Race the Rains
Recently, one guy told me that when he was a child he used to race with the rains. As soon as he said that I could picture a lanky dark guy in loose cotton shirt and shorts, barefoot, racing with rains and enjoying this pleasurable shower on his face and body and caring about nothing but following the direction of the rains. For those who have never seen tropical rains in the mountains it would be difficult to picture this but for those of us who have seen sheets and sheets of rain changing directions with the winds know that racing rains can be fun. When the rain is pouring and you can see it changing directions or speeding to one side or the other, children do race the rains. Have you noticed that as we loose childhood and innocence we also loose the ability to enjoy being in the moment and behaving carefree as we did when we did race the rains.
Children have this amazing quality to live in the present. For them the concept of time is mostly defined by their ability to enjoy the present. Sunday seems very far away and it is usually difficult to make them understand that their next birthday is 6 months away. They mostly enjoy what is in hand and usually leave pining for some new toy only when the adults are around. The entire focus is enjoying the present moment in any form. I remember when we were young all our focus was on playing outside the house. During the afternoons my mother used to lock us up so that we don't sneak outside in 45 degree heat and get heat strokes. She would tell us to sleep during the afternoons but all that was in our minds was to sneak out somehow and play. So we used to device some unique ways to get ourselves out of the house. I remember my brother sneaking out of a 12" x 9" inches gap in the grill like some kind of an acrobat and getting out. At most we worried about completing home works. I didn't even worry about that because I mostly forgot all about home works as soon as I reached home and remembered about them only the next day in class.Thankfully, my class was huge and also I was considered a bright student and hence I never got punished for not completing my home work. So I guess I must have been the happiest of the children around.
What happens when childhood comes to an end we become teenagers and then adults. I think it all starts when we start worrying about our grades and then about our livelihood and then about finding right partners and then about our own children and so on and so forth. Most of our time goes either in regretting the past or planning and sometimes worrying about future. In the middle of it we forget the present moment which is passing by without our noticing it. We seldom enjoy our way to office as all our focus is on not being late or on the meetings lined up for the day or the task we need to finish that day etc etc. Shouldn't you notice the sun on your face or that beautiful curve in the tree that you always see at the signal but never appreciate for its beauty.
Living in the moment is not that difficult. You just have to practice a little and rest happens all by itself. After all we all have lived all that was pleasurable in our childhood and know in our souls what it is. All we have to be is a bit more mindful of our own bodies, our surroundings, nature and our blessings. Have you noticed how dancing or indulging in some pleasurable physical activity, we enjoy ourselves and are not bothered about anything else for those moments and even few hours after that. There is another thing that can make you appreciate present more and it is accepting the things the way they are instead of wishing them to be as per your desires. This will take unnecessary struggle out of the moment and you will start appreciating the better side of the situation in hand. Lately, I have found that letting go of your fears can also make you live in the moment. I am no longer fearful of my future and feel that my fearing something is not going to make present more enjoyable so I just let go and focus on the task at hand. I think music helps big time too. But more about it in my next post.....
Children have this amazing quality to live in the present. For them the concept of time is mostly defined by their ability to enjoy the present. Sunday seems very far away and it is usually difficult to make them understand that their next birthday is 6 months away. They mostly enjoy what is in hand and usually leave pining for some new toy only when the adults are around. The entire focus is enjoying the present moment in any form. I remember when we were young all our focus was on playing outside the house. During the afternoons my mother used to lock us up so that we don't sneak outside in 45 degree heat and get heat strokes. She would tell us to sleep during the afternoons but all that was in our minds was to sneak out somehow and play. So we used to device some unique ways to get ourselves out of the house. I remember my brother sneaking out of a 12" x 9" inches gap in the grill like some kind of an acrobat and getting out. At most we worried about completing home works. I didn't even worry about that because I mostly forgot all about home works as soon as I reached home and remembered about them only the next day in class.Thankfully, my class was huge and also I was considered a bright student and hence I never got punished for not completing my home work. So I guess I must have been the happiest of the children around.
What happens when childhood comes to an end we become teenagers and then adults. I think it all starts when we start worrying about our grades and then about our livelihood and then about finding right partners and then about our own children and so on and so forth. Most of our time goes either in regretting the past or planning and sometimes worrying about future. In the middle of it we forget the present moment which is passing by without our noticing it. We seldom enjoy our way to office as all our focus is on not being late or on the meetings lined up for the day or the task we need to finish that day etc etc. Shouldn't you notice the sun on your face or that beautiful curve in the tree that you always see at the signal but never appreciate for its beauty.
Living in the moment is not that difficult. You just have to practice a little and rest happens all by itself. After all we all have lived all that was pleasurable in our childhood and know in our souls what it is. All we have to be is a bit more mindful of our own bodies, our surroundings, nature and our blessings. Have you noticed how dancing or indulging in some pleasurable physical activity, we enjoy ourselves and are not bothered about anything else for those moments and even few hours after that. There is another thing that can make you appreciate present more and it is accepting the things the way they are instead of wishing them to be as per your desires. This will take unnecessary struggle out of the moment and you will start appreciating the better side of the situation in hand. Lately, I have found that letting go of your fears can also make you live in the moment. I am no longer fearful of my future and feel that my fearing something is not going to make present more enjoyable so I just let go and focus on the task at hand. I think music helps big time too. But more about it in my next post.....
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