Lakshmi Kothaneth - lakshmiobserver@gmail.com - An interesting conversation with a friend reflected on how the rose has its essence no matter what its state is — a whole flower, petals, perfume or rose water. Leona, an author, an educator who teaches English and an artist. She travels extensively and absorbs philosophies of lands she visits.
She said, “What if we are born as complete and we lose those qualities through the life we are living only to regain the original state?”
Challenges in life take away from us what we are born with but other challenges could be the ones that help us bring back our original state.
They say life never throws at you what you are not capable of. So why do some people give up? Because some situations in life make you believe you have reached the dead-end.
Life or the universe probably know better, but we tend to be lost in illusion. It is a make-belief world. That world could be etched in our minds through family orientation and years of classroom education. The outcome is a product that is a result of many people’s orientations and fears.
Yes, we pass on fears to the children too. They keep it until the day comes for them to crack the shells open and find their own world.
Many of us cradle our fears. Maybe because of the fear of losing them or because of being too attached to the status quo. There is a comfort in our fears. They are predictable, the fears, because day in and day out, they are there just like how they have been since you remember. But one step towards facing the fear and you begin to regain who you are and feel liberated.
What are some of the fears? One of them is the fear of change. This is one of the reasons why we hesitate to do many things that are different.
There is the fear of stage and public speaking. There is the fear of exams. I know people of different cultures who have said they still have the nightmare of rushing to exams unprepared. It makes you wonder what the young ones must be going through during those stages. It is these experiences that leave such a deep impression.
These are the times when we feel the days are on a rush and make us wonder whether we are running out of time. That leads us to another fear. Fear of time and most importantly fear of future.
An enterprising young friend said, “I often dream that I have reached school without my shoes and I am busy looking for them.” I am not a dream analyst or a psychologist but just lucky that I get to have conversation with a lot of interesting people. And that particular dream I am sure many of us can relate to.
We fear conflicts and we fear rage and then there is the other defined ones like fear of heights and fear of speed. The list can go on, and I am sure you would be able to contribute to the list too. Are we born with these fears or are they conditioned?
Whatever it is, life is all about recognising, knowing, understanding and overcoming your fears. The sooner we take on the challenge of meeting our fears with courage the better. But in order to do that we need to recognise our fears. The only way we can achieve that is by knowing ourselves our fears can hide themselves very well.
So let us embrace our fears and find our path to our original state.
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