Iggy

I’m typing this right now from my balcony on the 20th floor of a high rise that is surrounded by green fields, a view of one construction site, a few hundred cows, several bunches of stray dogs (or semi-wild ones) and the occasional flock of birds flying a hundred feet below my balcony.

Life is idyllic. The city is far away and it’s the end of a week and all my work deadlines, payment schedules, people issues and a myriad other strings are all packed away for the weekend to give me two days of bliss with myself, the horizon and this scenery.

Oops I hear the sound of my wife and I’m brought back to the strings at home – wife, kids, homework and school project work that I need to help my kids with, my dog at my feet who needs to have a bath soon, my cupboard draws that need to be cleaned and tidied, and a few other things that I have thankfully forgotten at the moment. Oh here comes one of my kids with complaints of body pain, … at least till his friends call him to play and he along with his body pain will disappear for a while. Have you ever wondered how we can be in so much of pain at a moment and the minute something or someone we like shows up in our radar, we forget the pain and go off to immerse ourselves in what we enjoy. Everything is so relative and transient.  If we just remember that in our times of stress, we will be able to comfortably sail over those troughs and crests without getting ourselves lost in its folds and creases.

Have you looked down at the world from the window of your airborne flight when it’s taking off or landing? When the plane is close enough to the ground, you are able to see people and even expressions. However as it climbs up, individual houses coagulate into coloured shapes and soon even cities disappear and just a mass of green, blues and browns are seen.  Individual worries disappear. The damage that man is doing to our earth in his greed to urbanize, provide energy and resources to his ever-growing cities is the only thing that is visible. Perspective is a powerful teacher. When we are close to a problem, it envelops us. When we give it some space, it becomes a little less unbearable. When we drop it completely from our mind, it somehow has the ability to drop out completely from our life. The whole game of life is being played out in our mind alone. It all depends on how well we direct the movie. 

Be kind to yourself. Give yourself the time and space to detach and view it from afar. Go sit on top of a mountain or get to the 20th floor balcony and look out at the world. 🙂