WHEN THE ROOT IS BITTER, THE FRUIT CAN'T BE SWEET






















“When the root is bitterness, imagine what the fruit might be.”

- Woodrow Kroll



Where does our bitterness come from?

I think, it comes from disappointments, self-pity, blame, regrets, guilt, hurts, sadness, envy and anger. There is, always, a reason why we feel bitter in life – about situations and people. The only way to do away with this bitterness is to get in touch with the reason – the root cause, the source of our bitterness.

Many a time, we are reluctant to get in touch with the root cause of our bitterness. It takes a great deal of honesty and courage to do that – to look in the mirror, straight. We would rather escape!

But, by escaping, the bitterness doesn’t go. It stays back to become poison in our soul!

I think, what we call ‘healing’ is the process of overcoming bitterness in life – the disappointments, self-pity, blame, regrets, guilt, hurts, sadness, envy and anger. I, also, think, we have been endowed with the capacity to self-heal… to lick our own wounds!

Life, they say is bigger than the life-situations. Life-situations are, always, temporary. So, when our life-situations are tough and frustrating, the resulting bitterness is, also, temporary. It’s important, therefore, to face the situations head-on with honesty and courage… and be done with it. Else, as I said, the bitterness stays back to become poison.

Each of us has a way of dealing with our bitterness, without having to resort to any harmful route. The ways can be very simple…

Counting our blessings and feeling grateful, certainly, comes on the top of this list. We cannot feel grateful and bitter at the same time.

Hope is another simple way…

Looking at the little babies – the innocence, the laughter, the freshness, the love and longing… often, makes us forget our bitterness…

Looking at the little cats and dogs that we raise in our homes as our pets - the innocence, the loyalty, the love and longing… yes, it can dissolve our bitterness…

Spending time with the Nature is one of the amazing ways of letting go our bitterness… There, awe-struck, we realize how small our ‘problems’ really are… How silly it is to cry over them and let our life wasted! Yes, that’s what the Nature sends us back with!

Life has struggle, and struggle brings disappointments and pain. But, before they turn into bitterness, and before our bitterness turns into poison, we do have a choice!


GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Amrita Jeurkar

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