The Lightning Bolt – of Time

Photo: Vidur Sahdev of VerseInEmotion

My Beloved WP Community Friends – I have this deep overwhelming joy as I return to this space, a moving gratitude for finally being led to return to my birthplace as if, after a brilliant yet humbling voyage of life that I wandered off into – always looking back here over the shoulders, not wanting to leave ever.

I left here after “Lingering on the Rim” and the poem I share with you today urged me to come back to my center here:

For it has been a decade since my entire existence was cracked open to the insanity of living unskilled with my raw spirit.

A decade ago
began
a series of
my own personal deaths

A decade after
begin
a series of 
my own personal rebirths

A decade
whole
a series of 
oceanic churnings

Stillness at depths
Turmoils at surface
Redefining coastlines
for where the water
meets the shore

Dipping the toes
not an option
The ocean
devoured
me whole

‘Tis a mystery
Yet I see clearly
Why
I still hover
between
two worlds

Witnessing
the mind rain
in the darkness
Spirit drinking it up
with stilling starkness

I am left dancing
in the vivid rhythms
in between
‘Tis is yet only
the spine moved
with my breathing

In this moment –
A decade ago
and this decade after
and the decade from now
All merged into
one bolt of lightning
across the sky
of my earthly existing

Pray my spine
can sustain
the brilliance
of the bolt
as it traverses
my earthly time

Photo of lightning bolts by Vidur Sahdev of VerseInEmotion – thank you for letting me borrow it to go with my poem, it fits perfectly. Their poetry & mine have been conversing coherently for years now – do visit this beautiful poetry blog, if you would enjoy one more.

I want to visit with all of you, all at once!!! Please catch my beaming heart smile as I wander around old streets, making my way to each one of you. Perhaps help me by leaving a link in the comments for where you would like me to visit first, and not miss an update or a favorite from you. It has been 10 months … I offer this poem above to you, to celebrate my decade, to begin with.

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Note 1: Please join me here for conversations through the lens of yoga that I have begun sharing recently & inconsistently.

Note 2: Upcoming Virtual Seminar & Series in honor of International Womens Day: Embracing Equity through Stress management & Self Awareness

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Clarity

Enter a caption

Creating these quote images has become as if my new poetry. Inspiration comes to me in short snippets nowadays instead of poetic rhythm or lengthy prose. My thoughts then go through my mind lanes leading me to find photos clicked by my husband or photographer friends that I collaborate with – to find an image that speaks the emotion behind my inspiration.

Reverse process happened with the image above. My friend and photographer Vikram Phale sent me some pictures he took on his weekend getaway with his family. And this picture of the sky just astounded me. I spent few minutes intently looking at the picture and the words that came are the quote you see.

Thank you friends for getting me excited in this new creativity with your appreciation for my previous quote images and encouraging me to make more.

 

P.S. I wish to share with you a blog that has been nourishing me with confirmations of my spiritual perspectives on everything related to our existence. I have felt more confidence in how I perceive and live this process called Life, with my regular interactions with the author of this blog through his deeply profound posts. Here is the link for you : https://thejobblog.net/free-to-be-ultimate-you/

 

 

One Problem

Photo Credit : Vikram Phale

There is one problem
With acquiring any Wisdom

You ought to keep living It

It stares at you at every turn
As if bright headlights …

Brilliance that only seems wasted!

Brilliant Sky – by Vikram Phale

There’s some of us who have been told by our well-meaning friends that our brilliance has been wasted and our skills unused …as measured by academic standards and career achievements. And what a boost it is for us to know, how brilliant we are, and how amazing we would do in some ‘prestigious’ field! IF ONLY WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY … but NO! We are merely living by with what came our way trying to make peace with it, trying to find our way through our own brilliance…

Which field of study are you choosing for higher studies?
How many degrees & from which reputable institutes do you have?
What abbreviations tag behind your name?
How big have you made it in your job? …the list keeps going as the potential never ends really, does it?

We have been taking in everyone else’s idea of what it means to be visible in the world in terms of our brilliance.

