It all started with my friend’s wedding. Initially, even though we have promised to attend the marriage quite earlier, we tend to exactly at the lunch or dinner time due to varied reasons, laziness being top of my list. But we agree with friends, who are adamant about getting in what they want and we end up doing what they want. Without any other go, I had to pack my bags for a week.
It was 3:30 am when I reached. Being the opposite of “an early riser”, I had almost nil experience of what that time, that too in a village, had to offer. As usual, a car was waiting to pick me up and to my amazement, the driver said it would take a full three hours to reach my destination, my friend’s place. And then my journey began.
I usually take the window seat and keep it open in case I feel sick. As the journey started, a cool early morning breeze blew over my face welcoming me to a new place. I had to close my eyes when the driver drove at a full speed. The breeze felt so pure that you couldn’t help but smile. What mattered then was to live in that moment and enjoy it well, for it may cease to exist. I didn’t know when was the last time I let myself go, after many moments of thinking, my inner self-answered, never.
I don’t recall how much time passed. Just being there was a total bliss. I was just happy to continue with my journey and hoped that it would never end. The chill breeze somewhere held so much warmth that I wanted to adhere to it. Never let go. To tell the time to freeze.
Much later I heard the lightening and that prompted me to open my eyes. Sun was coming up and I could see the vast surroundings. We were traveling through quite a narrow road which was surprisingly good and covered on either side by Banana tree samplings. In no time the car was stopped due to blockage from a tree.
The driver suggested that it would be better to take an alternate mud route. I didn’t argue as he was the person from that place and he would know what was best to do at that juncture.
That other route was a real “muddy” one and suddenly I was all over the place in the back seat of the car. The icing on the cake happened to be the lightening turning to rain. Thank God, it was just a drizzle. Though there’s always a period of fear in me between the smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down turning into a disaster, I had to let that fear go. I didn’t want to get stuck in an anonymous place. Pretty soon my mind was diverted to the driver’s words. I came to know that, that was the first rain of the year at that place.
You will always push away the thought of going on a bumpy ride when you are close to nature. And for me, it was nature at its best.
With more and more daylight covering the damp soil, the leaves were being washed away of all the dirt they had given them the most spectacular look. That’s when the driver requested to close the window to my utmost disappointment.
The only view I could get of the outside world was from the front windshield. As the humidity inside the car grew, the driver spotted a dancing peacock. Instinctively I opened the window and with the backdrop of bark and greenery, I saw a flock of them. Now I know why the rain dance of peacock has been the subject of many poems and art work. You really have to see this marvel of nature, by yourself. I was amazed to see it when I was a kid but to see it in the wild doing its dance was something else entirely. I could never take my eyes off it. The elaborate kind of dance, the fanning out of its tail and preening its feathers is a beyond beautiful site, felt like watching it for a long time. Soon I could see few rabbits, a group of deer and the scene turned way beyond my imagination, it was that soothing and healing. This is that miracle of mother nature where all the accomplishments of mankind are minute in front of it.
I couldn’t part my gaze on it but the journey must go on to reach my destination. This journey was not “the journey” kind but it felt like a journey within my own self. It starts with the process of letting ourselves go and let mother nature take over. That’s where a simple ride becomes the journey of discovery. A discovery that if a journey through nature can have a better understanding of one's own self then, even if we start out on the dark side, you could always have time to turn it around.
I am grateful for all the blessings that I have, for the journey I was on, which I would relish forever.
We’re put here on earth to learn our own lessons. No one can tell you what your lessons are; it is part of your personal journey to discover them. On these journeys we may be given a lot, or just a little bit, of the things we must grapple with, but never more than we can handle.
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Our task must to be free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
-Albert Einstein
Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
-Authur Ashe
To laugh often and much,
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
And to endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
P.S.
This is dedicated to my friend who recently got married and made me travel to a village. Congratulations on her new beginning. Wishing you a wonderful beginning and love to last a lifetime.
May God bless you with all the happiness and prosperity.