Tag: feeling

Wonders Of The Night Sky

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

So, sometime ago, a friend and I, both interested in the craft of writing, were talking about writing something based on a prompt. We randomly selected “the night sky” as our writing prompt, and we decided to write a short poem on it.

This post is not about that poem though. The poem I’ve already written and shared earlier (can you guess which one that is from this list?) In this post, I wanted to delve into what I find so fascinating about the night sky after all.

We usually don’t think much about why we feel a certain way about something. We just feel the way we do. At least that’s the way it is for me. So, from time to time, when we do sit down to think about the reasons, it can seem like a journey of discovery. About our likes and dislikes, our ways of thinking, our inherent nature. About ourselves.

There aren’t many things that can give us the kind of mind-opening, light-bulb-turning-on, a-ha! moments that learning something new about the self can. And I love those moments!

So, without further ado, following are my reasons for being in love with the night sky, in no particular order, but grouped into categories:

Physical & Scientific

I’m always, always amazed by the universe. The only thing that I think comes close to it, in terms of how amazing it is, is the human body.

Talking first of the universe: it is astonishingly vast. We can not even imagine the distances. On top of that, it is remarkable how the stars work. Not many of us realize how the processes that power stars work. But I’m sure that those who do, can not help being in awe of them. If you are interested in knowing more about stars and how they work, I recommend this short video by Phil Plait.

Then there’s the marvelous ability of the human eye to perceive something that’s millions of light-years away! From the way a light photon is generated, absorbed and re-emitted, thousands of times, as it travels across the vastness of space, to reach the eyes of that single human observer, to then travel through the optic nerves, to be processed by the human brain (which itself is the most complex thing in the known universe), while the brain simultaneously observes itself observing the universe. Wow!! I mean, just wow! I get goosebumps thinking of it all!

Spiritual & Philosophical

The night sky often puts me into a reflective and introspective mood. It reminds me of how small and insignificant we are, how small are our problems and concerns, in the overall scheme of things. We amount to nothing, yet there is so much beauty in the fact that we are able to perceive and appreciate that moment. How can that kind of beauty be insignificant? What exactly adds “significance” to something? What does it all mean in the end? What lies beyond? Why are we here? Once you start pulling on that thread, there’s no stopping the stream of questions that sprouts.

But despite all those unanswerable questions, the night sky still brings a sense of peace that goes beyond just the quietness of the night.

Romantic

Well, this goes without saying, doesn’t it? Countless odes have been written about the Moon, and how it invokes such romantic feelings in people. I’m no different. And it’s not limited just to the Moon either. The stars, the clouds, the wind, everything takes on a sense of intimacy in the serenity of the night. In that moment, it is just you, and the night sky. And maybe someone else too, looking up at a similar view somewhere, thinking and feeling the same things, maybe hoping to find someone who appreciates that moment like they do. Like you do.

The night sky is the common cloak enwrapping you and that stranger, across distances, protecting and warming you both against the coldness of the night, both literal and figurative. It makes you feel closer to your soulmate, one you may not even have met yet.

Imaginative

When I look at the night sky, I sometimes can’t help but wonder what life on another world must be like. The universe is so huge that I don’t doubt whether or not there would be some form of life on another world somewhere. There most definitely would be, even if it is microbial or very primitive. Intelligent life would be harder to come by, but again, in the infinite possibilities out there, how can it not?

What would those worlds look like? How would it feel like for a human to stand on that world, and look up to find three suns in the sky, or maybe a giant planet hanging right on the horizon? What kind of societies would they have, if they have any at all? Would they have flying cars (a reality, finally, at least somewhere in the universe)? How would they view life? Would they have hopes, and dreams, and fears, too? Would they understand love? Might someone from that world be looking right in our planet’s direction, at that very moment, while I’m looking in theirs? What would it be like for our two species to encounter each other? When the mind starts wandering, it really does wander, doesn’t it? 😀

* * *

So, as you can probably guess from the above, the night sky invokes a lot of feelings and thoughts in me. If you look at it, in a way, it reminds us what it means to be human, by speaking to us through knowledge, consciousness, spirituality, love, companionship, curiosity, imagination.. everything that makes us, us.

The night sky is a thing of beauty and wonder. And I just hope I never lose touch with it. 

How do you feel about it though? Does it move you too? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below or on our social media channels! 🙂

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Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

This Moment

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Silence there was, silence there will be,
But there’s space for a breath in-between,
I look at you, as you at me,
Wondering about the wonders that can be.

Clouds may sometimes hide your beauty,
But darkness, too, shows us much indeed.
In a world full of insanity,
Time with you always brings tranquility.

So, let’s savor this gift from divinity,
An insignificant tick on time’s wheel,
This moment, this feeling, of purity,
Wish it could last as long as eternity.

There are moments that are sacred. They may be nothing out of the ordinary as such. But the way you feel in those moments is what makes them special. A short poem reflecting on one such moment. Can you guess what moment inspired this? 😊

If you liked this poem, and want to read more, you can find them here.

