IS NOT EVERY INCH OF LAND WE OWN, AND EVERY BREATH WE TAKE, GOD'S OWN?

















“Times will change for the better when you change.” 



A friend of mine and his family had planned to visit Kerala on a short trip. They were to leave today evening. I asked him, “Is it safe to travel at this point of time? The images and the reports are scary.”

“We are evaluating whether to go or not,” my friend replied.

At the time I was communicating with my friends, a certain anxiety of mine was weighing me down.

“What may happen?” is the constant question that weighs us down when we are anxious about our future. Despite all my positive thinking, I know, that my immunity level against anxiety is quite low… I become anxious, quickly… I get into depressing thoughts... I worry. But, fortunately, this cycle passes. And, once this entire cycle is over, I shed off my anxiety and march on…

“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future,” Kahlil Gibran says, “but from wanting to control it.”

The friend of mine, who I spoke about at the outset in this Post, is one of the most level-headed persons in my circle. He doesn’t get rattled by other people’s actions or outside situations easily. He has a very realistic outlook towards the impact of how other people behave and how outside situations unfold. “What is not within our control, we should not try to stop from happening. Because, despite our frantic efforts, they will happen.”

So, as Kahlil Gibran says, “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”


The more I watched the terrible images of deluge in Kerala – which we called ‘God’s own Country’ - the less terrible I began to feel over my own anxiety. I just needed that perspective – a bigger problem in front of me, to make me realize how small my own problem was!

The same friend, always, would tell me, “When you are anxious, just get up and do something – act, exercise, play, pray, sing, laugh… Don’t sulk, don’t’ brood… Don’t take yourself too seriously, nor your tomorrow.”

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows,” says a wise soul, “but only empties today of its strength.”

“By letting go and by letting God in.” Yes, this is how we find peace, even if we call the land we live on -  is ‘God’s own Country’!
But, then, is not every inch of land we own, and every breath we take, God’s own?


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: The Week


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