Growing up—growing Old

Every new person visiting me leaves back a part of him/her in the learning that I get, and this is the biggest gift of working for me.

This lady came to me some years back. Fragile and small built, she could be ignored if one were not captivated by the glow in her eyes. She was like a budding flower, enthusiastic, bright and full of life. Gently she sat and looked around, observing me, and I wondered what would I talk about, to this lady who has seen life more than I have, and whose understanding  could be a learning for me.

She fumbled with the glass of water, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so jittery. My hands do not seem to be in my control’. And her question to me was, ‘will I complete my graduation this year?’. I asked her what motivated her to get to college and study. She smiled, she said, ‘I always dreamt of college education, and now I am getting one’.

At eighty seven? I wondered! What would I speak? I was fumbling for words. She started talking on the latest cricket match being telecast with all the statistical details of all the current players. I laughed, and she went on, (I quote her words…)

“We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it! There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are a nineteen year old and lie in bed for full one year, and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn 20. If I am 87, stay in bed for a year, and never do anything, I will turn 88. Anybody can grow older, that does not need a talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunities to change. Have no regrets. The elders do not have regrets for what they did, but for what they did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”.  She was sipping the tea with a happy smile on her, enjoying every sip with contentment.

This was an incident that made me sit up and look at life from another angle.

Just last night I received the news of her passing away in sleep. In that one visit some five years back, she taught me to live life… she taught me..Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional

 

From this Love

Mystic marriage are born
the poets’ songs, inner knowledge,
the language of the heart,

ways of living,
and the fair child Beauty.

And the Great Love

gives to man as dowry
the hidden glory of the world.

 

13/7/11

Philosophy works when the stomach is full. All my philosophy stares at me when I see the heart wrenching cries of those injured at the blast, no matter where it is. Today it is Mumbai, it could be anywhere tomorrow. Watching the television screens we comment on the situation, we comment on those journalists who want make it early to cover this bit of news for their tv channels, to be the early birds. And there are those innocent ones, whose loves ones were waiting for them to return home, who got the brunt of those who try to create panic, whose hatred is more than love.

Makes me wonder what are we heading for? ‘Life is a metro’..is fast, it is compassionless, it is dry. As I write this, I introspect, the quality life we talk of, to think  big, to look outwards….in the process aren’t we missing the basic ? Aren’t we missing out on Love- the basic ingredient that makes us human? Or is that also tagged with a price? We talk tall but have become hollow within.

A little of love, care, concern….not in situations like these, but consistent feeling of warmth to be ignited in us to fight off such dastardly coward acts …if we want to keep our loved ones safe.

Time to introspect and act …

And question ….is Love so scarce ????

 

My name

Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow —
today is a day yet to unfold

Look deeply: every second I arrive
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.

The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart
can be left open,
the door of compassion.