it's useless getting nowhere on time

mukul sharma

HERE’S a good pop-psychology sort of New Age advice: “Take a walk — but don’t go anywhere. If you walk just to get somewhere, you sacrifice the walking.” The homily basically exhorts us to try and get out of the rut of a programmed existence where we always need to reach a given destination. As it’s quite clear, they’re not talking about physical activity of moving from A to B but even things like a treadmill. Because on those machines too we usually pace ourselves to get to a point — perhaps a higher calorie shedding count, faster stride rate or an ultimately elevated heart beat. In the process the “walk - ing”, the actual the thing that happens in the spaces between events, people and places is lost.

Which is a shame because it reduces us to a connect-the-dots kind of lifestyle that overlooks the importance of the lines separating the dots or bringing them together. One can’t exist without the other.

Here’s another cool sounding bit of guidance of the same variety: “Give yourself permission to be late sometimes. Life is for living, not scheduling.” True, and pithily put. Again, it’s not really about appointments, interviews or trysts, where other people are involved who could be cheesed off by your unpunctuality, thus resulting — more often than not — in you emerging the greater loser in the bargain for being perceived as undependable, apathetic or insensitive. But, like, what is it with people who make a fetish of being on time for responding, questioning, understanding or sometimes even “being there” for someone? Because, that just means we’re being driven by outside controls, not necessarily listening to an inner voice or desire.

However, it’s interesting to note that a better proposition can be arrived at by combining the two counsels. For instance, a Zen way of looking at the same thing would be to say: “Take a walk — but don’t go anywhere. And while you’re at it, give yourself permission to be late sometimes.” After all who could possibly want to get nowhere in a hurry? In other words, going with the flow may be a great way to go on the river of life but it still reaches you to the delta punctually, and always on that river’s own preordained schedule. Meanwhile what happens to you besides being all at sea after that? But if one doesn’t let it all go at once and holds back from time to time, one could even reach places where others have never gone before.

credit: cosmic uplink, economic times

walk in the rain

As we embrace the gentle rain and the small sprinklings of life, we prepare ourselves by learning the lessons the heavens give us at the perfect time, and place, says Marlene Buffa

The rain in our life brings opportunities for growth. Be still sad heart and cease repining; Behind the clouds the sun is shining, Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life a little rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary. — Longfellow

Whenever it rains, i am reminded of what my father always said. “You won’t get wet. Just run in between the raindrops, and you will be just fine.” I also think of that saying when life rains down hard on me and i wonder how to dodge the drops, then, too. Daddy’s gentle and humorous confidence that life always worked out for the best instilled in me the same optimism and joyful outlook on life.

When we realise that the inevitable rain showers come and go in our lives no matter how much we try to avoid the dampness of the moment, we find comfort and a sense of content understanding when we look behind the clouds of circumstance and know the sunshine of possibility never left our world.

Life lessons, like the rain in our lives, offer us both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. We recognise that life’s challenges, much like precipitation, bring opportunities for growth, but only when the soil of our consciousness absorbs the lesson.

If we put up umbrellas of protection from the majesty of life falling down on us, we negate the possibility of receiving new information and therefore, deny progression towards our greater good. Yet, if we look up to the sky and willingly allow the inevitable rain to reach us, we may indeed get wet in the torrent of blessings disguised as a dark cloud teaching us valuable lessons.

Only when we walk in the rain, with its glorious thunder and lighting and life-sustaining water, do we embrace the possibility of moving through it and accepting the blessings it brings. When it rains, it pours. I live in the desert southwest of the United States. When i first arrived, over 13 years ago, and the sunshine welcomed me over 300 days each year, i felt cheated if overcast skies darkened my mood. It took a while, but now i welcome the cloud cover, with anticipation that it may provide life-giving rain to our arid landscape. Many times, the high clouds, filled with water, unleash their cache of moisture into the atmosphere, and we still don’t get rainfall.

At times in our lives, we experience drought or downpour. We complacently go from day to day, enjoying our bliss. All the while, somewhere, the rain builds, but it avoids hitting us directly. We see the accumulation of problems and feel the residual effects of the gathering storm, but we don’t experience the outburst directly. And then, when the skies open up and problems pour down on us, we use different methods, like prayer or coping mechanisms, to assist us in redirecting the conflict away from us, for a better use. Like weather, does God give us an all or nothing presentation of life's challenges? Sometimes, it seems that way.

Unlike a waterfall, rain falls to earth in droplets. One little lesson at a time, we feel soaked in life’s education, yet we must remember what’s in between the drops themselves. My father’s gentle advice to run in between the drops meant that while we experience the downpour of life, the way to cross the street to a sunny side of positive outcome, is to take advantage of those brief moments and spaces in time — between the drops — and take a breath of air to assess what’s happening, then move on to the next challenge. He never claimed it wouldn’t rain, he just pointed out to mitigate the effects of the harshness of life, move deliberately and quickly from one challenge to the next. The power lies between the drops. Eventually, the rain stops, and the sun peeks out again from behind the clouds of ordeal. Put away your umbrella. Whenever i tell my woes to my friend Ann, she gently reminds me that the situation i’m describing exists to teach me a lesson.

I can’t learn the lesson if i avoid it, i must walk through it. If we repeatedly put up umbrellas to block the lessons from touching our lives, we never experience the purpose of the education and we must suffer repeated exposure to the challenge.

Like the weather, we control very little of what rains down on us. When we divert or ignore the problems in our lives, they return with fervor, like the microburst, and flood our consciousness with such powerful lessons, we can’t turn deny the issues swirling at our feet, threatening our demise.

As we embrace the gentle rain and the small sprinklings of life happening from time to time, we prepare ourselves by learning slowly and completely the lessons the heavens give us at the perfect time and place, and in the perfect order. Rain, like life's ordeals, gives us nourishment, and is necessary for growth. Without the existence of the dark clouds and humidity, the sunshine in our lives may be taken for granted.

Celebrate your life between the dark clouds and wet air, and know if you move with speed and deliberation and learn from the storms in your life, the clouds eventually move on. Everything in life is temporary. Difficulties really do evaporate with time. Your true power is found between the trickles of misfortune, in the awareness of your ability to move from one challenge to the next.

credit: times of india