The Hamlet

Winter and its paradoxes

There are these warm, bright, sunny, short days…… and the cold, dark, long nights.

The appetite is enormous, the ability to digest anything ( from ghee soaked parathas to gourmet sizzlers) is impressive, the available range of veggies is delicious……and then, the desire to sleep some more, to cuddle up in a quilt with a book, the allergy towards the cold yoga mat. It means no exercise if I can help it!

Knitting should be happening all the time. Its cold and there is this need for hats, cowls, mittens and thick sweaters. Fingers and knitting needles  should be clicking all the time. But then, the warm sunlight beckons me outside and I sally forth, with an orange ( to peel apart and savor the juicy flesh) some pumpkin seeds ( to crack and munch the nutty bits within) and a big mug of tea. The dogs sun themselves at my feet, and a couple of delicious decadent hours of the day are over. No knitting, no writing…just lazing!

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I have been thinking about this space and what am I putting into it. When I began writing in March, it was with the thought of keeping a journal of my life here, of capturing the past for the sake of posterity and improving the craft of words. There was something more, which I ignored…disregarded actually. It was the desire to be as famous and as popular as the authors of my favorite blogs..I wanted to write a daily masterpiece of an essay, share a brilliant insight into the mysteries of life, give eureka moments to my readers. I dreamt of laptops and tablets opening and going straight to my blog!

AAhh!! the ways of the ego and the mind! Not a thought went towards the long years of toil and practice, the commitment and the hard work which goes into crafting a post every other day. A good case study of the hare and tortoise fable is happening right here and I have chosen to be the impatient hare.

This is where the blessing of objective observation comes in. I watch my mind and I smile indulgently, “Mala, life is not a quick fix, instant formula for success…plod on, my dear, toil on!” . I go back to the start.

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This space is for recording life –in all its mundane, mad, mysterious, magical, monotonous moments. For days when the actual hours are just a haze, when a single moment seems to be a lifetime, when joy overflows and when solitude becomes a deep well.

And this post is just that… its about this morning.

One thought on “Winter and its paradoxes

  1. Rosemary says:

    Mala! I do that! The minute your post pops up in my Reader, I am here! Of course that won’t make you famous but you know… there are some people doing it 🙂

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