By Pooja Marwah
Legend has it that, some 4000 years ago, the Maya Civilisation invented a complex system to interlace the cycles of time. This went on to be the Mayan Calendar and, based on this, they harvested crops, conducted their trade and even foresaw the end of the world.
As early as CE 635, Hilary of Poitiers announced the end of the world, till the most recent, Jeane Dixon, who cited that 2020 would be the year of the Armageddon. Between them, believe you me, there have been over a hundred conspiracies to demark the end of the world.
And yet, here we are today, reading this and celebrating the moments in our lives. We are a rather special species, are we not?
The end of the world will come when it has to. Things will fall in place at the time they are meant to. And, love is something that can happen at any time, any place or to anyone. It sees nothing.
So, instead of sitting back and getting flustered over the numerous Doomsday predictions, perhaps it is time to get moving and make the most of Now.
For, the day has arrived and you are basking in the comfort of your own home, reading this and engaging in some soulful rendition of family ties. One of the things that are driving people up the wall of paranoia is the plethora of information on the internet. What is true and what isn’t? What is real and what is fake? What is serious and what is trivial?
I read a very interesting piece recently on the mind which ended with this, “A mind is its own place, and in itself, it creates heaven out of hell and a hell in heaven!” And I am more than sure that all of us are privy or have been a victim to this thought.
In the wake of everything around us that is causing us anxiety, there remains only one thing that will ensure we make it sane through this storm. And that is the power of love.
Success, fortune, fame… the glamour and the glitz all fall in a bare second to the one thing that has kept us going – a mind and a heart that feels. Often misconstrued as vulnerable and emotional, it is in love that one can truly surpass it all.
I used to believe that the pen is mightier than the sword but I am beginning to reconsider this statement as I am increasingly sure of the fact that it is the brain that actually is the strongest. It has the power to make or break a person just by its train of thought. It is capable of making one weave a web of speculation and then immerse oneself so deep into it, that there is no way out.
Learning to recapture your mind and transform it to a place that leaves you warm and fuzzy is what today is about. With experience, I can proudly say that I finally have the courage to take a deep breath and “let it go”. If I can’t control it, if I can’t force it, I have learnt to look the other way.
For, there is no point in getting flustered about something that is not in your hands. And if fluster is what you want, then there are sure other ways of feeling that warmth. All you need to do is look the right way. There will always be someone out there saying, “My arms are open.”
But you do have to tune your mind to look.
(Pooja Poddar Marwah is an award winning author and Blogger. She writes an contemporary living and offers incisive reflections on the world around us. Her blog, Random Conversations is a go to guide to deal with the myraid stuggles we face each day.)
