What is the last thing you think about before you embrace sleep?
I usually review my day or make plans for the next one. If there’s something nagging my mind, I try to see it objectively, rationally.
This is the time when my mind wanders wantonly. Without structure. Without boundaries.
I float back and forth in the past and present with a part of my brain looking through a keyhole into the future.
Last night, as I was tossing and turning after a rather aggravating day, I decided to focus on one thing: the one positive highlight that made me feel good inside. That introduced joy to my heart. That made me smile.
It was a tiny green hummingbird outside my office window. It flitted above the flower-less bushes just long enough to leave me mesmerized. Even if for a couple of precious seconds.
Wound up in all the commotion of the day, I hadn’t even given that short-lived experience a second thought. Until that time in bed.
I recaptured that moment in time. Rewound it and saw it in slow motion. Lived it again.
I felt peace sweep over me.
Content, I drifted off.
This morning I decided I would make it a nightly exercise. When reviewing the day in bed, I’d think of the one thing, as trivial as it might be, that gave me a moment of happiness. A sight, a smell, a taste, a gesture …
Small things sometimes light up the gloomiest of days. Things we most often fail to notice. Things that register, but not quite.
It is in the simplicity of everyday moments that life’s true beauty is revealed.
I’ll leave you with a poem I wrote many years ago about the essence of life:
A cuckoo on a mango tree;
A spider’s web; a buzzing bee;
A blooming bud on a thorny stem;
Dewdrops sparkling like little gems;
The sun rising in the eastern sky,
Flocks of birds soaring high;
The full moon spreading its radiant glow,
Stars that shine all night through;
The neighing of a grazing horse;
Walls covered by a carpet of moss;
An ant carrying a grain of rice,
Ever heard the talks of mice?
Butterflies romancing with the flowers;
Buffaloes chewing the cud for hours;
A kitten’s purr; a sparrow’s chirp;
Snails crawling round a herb;
A rabbit twitching its pink nose;
Water in the river that incessantly flows;
Wind blowing the pollen grains;
The smell of the earth when it rains;
A puppy lapping milk from a bowl;
Ever noticed the burrow of a mole?
Life is work and work is life,
Man always walks on the road of strife,
But - pause a moment and look around -
A treasure of beauty you will have found;
And you’ll cherish these moments for a long time to come,
These gifts of nature can never be summed.
The burden of work is overwhelmingly gripping,
But, these are the things that make life worth living!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mansi Bhatia
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Mansi - Also left this comment on Writer’s Rising. As usual, well said and beautifully written. I started ending my day with my little “giving thanks” blog. Some have tripped over it but it is mainly for me. It’s amazing the little things during the day that assuming we do notice, still go unnoticed. I really enjoyed the mental picture of the hummming bird zipping into you mind as you went to sleep. So cool. Thanks and pleasant “wonderful things” tonight.
Thanks, Beth
Sometimes I think we live in two worlds.
There is the world of nature that is there for us, free and beautiful. It's sights and sounds and smells, a gift to our souls.
Then there is the world of work. Almost a form of slavery to a machine that always want to be fed bits of paper.
Birds don't have to pay bills, bees don't have to pay bills, tigers don't have to spend all their time doing things they don't want to do just to keep the rent man happy so why do we call ourselves, the human race, so evolved? It all seems a bit backward to me.
I agree, Jacqui. We are such consumerists…sometimes I wish there was a timeout where we could all just go back to being one with Nature. And when we come back, we make things right…
Hi mansi,
just chanced upon this post via indiblogger.Must say, a beautiful thought..I would say in fact, let both the first and last thoughts of the day be positive…
regarding the humming bird, i think you had your zen moment
I liked ur poem also, nice n sweet.I also write poems myself.You could pay me a visit at http://www.assorted-platter.blogspot.com http://www.soulatma.blogspot.com
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