serving. You're not a servant. Serving is a supreme art. God is the first servant. God serves men but he's not a servant to men."

The above excerpt is from one of my must watch films "Life is beautiful". It is story of a man and his son surviving through the holocaust. I always thought how hard it would have been seeing the dance of death in front of your eyes. Until Covid-19 happened, I personally lost two members of my family. It is at such testing times we seek the meaning, it is during storm we hope for the sun.  

Once a friend of mine asked explain me what's life? Why are we here? I said, I'm no guru or preacher but in last 40 years I have learnt that everyone has a purpose. It is not clear to some, some even don't care about it but some of us wallow in it. It is only through the experience we learn and find out what's our purpose. It is only through experience we learn. 

Even this experience of global pandemic is here to make us realise that life is a gift. It is given to us, some of would learn from that experience and use it wisely. Some of us will forget it once it is over. The truth may not always be pretty but is always available to the seeker. Only if we learn to seek, only if we learn to serve then we learn to rise.

To rise above the pain, agony, trauma and inability we must learn to serve the experience and understand the message it is offering.

"You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have. -J. R. R. Tolkien"

Humility

You realise how precious life is at different moments, we won't always be here. Yet some of us stride as if they'll be here forever. Life is all about enjoying the journey, let's not waste our precious time. Smell a rose, watch the sunset, tell the people in your life that you love them, live life with humility, love and as fully as humanly possible.

During this time of pandemic so many of us have lost our near and dear ones, it is a reminder that current moment is a gift that's why its called "The present". So much time we waste, so many ours we sleep, so long we rest but never realise our heart never stops beating, mind never stops thinking and lungs never stop breathing. Let's take a moment to not only thank our creator and people around us but also to our bodies that keeps us alive 24/7.

You may call it spiritual thinking, holistic words or metaphysics however in short it is nothing but living a life of gratitude, helping and loving each other including ourselves. 

Once a good friend of mine was travelling over the public transport and a man with three kids boarded the train. The kids caused so much havoc on the train, fidgeting around rampantly. Finally my friend said to the man "You may want to do something about those kids?" to this the man replied "Yeah, I reckon so. We are coming back from the hospital they just lost their mother to cancer and they don't know how to deal with it and frankly speaking neither do I" my friend felt like absolute garbage. 

Then on he decided whatever is going on in people's lives there must be a good reason for it. So next time, if you see someone brush past you, or overtake on the road, or being rude for no reason, remember there must be a good reason for it. All we need to do is show some humility, love and kindness.

Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning. -Gza

Let's share the gift of life over campaign organised by Bollywood Central: Yes, let's help!

The visitor

The Visitor

The middle earth was as beautiful as heaven in autumn. The people, the cattle and the hobbits all were glee, happy go lucky. One fine day a visitor knocked on the door of Frodo the hobbit. Frodo answered, no one was there. Knock again! Frodo got annoyed thinking it was another prank, he rushed to the door fearing he will have to scream at one of the kids. He hated to be rude to littler inhabitants of the wonderland.

He wouldn't want to yell at them but it was becoming a menace. Knock again! There was no one at the door. Frodo got annoyed but happy at the same time since he didn't have to yell at any kids. Fourth time he bursted into anger and hurled towards to door almost fuming "reveal yourself at once". He was flabbergasted to see the unwelcome guest. It didn't have any persona or shape or appearance of any kind.

Frodo froze for a bit just staring into horizon firmly holding the door he was about to slam. The visitor said "aren't you going to invite me in?" it was unreal. Usually the visitor just got into people's lives uninvited not sure why he thought of making an exception this time? Maybe he didn't want to be rude on his first visit to hobbit land. Maybe the hobbits weren't ready for this? Maybe the visitor thought why do I need to be the bad guy always? Why not just try knocking this time? After all that's what visitors usually do, they knock. But he is not used to of knocking? It was not his nature to be hesitant. 

Usually he would assume the demeanour of the inhabitants plain and blunt, without asking for permission, without thinking, without caring about repercussions for the host. He was a visitor of his own kind, unique and almost devilish. Meant to hoard, disrupt, hurt and disdain the host. He didn't care, he just did what he pleased. But this time he decided to knock, why? Maybe the host chose to answer the door? Maybe it was a smarter host after all.  The host who chose to ask him the question! Why? Why me? Anxiety didn't know what to do? It was unreal for anyone to not entertain him. Anxiety thought let me just leave middle earth as it is. Yes you heard it right, without Anxiety! Just peaceful, happy and serene as it was. 

Morel of the story: About the time we became Frodos of our own lives and choose not to entertain this unwelcome guest when it knocks on the door. Anxiety.