ON THE AIRWAVES — By Lakshmi Kothaneth — After holidays it is back to reality. Holiday reality is a different ballgame all together. One would think they would just laze around on a holiday. But the reality is quite different. Probably it is just a couple of days you would want to laze around and then your mind is flooded with things you would want to do if you had the time. That is when you realise you are on a holiday.
I just spent time with someone who is recovering from a heart ailment. At her age she should not have experienced it. But the stress is a big player than we all think. We talked and she also said lifestyle too is an important player. We are just lazy people, she said.
Her words had a lot of strength because she was speaking from her reflections. We have talked about these issues before but then it is always about someone else’s words. Something we have read about in a magazine or on the Internet. Yet it is totally different when you experience it yourself.
And then she said something that just stayed with me. She said this is her second chance, a new beginning. I want to do everything I need to do, she pointed out.
That reminded me of another person I had met during my holidays. He told me the real you is the one you are when you are sleeping. That person has no ego. That is true is it not? In deep sleep we do not even know where we are or who we are. Where there is no ego there is no judgement. He said as a matter of fact when we are sleeping we are almost gone and we come back in the morning as we wake up.
It means we have a new beginning every day in the morning. The point is we take life for granted. We have gotten so used to going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. We have even lost sight of our purpose in life. We lost it probably long, long time ago. We have learnt just to react to situations. We have forgotten to take actions.
When we are young, elders constantly ask us, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We would come up with a cute answer and every one would laugh with great cheer. But as a child we were not joking. I remember my brother would answer to the question by saying he wants to be a truck driver. He just loved vehicles and driving. And a truck driver was driving one of the biggest vehicles. That was a young mind bold enough to dream and recognise what he wanted to do.
As our mind expands to the exposure of the big wide world so do our dreams and ambitions. My brother soon wanted to drive a car that could fly and had magnet underneath and later wanted to be in the navy and I wanted to say, “Ah, I know it is the ships that is the attraction.” Navy was not the chosen profession but he drove all types of cars the favourite being the ‘Bug’.
For most of us when we grow up, of course, we have our wants but we are taught to be part of the norm. Soon life’s challenges catch up and out of fear we just want to be normal to the point we want to merge with the crowd.
We do not want to stand out and when we want to be different we try too hard that we stick out like a sore thumb.
That is probably because we are trying to be different for all the wrong reasons for example just to get attention.
Instead when we are in touch with our true self and realise each day is a new gift, we know each is a new opportunity to be true to ourselves. True to make a difference to one’s self and the society!