I was home and the whole day lay ahead of me. The very thought
was delicious. It was one of those rare holidays when the day was all mine,
with nothing that demanded my immediate attention. I cherish the state of mind
such days bring with them- unhurried, with a slow tempo and the sort of silence
and stillness where every sensory perception percolates deep within, generating
an emotional flavor that floods the heart with unbound joy.
I felt like Tom Sawyer, delighted at my freedom. The author
has so beautifully captured in that little story the worth of freedom. A child
perhaps values freedom over and above everything else. When I think of my
childhood, it reverberates with the perceptions of a mind with unrestricted
freedom. An adult is perhaps ‘conditioned’ to prioritize a million things over
and above his freedom. But given a choice, there is nothing that he would
perhaps value more than his freedom.
Today was one such day- a day that spoke of promises…of
possibilities…of miracles. I watched the leaves fall from the trees- there was
some grace in the way they fell. Clouds moved across the sky…so very slowly.
The coconut palms swayed gently with the wind. The eagles flew high in the sky
in slow circles. I drank my tea in slow sips, allowing the flavor to flood my
senses. Today, I could feel the warmth of the sun rays. Today, I was all that
surrounded me. I was the cloud in the sky, the bulbul chirping on the tree, the
butterfly fluttering its wings, the sun shining in the sky. Today, there was no
‘me’….there was only the world around…and the beauty that it radiated. Today, I
was at the heart of nature. Its slow tempo percolated effortlessly into the
nothingness of my mind, healing and rejuvenating my mind.
The ideal purpose of a holiday or a vacation in the course
of our fast paced lives and our faster paced minds should be such a
rejuvenation- a liberation from the millions of thoughts we feed into our minds
each day to keep pace with the world around…to keep our places in this world-
our career, our relationships, our possessions…to stabilize ourselves at the
expense of the stability of our minds. And then, most of us take that ‘vacation
package tour’ to exotic places and return with the happiness of having indulged
in an ‘exotic’ vacation. Our mind sighs, but we refuse to acknowledge it. We
dope ourselves all along with fancy foods, extravagant houses, trendy cars and
clothes, social status and enviable lifestyles. Our life appears full from the
outside. Deep inside, the mind yawns. We dope ourselves more to overcome this ‘boredom’
and take quicker strides towards obesity and cardiovascular disease.
I found myself moved by these words from Anne Frank’s diary:
“I looked out of the open window over a large area of
Amsterdam, over all the roofs and on the horizon, which was such a pale blue
that it was hard to see the dividing line. As long as this exists, and I may
live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot
be unhappy. The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to
go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature
and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that
God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of Nature. Riches can
all be lost, but the happiness in your own heart can only be veiled, and it
will still bring you happiness again, as long as you live.”
