Times are tough. Actually I don’t know when times are not tough but on most days I am more aware of the balance of both difficult and light situations in life so the tough challenges are also taken in stride. But these last few months, the challenges seem to mount one on top of the other and I had to make a very conscious intention and effort to notice the better things in life and practice gratitude.
Personally there have been challenges but more than that just watching the mainstream news and papers has led to so much of downward sinking feeling. I’m not talking about covid numbers or the whole fight against it. I am talking of the dark shades of humanity that have come to fore in this time. Humans causing human suffering, it’s there; humans causing animal suffering, it’s there; humans causing planet suffering, it is there.
When I read about the elephant in Kerala and the way she died, I just wanted to quit from identifying myself as a human. Over time trust on a fellow being has reduced so much, that we have all had to learn to not pick up any unclaimed/unidentified object… How do you teach that to an unassuming animal who sees a pineapple and eats it?
I must have said the phrase “Is it true?” for tens of things in the last one month and spent days in depression over what is and what is not happening.
But then, I also come across pictures where kids have sent 1000s of birthday cards to 100-year-old Captain Tom, I also come across pictures of Muslim men shouldering a Hindu man’s bier, I also came across pictures of a 65-year-old man cycling for 400kms to take his wife to hospital…While they are absent from mainstream media, stories of radical acts of love and courage are abound in these times, we only have to look and they are right in our own backyard.
When my neighbor comes out every morning to throw seeds for the pigeons,
when Sikander goes out every day to buy milk for and feed the street dogs,
when mummy stitches masks to distribute to poor,
when thank you notes are given to garbage collector bhaiya and cleaning didi,
when peacocks sing from trees right across my balcony,
when the neighborhood kids modify their games so that they can play while keeping distance!
It is beautiful and hopeful to be a witness to these small things.
Now, more than ever, I need to hold on to this hope. Hope in humanity, hope in present, and hope of a future. I read the book “A mighty heart” long time ago and one line that stayed with me from the book is that “Hope is a very strong muscle”.
I promise to myself that from now on, I will step into each moment with an intention to exercise that muscle.
Leaving you all with this beautiful story of Small doses of Hope that I recently came across.