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Image created with canva.com

The Weight Of The Glass

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Hi all! So, I came across a wonderful post sometime back on Facebook, and thought would share the same with you today. Yes, it might seem strange, but social media does throw up some good gems sometimes! 😁

Here’s that post:

Source

Isn’t that just a wonderful observation?!

And put so well into words by the author! I probably can not do as well a job of it, but I just wanted to expand on that analogy a bit. When I first read that passage, it seemed pretty straight-forward. But when I thought about it a bit more, I realised there was more to it than that.

We carry so much of our past, our experiences, our hurt and anger everyday, and everywhere, with us. You would’ve guessed: all these are the “glass” in this metaphor.

But here’s the thing: It’s not just restricted to such negative things. I’d also include positive things like peoples’ expectations, our own dreams, the longing for things yet to do or achieve, etc. in the definition of that “glass”. Anything that is part of our psyche, our soul, that we think about regularly as we live our life, is contained in that “glass”. The key concept is “thought” – the “glass” is just a collection of thoughts.

Then because of any unfortunate things that have happened to us in the past – losing loved ones, making mistakes, getting accused of things we didn’t do, sometimes, just being unlucky – we feel let down by life. We feel injustice was done to us. We feel wronged. We have trouble coming to terms with it. This is the “weight” of the “glass” that we carry with us. 

But as before, there’s more to it than that. Even the positive things that I talked about earlier (expectations, hopes, longing) have a weight of their own! It might not seem like it, but somebody driven by the sole goal to achieve something in life, so much so that they become blind to everything else, also carries a weight in a way! When we pine for something so deeply that it hurts, we carry the weight of our longings too! Here, the key concept is “feeling” – the “weight” of the “glass” is how strongly we feel about our thoughts.

When the unknown author says that we become numb and paralyzed by the weight of the glass if we carry it too long, it’s clear how that would be the case when the glass is made up of our hurt, anger, disappointments, etc. The longer we hold on to these things, the heavier they become, until something has to break.

But this is also true when we feel too strongly about the other things – things like peoples’ expectations, our value in their eyes, things that we think we need to achieve to be happy, our so called “targets” in life.

Now, I’m not trying to say that we should let go of our dreams, that we stop working towards our goals, stop wishing for things. No. A life devoid of hopes, dreams, something to look forward to, wouldn’t be a life at all.

What I do want to say is, be aware of the weight of even these things.

Everyone knows that they shouldn’t hold on to anger, to regrets, etc. Whether we can let go of them is a different story, but at least, we know that these things are not good for us.

But the other things – the weight of the positives – is something we don’t realise generally. We live our lives chasing one thing after another, we begin identifying ourselves with our targets, as if they define us. They do not.

Every “glass” is different, as every human is different. But no matter what your glass is made of, good or bad, put it down, even if just for a short while, whenever it seems to be getting too heavy, before it becomes too late.

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Photo by Manki Kim on Unsplash

Can A Life Not Driven By Reason Be Successful?

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

Hey guys. Today, I want to get your thoughts on something.

So, a few days ago, I was talking to someone, and she mentioned that anybody and everybody, in the history of the world, who has done anything even remotely successful, no matter how small, was able to do that only because such people always act with a reasonable mind.

The point we were discussing was whether or not we sometimes make decisions without any reason. And her argument was that even though we may, such people can never, ever be successful. To succeed at anything, big or small, one always needs to have a reason to do whatever they do (or don’t do, as the case may be).

Other people may or may not agree with that reason, or may not even see that reason in the first place, but within that person’s mind, there’s always a logical reason, on the basis of which they can justify their actions.

As a corollary, anyone who can not provide a reason for doing (or not doing) something, is doomed to be a failure, and is an idiot, in general. According to her.

Now, if you have been following this blog, you’ll know that I’m one of those “idiots”, apparently – I don’t always have a clear reason for doing, or not doing, something. I go by an inherent “feeling”. I don’t know if I would even call it a “gut feeling” or “intuition” – I don’t think it’s that; it’s just something I want to do, something that feels right in that moment. Even though I may know that it will not work out for me in the future in any “materialistic” sense, I’d go and do it.

I understand if that indeed sounds like being an idiot. That part I get. So, when she indirectly called me an idiot, I understood. That’s how it would look to most people, and that’s okay.

What I had a problem with was her saying, rather insisting, that nothing good can come out of such a mentality. That a person without a reason is never going to succeed. She would go on to give examples of successful people, who always had reasons and justifications – she was a well-read person, and so it was easy for her. Unfortunately, I being not as well-read as her, couldn’t give her examples to the contrary.

* * *

Do you think she is right?

Do you think a person can achieve anything in life if they just do what they feel in their heart to be right, even though they can not see any reason in that, no matter how hard they try? And I’m not even talking about world domination or anything big like that. Even small achievements would do – doing well in your relationships, career, as a human. 

I guess ultimately the question is:

Can your life be happy and peaceful, even if you live it without a reason driving your every action?

