to nature in the form of animals and plants that convey a lot of important lessons I have always appreciated going out for walks in nature in dawn with nature always seeming so perfect, balanced and efficient. Then I am reminded of the Chinese proverb, “Whoever loves and understands a garden will find contentment within” as I express my kudos to improve the lifestyle of the modern man. A Sunday to be spent leisurely, but not in my life made all these lessons dawn upon me.
My Sunday morning as usual started at dawn with a leisurely walk in the nearby park with observing the dew on the grass. It seemed so nice to be alive and in this beautiful atmosphere. Observing the barking of dogs on the road and fresh green plants going about their work made me realize that we as human beings were causing harm to the ecological balance of nature by deforestation and eating meat. It was true that it suddenly dawned upon me that the order of things also meant that each human being played a vital role in society and had positive attributes irrespective of his occupation and social status in life.
Deeply engrossed in my thoughts, I suddenly realized that dawn had given way to the first rays of the sunlight. It was wonderful to observe the plants rejoicing and bending towards the sunlight that was the source of life and food for them. My thoughts got diverted, I suddenly realized bitterness, jealousy, hatred, anger and other negative feelings were rotting our roots of health, happiness and success in today’s modern society. The first rays of light dawned spiritual sunlight upon me that it was only love, peace, laughter, harmony and being in communion with the Lord that could make us soar high and be happy.
I realized soon that the giving away of dawn, with the dewy grass turning dry, made more important life lessons to dawn upon me. I did feel sad to see some once green trees shedding their leaves and looking so bald. However realization dawned upon me that changes were a part of nature and all of us with age and change of circumstances. However most of us tend to blame others for everything that goes wrong. I realized that instead we all need to take full responsibility for our own life and accept adaptability with creative changes in our lifestyle.
The day was getting brighter and I remembered breakfast had to be made for my family. Walking back home my sight drifted to broken tree with worms feeding on them. It dawned upon me that the tree was dying, with nature gracefully accepting this loss. But I could see new life in the form of baby plants under the same tree. So it was true that someone took over from the dead also. Yes the philosophy of life had dawned upon me; old gave way to new, and losses gave birth to new opportunities that seemed like seedlings.
Observing and ruminating over the dying tree with worms feeding on it conveyed to me the thoughts and actions of noble people. These people like green trees gave help to the needy like the shelter of trees; they gave counsel or shade in summer and motivation to the dejected like the oxygen and fresh air that trees gave us. It was also true that at death they left fond memories and experiences for all to follow with some donating their body parts to give life and hope to the living.
Opening the gate to go up to my apartment made me appreciate those colorful flowers in the place of seedlings that I had planted just a month back. I had watered, nurtured, talked to these plants and protected from the trampling of my pet dog Tofu. Like dawn flashed the thought, my patience and nurturing were responsible for these beautiful colored flowers. So it was true that good and happy things came with patience and nurturing; we needed to sow and nurture ideas, thoughts and deeds and wait patiently for them to give beautiful flowers of happiness and success.
Preparing a good and sumptuous breakfast made it dawn upon me that my lessons of life had also grown sumptuously. As I called my family to the breakfast table, I realized everything in life grows, for I had seen my pet dog Tofu and my son Vijay grow and found that growth was inevitable for happiness and success in life. Getting independent like most of us do was also essential like small plants slowly going away from big trees and baby animals leaving the mother. It dawned like lightening that we all need to grow spiritually, mentally and physically and realize our dreams in life as the 75 year old uncle got his MBA two months before his death.
Tofu got restless at the breakfast table for he missed me this morning during my solitary communion with nature. He wagged his tail and licked me all over. His unconditional love in spite of my disappointing him made me wonder where the aspect of unconditional love had gone in our world of humans. Circumstance had made us all so selfish, with love and favors based on conditions. It dawned upon me that we had turned into machines and could not ensure or experience the free flowing of a basic human want as love, affection and feeling of being wanted.
I had planned to click on my laptop as I had some work to be completed during the weekend, but Tofu and my son communicated their want to spend some quality time with me. Light dawned upon me that they were my priorities in life too. Animals also enjoyed themselves as also plants by running about and swaying in the breeze leisurely, I thought. It was a delightful experience playing around and having fun with my husband also joining in the fun. I could already feel so energetic, making me feel it was true that a balance in life was essential for happiness and good health; don’t we want to be free of lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure, cholesterol and heart disease.
The realization that I had not prepared lunch dawned on me as hunger pangs took over all of us, with Vijay suggesting that we order pizza for lunch. Then our thoughts were suddenly diverted to a news item on TV that pets became obese due to faulty food habits of their masters. My son sprung up to the idea that if Tofu needed quality food; we also needed it and could not just yield to the taste of the tongue and convenience. We also needed to be healthy with eating natural foods, fruits and vegetables and get the right balance of B vitamins, certain minerals and essential fatty acids.
Vijay helped me cook a good and nutritious lunch for the first time that Sunday, with all of us wanting to relax after a 6 days workweek. I wanted to catch up on my work, but seeing Tofu already dozing made me realize that all of us needed short naps from time to time to feel good and refreshed. Most of us have forgotten the way to relax; we always wanted to be busy to feel good. The light dawned on me at the right time that rest made us more energetic and enthusiastic; we surely needed to nurture ourselves.
We had just about finished a short nap when we were disturbed by a rat’s squeaking sound outside the window. It was trying to escape from the clutches of the cat and crying out in pain. It dawned like air in my life that animals were so free in expressing their feelings like joys, sorrows and pains. We had forgotten the art of expressing ourselves and lived more on artificial terms in society. This was probably the reason for many of the misunderstandings and wrong communication in life.
My thoughts were interrupted with Tofu’s happiness with the wagging of his tail. He had my umbrella that I had lost 2 days back. The glee in his eyes told me that he was happy and proud of himself. I just stroked him in appreciation as he stood stiff and strong. The new dawn of thoughts was had we humans lost the skill of being proud of our small achievements? Did we only bother more about our insufficiencies and failures?
It was time to take Tofu for his evening walk and I thought I had to give him his Sunday treat of spending some quality time alone with him. My sight suddenly went to a chameleon in the park; it was planning its action and suddenly sprung on an insect and ate it. What dawned upon me was significant; wild animals worked hard and found ways and means to get their food, but difficult circumstances throw humans into depression. Was it not true that changing an adversity into an opportunity was very essential? In addition, we needed to teach our children to turn independent and tackle life’s challenges.
My beautiful Sunday lived from dawn to dusk made real life’s lessons dawn upon me. My laptop lay where I had left it on Saturday evening. Yet I was happy, as various life lessons had dawned upon me and I had realized that accepting the flow of things and living in the present moment as nature did was the best solution for living life king style.
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