We live with these definitions in our minds and live really hurtfully with ourselves as nothing we do is really good enough …as we haven’t made it big in the world with these definitions hanging over us. The reasons keep coming …right things just always slip away from me, the most perfect things never seem to come to me, I got married too early, it’s too late I haven’t found my perfect partner yet and my career headed nowhere, my parents didn’t support/care enough, if only this and if only that …down the rabbit hole of judgment, resentment and rejection …of self, others, events, situations, life itself. Leading to more of the same!!

But Wait!! Wake up!! We have been giving in to a very limited definition of brilliance! We have listened to people in very limited number of settings – our school, workplace, friends, acquaintances – all operating from their outlook on reality. When did we make all that our own?

We actually keep missing out on so many simple ways of doing and being our best …just because we aren’t there where we are told we could have been.

By now I have met too many people with multiple degrees, multiple pursuits of achievement, all bringing out their utmost level of skill and brilliance. All that is valid, commendable …and never enough! I now measure my brilliance on my own terms in my own reality. As undefined by someone else’s understanding of it. Over the years my brilliance is shown in how truly happy I am with myself. How simple choices on an everyday basis bring me joy and the fact that I feel I have a choice on an everyday basis to create my reality.

We waste our brilliance when we try to build up castles of that perfect life in air as defined by others. We waste our power when it shows up as anger towards who we think is responsible for our so called failures.

That anger is the energy of our potentials coming up to point us to who we really are …part of Creation capable of creating our own reality. Our brilliance is in how we make a complete turnaround from the version of a limited possibility and reality. How we open up to an infinite way of being …coming back to being our brilliant selves on an everyday basis. There is no question of being someplace else, some particular designation or position to know your brilliance.

Our primary job is to be Happy! Moment to moment, thought to thought …flow through it only to find joy.

This can become the most difficult thing to achieve in life. The potential of the intellect seems easier to hold on to then. The idea of choosing only out of joy and happiness puts us right in the path of so many emotions waiting to be resolved within us. No amount of blame game helps. You are compelled to sit back with yourself …really have to get used to this. It can get so very sticky that we need an insane resolve and trust, in our ability to create exactly the reality that would bring joy to our being. The result is always the most rewarding and thrilling, as you have now used your own skill to define your own brilliance …as you tread through relations to extract only the best and the true out of them, through situations to extract only what serves you and gives you joy.

Seriously, how many of those then, who question the status of our brilliance in life, are sleeping that well at night? Striving for harmony and peace in your being on a day to day basis – even while in some shaky times – that’s brilliance! Look closely well-wishers, it is not complacent acceptance. We are treading slowly and joyfully through what unfolds, yet also looking to claim the territory of brilliance that is more visible in your reality …you see we are grateful for you, for keeping our spark alive in that goal, in still wanting and dreaming to make our mark in any area of our choice …with ease and joy, is what we insist now!

Just wanting to be Seen

Through the words
Through the face
Just wanting to be Seen

Through the silence
Through the emotions
Just wanting to be Seen

Through how we dress
Through how we stress
Just wanting to be Seen

Through the efforts
Through the turmoil
Finally not caring to be Seen

Through the Self that emerges
Just feeling and Being
From behind those curtains
As if just peeking …

Suddenly you are the Presence
You are the Beauty and Brilliance
Made invisible all this while
Through all the trial
Just wanting to be Seen …

Feeling small, a yearning call

Feeling small for any reason
So much suffering in which you imprison

Feeling small, also a comfort zone, to protect yourself from your own brightness
Until you learn to receive it
Until you learn to Be where you are, who you are, what you are, in the true sense

Feeling small, a protective cocoon, in which you can hide in that dark corner
Of not being too much or be anything that could matter

Feeling small, one of the options
Until you decide to smile your radiance

Feeling small takes care of the fear
Which is sometimes more the fear of the success
Than that of failure

Greater seems unfamiliar grounds to claim
Until more you step in your own brilliance
More it feels like you are arriving home

Nothing Greater will tinker with your feeling
Unless in you it has a dwelling

Feeling small is just another
Yearning call to something Greater

NOwhere IS SOMEwhere!

