The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

By Tich Naht Hanh🌿🌸

Oprah Winfrey’s soulful talk with Tich Naht, introduced me to the concept of ‘Mindfulness!’

In today’s world, most of us crave some ‘Me Time’ ! spending time in natural surroundings, listening to some good music or just reading a book, helps us connect with ourselves and just breathe!

Then why are we craving it and not having it? Because we have a world of entertainment at our feet. Right from Netflix to Pizza to online games, we have everything that can fix us to the couch!

I remember my grandmother roasting jackfruit seeds on a small portable iron stove with coal, which I delightfully nibbled chatting with my maternal cousins, sitting on the stairs leading to the porche. The stairs ended where a rose bush overlooked the main gate with a bed of dried leaves and flowers under it! As a child, Granny’s place was simply heaven and I never ever wanted the summer holidays to end!

The joy of just doing little things you like, compares to nothing on earth! We started to look at things as things and have completely stopped inquiring about them! We only want them! We want to capture the whole world! Be it on camera, on a television or on a computer! If there’s a beautiful bird, we want it in our backyard! Fresh Orchids should adorn our birthday parties! We want to ride on Lions’ to feel powerful, experiment on Guinea pigs to live a long life, eat lizards and monkeys for no reason!

But why are we not doing things that bring us joy? Is it simply because we have archived all the good books in the libraries and started watching Squid Games? Or have we genuinely become a race who just want to become immortal by placing the planet on our palm?

Signing off…

Neelima Neel…🌸🌸