Digressing from the mountains...

to thoughts on sharing our fears....

I do believe that one can only share one's fears with those in whom there is total and absolute trust....

Experience has shown me time and again, that a mistake here can be very costly emotionally, and psychologically, not to mention the adverse impact it can have on your life...

So why do we need to share our fears at all - simply because it sometimes becomes too much for the lone heart to bear...

Looking at this from the other side - trusting another person with this deepest of deep feelings, in a way empowers the person you trust - empowers him/her to know how valued he/she is, and what a source of comfort...gives the person more confidence in himself/herself too - that he/she was worthy of trust.

What the person you trust does with that piece of your heart depends on that person entirely....the trust can deepen or be betrayed.....

Another way of looking at sharing our fears is to tell the person you trust that thanks to you, I came out of it..and I'm here for when you need someone to lean on...

And still another way of looking at this is to show that with help any fear can be overcome

At the end of the day we have to find our own solutions....having a trusting hand to hold, helps....

Lesson 4...studying...

the photographs....

                                                 

it came to me that no matter what the color of the clouds that swirl around the mountains, the mountains never change...white, black, dark grey clouds - they all move, and drift away -  the mountains remain pristine
 It's the same with us - Deep inside us are the mountains of truth, beauty, and goodness. White clouds of happiness, dark clouds of doubt, fear, unhappiness, grief, drift around - but as the beautiful white mountains remain the same, steady and unchanging, our core too remains unchanging...

We need to always carry the image of the mountains with us. When any dark thing assails us, all we need to do is to conjure up the image of the mountains and wait....

            the peace and strength will surely flow in....

(I guess that's why every wise person tells us to always hark to the inner voice - it will come if we are still enough)

Lesson 3...

I'm not a ritualistically religious person, but the only lines that came into my mind when I saw the mountains were these:

I will lift up mine eyes to the hills.
                                           Psalm 121

 Oh Lord
how majestic is Thy name in all the earth                  




When I look at your heavens,
  the work of your fingers








What is man that You are mindful of him,






Or the son of man that you care for him?
                                       Psalm 8

Digressing from the mountains...

to something I learnt today from an old student of mine...he was Phantom in our version of The Phantom of the Opera...a lovely child with a pure voice...today he was reminiscing about our practice sessions - me a novice, hiding my diffidence and fear behind a stern taskmaster-ish front, trying to make sense of an assignment which I had no experience of, but which a demanding Head wanted - or else - and here this boy, my Phantom, goes - 'Looking back on those days always brings me back to a sense of contentment' - the years vanish, and I can hear him sing 'Music of the Night' with all the passion of a teenager...and interpret it in his own unique way -

and I think - after all these years - that if those hard days could have created good memories in my kids, then it was all worth it....

Those assignments also taught me that when there was no way out, the best thing was to just get started - do one thing and then another, and then another.....and slowly, the windows and doors just open..... . (When the final performance was ready, I could hardly believe the way it all began!!!)

So, after all, the demanding Head did have a place in my life - the assignment  taught me to take an unknown task, a challenge, hard conditions, and turn something beautiful out of it -  besides the fact, of course, that I too learnt so much - from the kids and from the whole task of putting up a musical...an affirmation for me of me, and memories for my students...

Really - it is true - no experience goes to waste - it does surface somewhere, in some form, to complete a hitherto jagged facade in the heart...and no matter how long it takes, but hardships do return as sweet-smelling bouquets...and something good does come out of everything - bad and sad, good and happy....

Lesson 2...

The mind, heart, body need to be in sync - the mind meanders, and throws up lots of miscellaneous, and sometimes disparate pictures in various colors, in different lights. These need to be screened, sifted, and ratified against the backdrop of the unchanging mountains. Only when they have been endorsed by the depths of the heart can these thought-pictures even be considered. Naturally, there will be shades of dark and light, but these will blend and balance, and create a whole effect. And then, finally, the body needs to act....not to disrupt, but to complement and complete the picture.

And there is perfect sync--perfect peace....

Lesson drawn from the mountains....

This too will pass, as all things must - good and bad
And the ending will be the sweeter for it....

Back...

from a wonderful holiday in Pemayangtse, Pelling, Sikkim. Over the next few days, I'll try and capture the essence of the intensely spiritual experience of living in the shadow of the Kanchenjunga...