Act of Random Kindness

 I saw the movie 'Evan Almighty' last night. Many would remember one of the scenes from this movie - a conversation between God and Evan's wife enacted by Morgan Freeman and Lauren Graham. 

It is about -

1. standing by each other side by side in pairs (in every relationship - child/parent, student/teacher, friend/friend, partner/partner)

and

2. how life gives us opportunities everytime to create what we have prayed for, but we misinterpret the situations and let the opportunities pass by.

I have always been baffled by how everyone loves to share the good news, the celebrations, the highs with others. But when something not so great is happening in our lives, our first instinct is to hide them. How many of us call friends or family to share our lows? When a low hits our lives, the majority of us tell ourselves that I am strong enough, I will deal with this. In the name of independence, we cut everyone out from our lives. But sadly, we forget that human beings are social animals. 

Sharing helps, talking helps. No one can help us solve our problems, but by sharing, we feel light, we feel heard, we feel we can count on someone. 

I really hope our generation wakes up and realizes that sharing takes courage! Sharing is not a weakness. It takes immense strength to talk, to be vulnerable. We don't have to pretend that everything is great all the time. That is humanly not possible. There was a reason why the joint family system worked in the olden days in India. In a joint family, there was always someone looking out for us, always someone ready to listen to or just be around. 

Another message in the above mentioned movie is about Noah building an ARK. 

What is an ARK? - It is just an act of random kindness - I found this so powerful. We keep saying we want to help others, or make a change in the world. But we tend to forget that it all starts from the smallest act of kindness, a small act at home, to our neighbor, a street dog, a co-worker or a stranger. It can be as small as giving a big smile or saying hello to a person when you pass them. I love it when someone smiles at me compared to being ignored. 

We always think of the bigger things, but there's a reason for the proverb - take care of the little things, and the bigger things will take care of themselves.

Let's start by showing an ark to ourselves and then to others every single day :)

Well deserved coffee after a 8km walk with my friend

Always receiving an ark from my mom 😍

Showing ark to my house 😂

Nature displaying ark to us - rain and puddles 😊

Showing an ark to myself 😛

Light

It is a beautiful rainy Sunday afternoon. I am watching the rain falling on the trees and plants outside, while my mind is churning thoughts inside out and finally when it couldn't hold it anymore it threw out all the thoughts like a hot fresh volcano. Once the thoughts were out, I started feeling how futile all these thoughts were. The only thing it does every time is to turn life absolutely serious! And what level of seriousness!!!

Every now and then I wonder why we take life soooooooooooooooooooooooooo seriously! Yes, life forces us to take it seriously, but we have a choice to lighten our burden by telling life that it is not worth being taken seriously. 

This seriousness pushes us sooo down, deep down! Life is not meant to be lived this way right? Our heart cannot take the weight of such seriousness. We have to learn to live lightly like a feather, treat life with lightness, and keep looking at each moment with freshness as much as possible. 

That is the only way we can sail through life. Let us smile more, laugh more, let go more, play more, sing more, dance more, have fun more, be silly and take life less seriously - inspite of all the hardships 😊