WHETHER TO SEE SUNSHINE OR SHADOW

 




“Keep your face to the sunshine, and you cannot see

the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do.”

Helen Keller


 

I don’t think, that there is anyone around us, who doesn’t realize the importance of being positive in life. Yes, the energy and motivation to do well and do good in life come from a positive state of mind. But, I, also, don’t think, that there is anyone around us, who thinks it’s possible to stay positive, ‘always’.

Writing by blogs, teaching my students and several such activities give me the greatest joy. That is the positive space I long to be in… But, I have seen, during the course of writing and teaching, that, at times, I can literally touch the negativity… Irritations, frustrations, gloom, lack, impatience and, even, arrogance. All this springs up right through my day… There are times, when I tend to lose trust in people, lose hope… feel bitter about life…

But, but, but… Not always. Mercifully, these gloomy bouts, like smokey clouds, do pass quickly, letting me see the sunshine, all over again…

Happily, Helen Keller’s advice, to keep face to sunshine doesn’t have an ‘always’ in it. The Legend knew, that it’s not possible for her to do so in her own life… All that she tried to do was, perhaps, to keep lifting her face to sunshine, time and time and time again…

The shadow – the negativity, if we wish to call it – shall, always, be present around us. But, whether to see the shadow or the sunshine – well, that’s a constant choice before us…

The people we surround with, the films, programmes and videos we watch… The books we read, the messages and forwards we choose to believe in and spread… The strong political and religious ideologies we choose to harden ourselves with… These are some of the areas where the choice has to be exercised. Just before I started writing this Post, I clicked ‘Not Interested’ option for scores of YouTube videos that kept popping up on my phone. Meanwhile, there was this video, too, that had popped up…

 


 


 


Yes, I had chosen to watch this…

Sunflowers choose to keep their faces to sunshine, no doubt. But, sadly, even they wither away. We are better placed, you see, as far as our choices are concerned… We can tune-in to the sun-frequency more often, and more effectively, than the sunflowers do…



GERALD D’CUNHA


Pic.:pixabay

Video: H.H. Radhanath Swami

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