COMING BACK TO LIFE
“When
I took a heavenly ride through our silence,
I knew
the moment had arrived
For
killing the past and coming back to life.”
(From
the song ‘Coming Back to Life’ by Pink Floyd)
I
think, one of the most amazing graces in life is the grace of coming home;
which, truly means the grace of coming back to life!
In this complex world, the
consoling fact about living is, that we all are fellow-humans with our
respective flaws. None of us – I say ‘none of us’ – here on this planet, is a flawless
soul. We are programmed to operate in this world with our respective ‘defects’.
An honest awareness of this fact about us is enough to keep us firmly grounded…
be kind not only towards others, but also towards ourselves.
Most of us find it difficult
to adjust with others, essentially because of our inability to be kind towards others and
ourselves. Others make mistakes just as we do. Others have the right to make
amends just as we do. We need to overlook others’ flaws and rejoice in what is
good about them, yes, just as we would love them to do the same towards us.
Our flaws are the rough
patches through which we seek our way back home… our way back to life. ‘All of
life is a coming home’, we hear it in the film ‘Patch Adams’. We hear it in the
teachings of Stephen Covey (‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’)… And, above all, we hear it in Jesus’ ‘Parable
of the Prodigal Son’…
Whichever way we may like to
interpret this concept of ‘Coming Home’, one thing remains constant: the ‘home’
is ‘Life’. Yes, we all lose our way along our journeys… We all stray away…
because of our human flaws and imperfections - our anger, envy, hatred, grudges,
insecurities and petty thinking. If living with another person harmoniously is difficult
for us, it’s because we fail to accept our flawed human-nature, and we fail to
be kind to others and ourselves… It makes it difficult for us to ‘come home’… ‘come
back to life’!
That’s why, I said at the outset,
that one of the most amazing graces in life is the grace of coming home – the grace
of coming back to life.
“You
need to be dead - blind, deaf and dumb – to the past,” a friend
of mine was saying yesterday, “You need to consciously learn to behave as if you
have seen no faults and heard no faults from other person, while owning up
yours, and move on.”
If that happens from both the
ends, life is truly blessed. If it doesn’t happen from the other end, life
still calls you. As the song goes, it’s worth killing the past and coming back
to life…
And, all of life is a coming
home, my friend!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic’s: pixabay
Videos: 1. the luminee 2. Pink Floyd
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