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A cat needs to be a cat and blossom to its fullest. A flower needs to be a flower and blossom to its fullest. Humans need to be human and blossom to their fullest.
It was a warm winter morning. I was sitting on my couch, enjoying the sunshine that came filtering in through the window. While I sat, I was constantly feeling a trifle worried about not doing enough. Doing what exactly, my mind reasoned?
Being valuable enough, came the reply.
Lost in this contemplation, I looked outside. There in the soft grass lay a cat. Blissfully taking a cat nap in the mid-morning hours. The ease and comfort that exuded from the fluffy cat made me wonder if the cat too is plagued by thoughts of striving to be valuable.
The cat is fed by animal lovers around the area who leave plates of cat food and check in on their good health. The cat just needs to be a cat, I thought.
Thoughts, they can really wander! But going with these wandering thoughts made me realise that actually the whole world is designed in a way where you do not need to strive to be valuable. You are valuable just because YOU ARE!
The tree does not cut off the old leaves. Have you observed, that even the old withered leaves are allowed to be on the tree till they decide on their own to fall down to the Earth’s bosom, complete with its colourful hues?
It’s only humans, who need to strive to be valuable. We debate about how important the work of a homemaker is. We debate how much more sacrifices the office-going mother has to make. I, too, had been in the midst of these thoughts, taking one side or the other. But the truth is you are you and so you are indispensable.
In ancient societies, also in the Blue Zones of the world where the elderly live up to more than a hundred, they are treasured because of their wisdom. Unlike today where old people are thought safer and better off away from Societies in an old age home.
This reminds me of a video that I came across of Sadhguru, where he said, ‘The only reason you are here is so that you bloom to your best version. That is all is needed to accomplish in life.’
Things are so simple. If only we accepted all roles with dignity and love and loved people even when they were “not important to us”, everything would have fallen into place.
A woman who has her heart in her newborn child, would not then strive to leave the baby and add to the finances of the home, just because she needs to feel important and valued. If you look at nature, even lionesses cannot do that. It takes immense emotional and mental pain.
The homemakers, who love tending to their homes, loving their kids and being just that version of themselves, would not be so bothered by the feeling of uselessness said by a society that runs not on love but profit.
But the need to be important is drilled so much into our psyche. We don’t ask our children what they would like to do, but gently push them towards a part that would make them more important. We do it out of care, but we are doing it wrong.
This is the reason many aspiring Picassos, chefs, and writers are labelled homemakers. Maybe they have some other degree where they don’t have their heart. They never took the chance to build what they were made for. Also, the love between partners has become a sort of competition for who is doing the most for the family.
Devoured by profit-making.
Surviving becomes really difficult when love is replaced by the profit margin of a person. It’s heart-shattering and frankly speaking not human. Can we change this?
Perhaps we can raise a generation that values everything and everyone. Irrespective of what they bring to the plate.
I looked at the cat long and hard and decided to stay in the winter sunshine until my heart was warm. The demands of the ego can wait.
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A Social Media Content Writer by profession. A writer by heart. A genuine foodie. Simple by nature. Love to read, create paintings and cook. Have impossible dreams. At the moment, engaged in making those dreams read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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