NO TIME TO STAND AND STARE

 



“What is this life if, full of care.

We have no time to stand and stare.”

William Henrey Daveis

 

Beauty is there everywhere... We are surrounded by it. Only thing is: Most of it goes unnoticed by us... Because, we are frantically busy; or, we look for it somewhere far, in grand settings...

Beauty around us, therefore, escapes our eyes...

Many of us travel to exotic places... Yes, we call it break, vacation, get away, holiday and so on. But, if it is a ‘break’, a vacation – a leisure in true sense -  then, we should not be obsessed with broadcasting our ‘vacation’ live, 24/7 on social media...

We miss the point – the very purpose of our ‘get away’ from our frantic schedule in our cities.

It is difficult, for many of us, to stay anonymous for a few days during our get aways... 

We need someone to remind us, that when we chase big things in life, we miss the beauty of small things around us. Like, I loved teaching as a young man... Teaching, being with young kids, made me incredibly happy. Hence, even at the height of my popularity, I resisted the temptation to lose touch with that core source of my joy – teaching.

I remember, my late friend, Sundar, trying to keep my conscience whenever he would see me frantically busy during the initial days of Dawn Club. He was able to read my anxiety and edginess... How, single-mindedly, I was trying to implement some things in those days. “It’s great you are so focused and determined, my friend,” Sundar would remind me, “But, don’t ever lose sight of your basic purpose and the source of joy.”

Another friend of mine, who was a bachelor like me then, had another way of reminding me about the same thing, but, in his own inimitable way. This friend loved English literature – old classics, the prose, plays and poems. Thus, he would, often, prick my conscience citing the first two lines of William Henry Daveis’ famous poem – ‘Leisure’ (written in 1911):

“What is this life if, full of care.

We have no time to stand and stare.”

37 years later, this morning, this friend shared with me this picture from TOI newspaper:

 




Yes, without saying a single word... Just a reminder through this picture, that no matter how busy life has kept us with... the big plans, big dreams, big holidays etc. – the fountain of true source of our joy would,  always, lie deep in our own bosoms... That, we should never turn numb to it... never turn blind to the beauty right here, right now – in abounding simple things...

 





GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: 1. www.whatshot.in

Video: Simerjeet Singh

 

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