Dhoop Chhaon

Blessings!

Bless the roads my father walks on!
So pavements are smooth and traffic slow.
And every turn that he takes
is to home.
Bless the people on the roads!
so they turn and look ,
and smile and nod as he goes.
Bless the doors of my mothers home!
Through which naught else ,
but light and love flows.
Bless the people around my parents home !
so they are watchful
of their neighbours who are old.
Bless my parent's daughters,
their husbands and their children-
by blood and law!
So they can love from deep within
and forgive each others flaws.
Bless my parents in their sunset years!
so they can cherish their love's labour
and be with peace and calm.

( I was deeply dissappointed when my old parents chose to continue living independently, despite my husband and my earnest pleas that it was now time for us to serve them.Both of us deeply believed, and still do, that we could offer them a more comfortable and safe life with us , and also perhaps more happiness.

For a long time I could not understand my mothers refusal- even though I know it is ultimately Gods will that prevails. Why was I not accepting Gods will?

This morning I read in TOI about Irish Blessings- the Celtic tradition of Ireland , Scotland and Wales . It said that blessing is a spiritual act where we acknowledge and remind the ones who are blessed of the connection between them and divine.The author ,Marguerite Theophil says " The true beauty of blessing is how it affects everything-by the fact that we live we are blessed;we have the power to bless others and they reflect love back to us . In the very act of blessing we are blessed".
On a sudden inspiration I wrote the above Blessing for my parents . I am already feeling more at peace . People who know me will understand more clearly that each line in the "Blessings "that I have written points to the very reason why I want my parents to live with their children now.)

Quiet Flows The MeKong

Verses for my very dear Dipu

Should I wait?
Will my words cause pain?
No this is not the aim.
In its place
I pray for grace,
to touch your life
in every way.
Nay ! just take -
Its every where.
Have faith!
for truth is there
for all to see.
Be Aware.
I await to see
the cheer on your face.


Rest my friend
Sleep deep!
so deep , you reach
your first year
on earth.
When all rejoiced ,
for you shone so bright
and all knew
its Gods light.
Then wake up
New!

And the river flows
There is no last
no middle , no first.
just this .
A point where old and new join.
Same love,
in new places
new faces and spaces.
There is no pain,
but incessant rain of change.
Be strong with us .
O friend
Welcome home.

(And Dipu I wrote this haiku for you a long time ago when I was going through a bad patch)

Your words combed
my tangled thoughts
then poured
down the slopes
and I rested
as if after
a warm
oil bath.





.

The Spirit and old age

Old age is the balance sheet of how we have lived, loved ,resolved and evolved. When the body is frail and sick, kith and kin far away,the environment unfit and unsafe; it is our spirit that keeps us " whole".

Spirit is that part of us which is God, and its nature is pure, pristine, emanant, and self sustaining.It does need nourishment from a job , status, money, or those hundreds of things we hanker for all our life---- and because it does not ask for anything, has no wants , it lies often undiscovered and ignored within us. Often under a heap of hurts and grudges that we accumulate through life.

In old age when the body is weak and cannot stand on its own,the props of material life have gone away , and number of friends and relatives decresae every year ,then it is the spirit that holds us.

And thus :

I pray for myself and on behalf of all humanity : "God ! guide me to take all those steps today , that keeps my spirit pure and strong , so that in my old age it is fully revealed and holds me in splendour."

amen