Don't mind taking a little trouble for others. Actually you gain most!

Changing negative into positive

                                                                                                                           

I thanked god for my pain in the neck that day. It was a tiring journey back home and I was nearly there. After a rude jolting at the Jhalukbari speed breaker, I arched my neck back for some relief and found myself looking straight up a tall tree on the roadside.  My eyes travelled up the length of that tall tree overgrown with plants of many kinds and I found myself  in an orchid garden right in the middle of a tropical forest.  High up there, bunches of light coloured orchids were hanging down the branches plentifully. Another rude jolt from another speedbreaker and I was back with the unheeding  traffic  who had no time  to look up that treasure . It was all yours, merely a look upwards.- paradise undiscovered. Eversince,  I’m always seeking out orchids and other hidden treasures up roadside trees. Orchids and abundant blossoms- always pleasantly rewarded , I assure you.

 One unexpected amusement was a brown coloured owl meditating on the traffic jam below it, of which I was a part. And all this was in the congested Fancy Bazaar stretch of road along the Brahmaputra. Rare sight in a traffic jam.

I remember how a bad throat forced me outdoors one night. I steeled myself into gargling with some salt water in the open courtyard. Without any enthusiasm, I took my first mouthful and turned my face up to the heavens. Before I could utter my dutiful a..a..h !  something shook me out of my fever and pain. Stunned by the stars in the clear night sky, I froze at its unexpected beauty and caught back my breath only moments later. God,  how we forget the priceless treasures out there for us! Somehow “free” has become a highly suspicious word these days and anything that comes for free remains suspect and we fail to enjoy it. It had taken some wrenching by the neck for me to discover these age old beauties with wide eyed wonder and delight.

Often I have complained about leaving the house for work so early in the morning even as my colleagues living close to the office are still in bed. My grumbling thoughts have  been calmed many times every time I catch a sight of the rising sun, so beautiful and like a red ripe fruit. Similarly as I reach home from work with the day’s dirt, grime and tensions accumulated on me, the mellow and red setting sun makes me mellow. It prepares me to wash off the day’s tension. My staying so far away from my workplace has, after all, given me the sights of beautiful sunrise and sunset many people miss in the comfort of their homes.

Surely, I’m not looking for problems to turn into blessings. But whenever they come I’ll look for two things- firstly, the solution and next, objectivity which will bring with it insight.