Over the years there must have been numerous times where there were discussions regarding weather forecasters at Oman Met Office about high and medium clouds.
But this week had an opportunity to fly through these clouds. The experience was overwhelming so much so that one even forgot to capture them on camera. The transition of the waking up sky with a long line in orange colour to dense clouds as the flight approached Muscat International Airport was breathtakingly enchanting. It was a master class on light and weather, an understanding of earth and it’s atmosphere.
And beneath of it all are we with other living things battling with daily challenges and happiness.
Certain times in our life we go through dark clouds not knowing how long the darkness will remain. And that is when we hope and wish for sunshine. The light that removes all darkness, but we know all we need is patience — the light will reach us.
Sitting in the flight, the thoughts went to the pilot.
Today we looked for details and this is what came up — “Pilots are unable to see inside a cloud when flying into it. Once the pilot loses visual reference to the earth’s surface they must control the aircraft using sole reference to the aircraft cockpit instrumentation. This is known an instrument flying and is flown under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR).
The term ‘sole’ reference clicked in mind and wondered why we don’t think of soul reference. And we don’t have life rules or we probably do, then again who likes rules?
Most people follow traffic rules because of hefty fines, and the inconvenience that comes with breaking them. The consequences are what strikes us and reminds us at crucial times. I remember teachers who took time to discuss life in school — refer to consequences of steps we take in life.
Today many are sensitive towards others feelings — so sensitive and politically correct and at times we search for words while advising youngsters. The rules are safety nets, but every young person in each generation must have laughed at breaking rules. Once older and wiser, the outlook changes. It is not the age that makes us wiser, it is the collection of experiences that makes us that way.
Some may never learn and others might evolve while few others would regret or take a new path. Regret — in psychology this is how ‘regret’ has been classified — according to one source 'Regret' has been defined as a counterfactual emotion (Kahneman and Miller 1986), meaning that its basis rests on a counterfactual inference because that the past could have been different if we had taken different decisions.
So even when we think regretting is being almost stuck in life, it is still better than other negative feelings. Maybe it is because there is a sense of what could have been.
Just like the pilot flying in the clouds we still need to stay focused and have a ‘sole reference’ to continue to move ahead in life.
And the tricky part is that ‘sole reference’ most often is gained with experience or the ones who search early in life.
Then again, life, people often say is destiny or fate.
Could it be that there is more to life where being prepared is what requires for the journey. And that include education and awareness.
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