The Key Ponderer

Thinkering Minds

Arun Sarathy

Trust the Process

Once upon a time, there was a tree – huge and strong, whirling its head with every passing wind, happily giving shadows, fruits, roots expanding to other branches, and upcoming small trees and sprouts beneath it.

Simple, right? A huge tree tall and happy.

But now let’s go back in time to that day one of the seeds, when they were planted.

When the seed was content and happy to have started its career and growth.

It hasn’t seen anything yet.

At just the first day, all it has to do is wait. The day started with the sun shining, but the seed can’t see yet, just feel.

Watering is done and complete. Night sets in.

Crickets all around. No motion, whatsoever, just waiting. Patiently.

After all, this is just the day one, with all darkness around, below the ground.

Feeling so small and manipulated, deep under the ground. No sound. No light. Just darkness.

Some voice inside says to hang in there, as long as this life is alive. This thought is alive.

Next day arrives, somebody waters above the ground, not sure who. Or is it rain? Or the sower, the gardener? Another day’s survival feat complete.

“Suddenly, I sense a movement around me, a giant worm”, the seed thinks to itself.

“Have to beat this around without moving. Escaping the worms is one thing and not being able to be eaten from rats or rodents is another.”

Not being accidentally taken away from road expansions, or building constructions above me.

The day passes just like that.

I still feel the Sun nourishing me – the warmth and lives around me is a proof that there is some power guiding us all. I just have to be patient to see the light some day – then after days, or weeks, or months, I see the light. But now the challenge is, even more, bigger, with the new found visibility above the ground.

Kids could pull me out, ants could eat me away, dogs could simply dampen my spirits, or cows may just pull me with a single bite and go with their day as if nothing had happened.

“The life below the ground was safer”, I thought.

But wait, I was waiting for this day for years. Developing roots and patience.

Now I don’t get to see what’s happening below the ground, just feel, I could feel water reaching me from somewhere, through my roots, nourishing me. Giving me what it takes for me to grow. The fight has become even harder. The survival instincts tell me to hang in here. Years pass by, I grow now to be 4-5 feet tall. I start to sprout more leaves now than ever I had.

People call me names now. Some even pluck me but I don’t feel the pain or loss anymore, for now, I am starting to see the big picture.

I could still go on without much thoughts about losing them.

Years pass by – now I’m a huge tree. People swing around me. They depend on me. Some families regularly come to visit me taking my produce to make their living. kids play around me, climb and hug me. Count numbers hiding behind my huge trunk playing hide and seek.

I feel proud, worthy to have lived my life patiently, for someday I knew, this will happen. it wasn’t easy, but trusting the process was everything.
Trusting that invisible power.

Today here I am whirling my head to the passing winds knowing it takes years to surpass and come to this position, but enjoying and enduring every passing day, trusting the process, power and patience.

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Clear

Sometimes, there is this feeling that we are not progressing in life.

But then again, I think, why is this feeling in the head, first of all?

Where did that creep in from?

Finally, after some empty staring into nothingness, and pondering, I felt almost close enough to satisfaction when this particular clarity set in: that from childhood, in school to be precise, there is this concept of studying in class 1, 2, 3, 4, so on, then write the final exam for the year, and move on.

We are updated, upgraded, moved into the next class and then sit in on its respective exam, and move up.

Like as if we are now clearing up a level in a video game and moving on to the next level.

Clearing up!

That’s why this mindset of “clearing up a level” sticks forever to the mind… it’s how every child is framed and designed to lead the life.

It’s how a college life is designed too. It’s how all the professional level exams are designed. It’s how even some workplaces function – work for few years towards the promotion, rinse, and repeat.

Not denying that all the professional level exams have their own rightful purpose to gauge one’s knowledge, understanding, and expertise before operating on someone, or helping file taxes, or flying a machine that has people’s lives at stake. Nevertheless, this mindset, when wrongly assumed to be the way how our lives are designed at large and if subsequently applied as our everyday compass to navigate our lives – it gets quite dangerous.

Crime, deception, disappointment, loneliness, depression, cast out feeling, nothingness – all creep in – because the world favors only winners.

Only the people who say ‘what’s next?’.

Only the people who moved on to the next level often gets remembered. There are billions of random regular guys out here in the world who gets ignored. There is nothing unique, except they are some random unique number for statistical population counts.

Life is not about clearing up levels, I guess.

It’s all about learning, loving, living, and failing in all of those three areas and then trying all over again.

To pass in life, we need to fail. We need to consecutively fail at many things. There is no such thing as success in life – it’s just the way of life.

But failure, it changes one’s mindset. Failing is the actual “clearing up”!

So, one could start anew, fresh. Success often gets with it a companion called “ego” – and a baggage – called “keeping up with it” or “living up to it” to eventually go for the next success. To maintain that image.

But failure has no baggage, no requests. It shouldn’t be seen as ’empty’, but conceived and perceived as ‘void’, where all that creation happens. Where value is born.

If adding up more trophies, more accolades, more certificates, more friends, more wealth is defined to be the success in this worldly life – then the natural losing and deduction of things, people, material things from our lives is how our lives are designed.

In the end, only one question remains – what did we do with our lives? It doesn’t have to be world-changing. Or leaving a dent in the universe.

Even if a child giggled because of you, consider your presence as “priceless”.

Nobody’s assurance is needed to feel your worth. Your heart knows it. That’s all it needs, that’s all it matters.

Failing is the new clearing up to move to the next level, not the success.

Try again. Fail again. But fail better.

“to become whole, first let yourself be broken!” – Lao-Tzu

Seeing

Look. See. Observe. Gaze. Watch.

How does it matter if you are looking, but are not taking ‘in’ the information, that ‘needs’ to be taken in?

Regardless of the situation that we put ourselves in, if we learn to ‘see’ without labeling things, or events, or situation, or people as something, that our first hunch says, more information tends to flow in.

We tend to let that come in, without sticking a post-it note on ‘that’. So it could reveal what it has to – without our effort.

Next time, I need to understand something better, I will have to see, forgetting the name of the thing I see.