Clearly, since I don’t consider myself such a logical and reasonable person all the time, her line of thought that this was not possible, struck a nerve. I, of course, want to be successful in life. Who doesn’t? But do I really need to change who I am as a person at such a fundamental level to do that? Can I not be successful at having a happy life if I don’t have a reason for everything that I do?

I know some people might say, “But there are thousands of successful people who followed their heart to achieve their dreams!” This is where it gets a bit tricky. The people that I’m talking about (who can not provide a reason for their actions), are a different bunch than these people.

Even though these people may have followed their heart to achieve success, their actions would still have been driven by a reason, right? A person, like a path-breaking artist or an entrepreneur, who went against all conventional wisdom to follow their heart, and became a pioneer in their respective field, would still have made decisions along the way that in their mind would lead to that ultimate goal. So, even though they were following their heart, their actions were still guided by a reason – it’s just that other people couldn’t see that at that moment.

The people that I’m talking about don’t have a reason guiding their actions in the first place. They don’t plan their next “move”. They live moment-to-moment, guided simply by their heart’s compass.

* * *

And the other thing is, even if there has been no such person in the history of the world, shouldn’t we try it for ourselves? I know it sounds ridiculous when you think about it – with seven billion people currently, and countless others before me, what are the odds of me being that one finally?! But we all get just one life, don’t we? Do we really want to live it according to what has been, according to how we are supposed to? And if nobody had ever done anything for the first time, we wouldn’t be here to begin with, no? But I guess, it wouldn’t come to that – I somehow feel there have to be people before who have lived the kind of life I’m talking about, and yet been successful. Again, no reason based on facts or anything for that belief, just a strong feeling!

The way I see it, it comes down to choosing between living my life authentically, the way I am doing currently, which probably will not be a “success”, going by her opinion, as against living a life that one is supposed to, driven by reason and logic, which also may or may not be a success, but would probably have better odds than the first case.

It seems like a very complicated and important decision. And if indeed I need to make changes, the sooner I do, the better it’d be, no? So, I really would like to know what other peoples’ thoughts are on this. No sugarcoating – give it to me straight. I may not agree with the person that I had this discussion with, but I like her honesty and straightforwardness. So, please give me your honest opinion.

If by some chance, you don’t agree with her line of thought, and side with mine, it would be great if you can share some examples of such successful people. I’d like to throw that in her face the next time we meet! 😁

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Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

The Unknown Knowns

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

There are known knowns. There are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.

Donald Rumsfeld

I recently came across this quote by Donald Rumsfeld, the former American politician. Although this quote by itself is quite enlightening – highlighting the limits of our knowledge, keeping us in check, lest we become over-confident and forget that no matter how much we know, there’s always more to know – it is not what today’s post is about.

So, why did I mention this quote? Well, as you were reading it, you might have also noticed something like I did. The quote talks about “known knowns”, “known unknowns”, and “unknown unknowns”. But there’s another category – “unknown knowns” – that’s conspicuous by its absence here.

And what exactly are these “unknown knowns”? Well, by their very definition, we can not know them! But even though we can not know or observe them directly, we can feel them. These things fall in the category of intuition, of faith, of belief.

This will be subjective to everyone, and many people might not even be able to relate to this, but if I talk about myself, there are things I just somehow “know” – there’s strong faith, belief even about certain things, which can not be justified or proved, based on empirical evidence, observed by our five senses.

It is these things that I refer to as the “unknown knowns” – “unknown”, because we don’t exactly know about how these things work, how they affect other things, how they came to be, etc., and “known” because our faith in them is so strong, that we know that they are true, that they do happen, even though we may not know how they happen. 

It’s a complicated thing to try and explain in words. Let see if some examples might help. Of course, different people will have such faith in different things, but still, here are some examples: belief in a higher power, in luck or destiny, in the karmic law, in the power of love, in your dreams of achieving something, or even simply in a better future, etc. We might not have any concrete evidence to believe in these things, yet some of us do. We don’t know what that higher power is (I’m not necessarily talking about God here), but in our heart, we just know that it is there. That’s what makes these things the “unknown knowns”.

Reading that quote above, I was reminded that we live in a society that focuses so much on the knowns / unknowns in the traditional sense – where things can be proved and disproved using cold logic and facts – but we hardly put in enough effort to develop this other way of “sensing” things, which sometimes I feel is very important if we have to survive in this world.

Again, I may not have any way to prove this, but I know my life is better because of my faith in these “unknown knowns”.

What about you?

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Photo by Katie Drazdauskaite @ Unsplash

Writer’s Block-ed!

A Wondering WandererLeave a comment

This post is not what I had in mind when I thought about writing one today, but writing has a way of finding its own course, which is what makes it so interesting in the first place.

Keeping in line with the overall theme of this blog, I was hoping to write about something profound or inspiring. Or maybe share a meaningful quote or link or some other such information. But no, that’s not what it’s going to be today.

For me, to be able to write about the stuff normally found on this blog, I need to be in a certain “zone”, certain frame of mind. When I’m there, the words flow automatically. Unfortunately, I haven’t been feeling that zone lately. Writer’s block, maybe? More on this later.

While I do have a few ideas Read More »