Tag: experience

Now Is The Time

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Dreams of a lifetime,
Realised or ruptured, in a day.

Try all we might,
This time won’t stay,

So, just live, laugh, love,
This is the moment to play.

We won’t be us tomorrow,
Let’s not let life get away.

– Ehsaas

From the archives, dusted and refurbished.. 😅

Wrote this short poem some time ago, on a day when I was feeling particularly excited and full of energy. Regular readers of this blog would realize that’s not how most days go with me. I guess that’s why I never felt like sharing this one earlier. But today I was like, meh. I guess a writer is like an actor. We don’t necessarily have to be the person the words talk about. Words are an idea, a feeling that deserves to fly free. Why chain them down to be about one person, their limitations, and situations?

Anyway, hope you like it. Till next time.. 😊

For more such posts, please follow Echoes In The Ether on Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, or Medium.

Credits: Poem by yours truly. Pic created with Canva.

The Relationship Between Words & Reality

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot more instances of the gap between what reality is, and the words which we use to describe it. And it impressed upon me how limited words are in their capacity. Reality, on the other hand, quite literally, encompasses all there is.

Yet, when talking about things, people, ideas, we tend to get caught up in the words that are used. Not only that, words are not even objective; they are highly subjective. The same words can mean different things to different people, depending on their own personal journeys. (I’ve talked about this before, and if you’d like to explore this idea in slightly more detail, you can check out my post, “What Do You See And Hear?”)

Now imagine using something so limited and subjective like human vocabulary to describe the utterly rich and complex reality of the world around us. When we stop to think about it, it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s a huge gap between what we can describe with words, and the real thing.

But as Boyzone said, “It’s only words. And words are all I have.” We have to do with what we have. So, I’m not saying that we should just give up on using words to talk about things. But what we should do is to try and avoid getting boxed in by these words. We should remember that no matter what words we use, no matter how well we articulate something, reality will be, more often than not, way more than that.

The key is experience. We need to really live the thing we talk about to fully grasp and appreciate it. And until we can do that, we will do well to remember: it’s only words. And words are not enough.

Oh, and yeah, the irony of using words to describe how words are not sufficient to describe reality is not lost on me! 😅

For more such posts, please follow Echoes In The Ether on Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, or Medium.

Credits: Quote by yours truly. Image created with Canva.

How Many Times More?

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

On a recent trip down the rabbit hole (while searching for something on the net), I came across something that I felt like sharing with you all today.

Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless…

This is an epitaph written on Brandon Lee’s tombstone. For those who don’t know him (I confess, I didn’t at the time), he was an actor, and the son of the legendary Bruce Lee. And unfortunately, he died at a very young age of 28.

And to give credit where it’s due, the above epitaph is actually paraphrased from a 1949 novel ‘The Sheltering Sky’ written by Paul Bowles.

The reason why I wanted to share this is because I found something really heartfelt about this quote. It just makes you pause and think about things, doesn’t it?

How many times do we really see the full Moon rise? When was the last time that you saw it? How many times do we share conversations and laughter with our loved ones? How many memories do we have that we cherish beyond anything?

The numbers may vary for different people, but one thing I think would be common for us all, is that we never think about how many more times we will get to experience those beautiful moments again. We just take these things for granted.

We are so used to certain things that we never fully realize how precious they are. We have such fragile and ephemeral lives. Anything can happen anytime. Yet, it’s like we are blind to the whole thing.

Now I do understand that there’s a practical aspect to the whole thing, and that we wouldn’t be able to function properly if we kept thinking about the impermanence of it all. I agree that we do need to focus on the present moment, and not worry about what might happen in the future, which we can not control beyond a certain limit.

But that should happen as a conscious choice, isn’t it? Not because we don’t realize the nature of these things, and are just living unconsciously, tumbling from one day to another. We must remain aware of how limited our days are. Because only then can we truly, deeply appreciate things like those wonderful memories, beautiful Moon rises, the laughter of loved ones, etc.

We get so caught up in our lives, postponing our plans for that vacation, for that conversation, for that reconciliation, for that thing that we always wanted to do, that we never stop to think what if there isn’t enough time to do those things later?

Experience what you can while you can. Go see the Moon rise!

For more such posts, please follow Echoes In The Ether on Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, or Medium.

Pic Credits: brandonlee.com

Letting The Kid Go

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Even though I know,
I’m not that kid anymore,
It’s hard to let go.

– Ehsaas

Found this haiku in the archive of my unpublished drafts. It’s time for it to finally see the light of day. As they say, things happen, when they are supposed to happen.. 😅

Many of us have unpleasant memories or experiences from our childhood that still hurt us when we remember them.