Somewhere Alone

If you find yourself lonely and NOwhere
Know that you are definitely SOMEwhere
Look back where you have been
Perhaps surrounded by company
You seem to have moved on unseen
Probably looking for some symphony

Scary as it may seem
Rise above all that agony
Fall deep in your own self
Sound of your breath and your heartbeat
First tangible ways of feeling and knowing yourself

As you rest there a while
New directions and new perceptions
New instincts and new inspirations
New experiences and new interactions
So much of the brilliance to unfold
Nothing though you can hold

Sight of a squirrel lifts you to lightness
Sight of the sun offers such brightness
The moon shines with so much love
Suddenly in the middle of NOwhere
As you become NOWhere
You find YOURSELF somewhere
On this miracle of a planet
Lonely becomes a lot of rich Alone
More alone ones come for sweet company
All of Life simply a perfect symphony!

Brilliance that only seems wasted!

There’s some of us who have been told by our well-meaning friends that our brilliance has been wasted and our skills unused …as measured by academic standards and career achievements. And what a boost it is for us to know, how brilliant we are, and how amazing we would do in some ‘prestigious’ field! IF ONLY WE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY … but NO! We are merely living by with what came our way trying to make peace with it, trying to find our way through our own brilliance…

Which field of study are you choosing for higher studies?
How many degrees & from which reputable institutes do you have?
What abbreviations tag behind your name?
How big have you made it in your job? …the list keeps going as the potential never ends really, does it?

We have been taking in everyone else’s idea of what it means to be visible in the world in terms of our brilliance.

We live with these definitions in our minds and live really hurtfully with ourselves as nothing we do is really good enough …as we haven’t made it big in the world with these definitions hanging over us. The reasons keep coming …right things just always slip away from me, the most perfect things never seem to come to me, I got married too early, it’s too late I haven’t found my perfect partner yet and my career headed nowhere, my parents didn’t support/care enough, if only this and if only that …down the rabbit hole of judgment, resentment and rejection …of self, others, events, situations, life itself. Leading to more of the same!!

But Wait!! Wake up!! We have been giving in to a very limited definition of brilliance! We have listened to people in very limited number of settings – our school, workplace, friends, acquaintances – all operating from their outlook on reality. When did we make all that our own?

We actually keep missing out on so many simple ways of doing and being our best …just because we aren’t there where we are told we could have been.

By now I have met too many people with multiple degrees, multiple pursuits of achievement, all bringing out their utmost level of skill and brilliance. All that is valid, commendable …and never enough! I now measure my brilliance on my own terms in my own reality. As undefined by someone else’s understanding of it. Over the years my brilliance is shown in how truly happy I am with myself. How simple choices on an everyday basis bring me joy and the fact that I feel I have a choice on an everyday basis to create my reality.

We waste our brilliance when we try to build up castles of that perfect life in air as defined by others. We waste our power when it shows up as anger towards who we think is responsible for our so called failures. That anger is the energy of our potentials coming up to point us to who we really are …part of Creation capable of creating our own reality. Our brilliance is in how we make a complete turnaround from the version of a limited possibility and reality. How we open up to an infinite way of being …coming back to being our brilliant selves on an everyday basis. There is no question of being someplace else, some particular designation or position to know your brilliance.

Our primary job is to be Happy! Moment to moment, thought to thought …flow through it only to find joy.

This can become the most difficult thing to achieve in life. The potential of the intellect seems easier to hold on to then. The idea of choosing only out of joy and happiness puts us right in the path of so many emotions waiting to be resolved within us. No amount of blame game helps. You are compelled to sit back with yourself …really have to get used to this. It can get so very sticky that we need an insane resolve and trust, in our ability to create exactly the reality that would bring joy to our being. The result is always the most rewarding and thrilling, as you have now used your own skill to define your own brilliance …as you tread through relations to extract only the best and the true out of them, through situations to extract only what serves you and gives you joy.

Seriously, how many of those then, who question the status of our brilliance in life, are sleeping that well at night? Striving for harmony and peace in your being on a day to day basis – even while in some shaky times – that’s brilliance! Look closely well-wishers, it is not complacent acceptance. We are treading slowly and joyfully through what unfolds, yet also looking to claim the territory of brilliance that is more visible in your reality …you see we are grateful for you, for keeping our spark alive in that goal, in still wanting and dreaming to make our mark in any area of our choice …with ease and joy, is what we insist now!