And even though we have grown up now, in more ways than one, and are wiser and more mature to understand why we had to go through those experiences, sometimes, we may still find it difficult to process those emotions from our childhood.

And these childhood experiences may not even be that traumatic from an adult’s point of view. They may even be something very trivial. But to that young kid, they mattered! And they left a deep imprint.

What hurts the grown-up today is not so much the direct experience of those childhood incidents – time takes care of that. What hurts the grown-up today is the memory of being that kid who had to go through those experiences, who was helpless and perhaps alone, in being able to do anything about those events, at that time.

This is where healing comes into the picture. May anyone and everyone who can relate to this post one day reach a stage where they can embrace that kid, and yet not feel sad for them, where they can reassure that kid that despite those events, or perhaps even because of them, they will end up having a happy and content life.

For more such posts, please follow Echoes In The Ether on Instagram, Facebook, WordPress, or Medium.

Credits: Haiku by yours truly. Pic created with Canva.

31 On 31

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Well, it’s been almost two months since my last post. Time indeed flies! Wish I could say I had been busy, but, come on! I should be able to find the time to write at least something in two months! I need a strong dose of motivation from somewhere!! If any writers are readers here today, maybe you can help me out: how do you guys motivate yourselves? And please, don’t say, “Just because I love writing!” Nothing wrong with that, but it’s just that, perhaps, for me, writing is more of a liking than a true love. So, I need some motivation from that perspective. 🙂

Anyway. So, I completed 31 years of this life on the 31st of last month. But I’m not here to talk about all those years today. I’ll just focus on the last one year.Read More »

How Old Are you?

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

– Samuel Ullman

Most of us must have heard of the oft-repeated phrase: “Age is just a number!” What it’s meant to imply is that our “age” is not defined by the number of years that we’ve been alive. But this phrase also doesn’t specify what, then, is “age” defined by?

I think this quote by Samuel Ullman very cleverly tells us what our “age” really is – a measure of the impact of our experiences.

I like the juxtapositions presented by the author – faith vs doubt, self-confidence vs fear, hope vs despair, and the way he related these to one’s “age”.

Read More »

What Do You See & Hear?

A Wondering Wanderer3 Comments

So, if you’ve been alive these past few months (meaning you used Facebook during this time), you must have heard about the recent “Laurel vs Yanni” debate. It was all over the web, but if you missed it, here’s the gist: There’s an audio recording of someone saying a name, and you must decide whether that name is “Laurel” or “Yanni”.

(The audio player in the linked post starts on mute. So, remember to turn up the volume if you don’t hear anything.)

Sounds simple, right? And it is. Until you ask a few other people. And then all hell breaks loose! People just can’t agree on what it is that they are hearing.

Read More »

The Lives That We’ll Never Live

A Wondering Wanderer1 Comment

For me, winters are a time for reflection, more so than the usual. The long winter nights, lying in bed in a warm cocoon, sitting by the fireplace, sipping hot chocolate. With snow outside. It just makes you think and wonder about life.

Well, none of it actually happens where I live, but it’s how I picture winters. Maybe it’s because of all the books I’ve read from English authors, describing those cold winter nights in the English countryside. 🙂

Anyway, to get to the point: So, yesterday, I had a thought: What would it have been like to live the different lives that I never got a chance to live? What all lives have I missed out on? And it’s not the first time that I’ve had this thought.

Let me explain what I mean by it.Read More »

How Free Are We Really?

A Wondering Wanderer1 Comment

We have all heard the word “freedom”. One might define it as the ability to move around freely, to be able to say and do things one wants (assuming no rules or laws are being broken by such things). If asked if they are free, most of us would probably say that we indeed are.

However, apart from the physical manifestations of freedom, I think the mental aspects of it are equally as important, if not more. To be truly free, I think one must have freedom from fear, experience, conditioning, self, and knowledge.

Let’s talk about each of them and see why they are important, and how we can deal with them.

Read More »

Belief, In The Face Of Experience

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Recently, something happened, and it brought to mind (again!) an old conflict that I’ve never fully been able to resolve. So, I thought I’d talk about it here, in case someone comes across it, and can provide some additional insights into it.

I think we all have some beliefs about life – how things are, how they should be, how one should react to and approach life, etc. And the thought that I’m struggling with is this: What happens when your beliefs conflict with what you observe around yourself? Do you change your beliefs and approach to life? More importantly, should you?

Read More »