One of the consequences of a daily learning blog of a personal nature like this one is that what you say on the blog generally corresponds a heck of a lot with what you are going through in life. I’ve said this many times but I find myself reminded of this from time to time.
If you are in difficult times, you allude to it many a time with your posts. It’s just the nature of the game and it’s part of being yourself, being authentic. I always do my best to stay away from the specifics of discussing highs and lows but if you are a regular, you will likely make out rather easily as to whether the general trajectory is upwards or downwards.
I was thinking about faith the other day in the context of a tough period. I am not a religious person but I am fairly spiritual. I believe in a force and in a concept called God. It’s just my faith. Being a Hindu by religion, I don’t like going to temples – especially the big, popular ones often frequented by those who go there out of habit, or to find purpose. I guess I am a bit of a rebel by nature and I like to delude myself about the ‘purity’ of my beliefs/way of doing things.
One of the lines in my personal mission statement is to ‘Seek and Merit Divine Help.’ I don’t know if there does exists a concept called divine help. Again, it’s a belief, an act of faith and it’s something I’ve become conscious of in the last 3 years. I remember I had turned agnostic for a big part of the first 3 years of university. I felt faith didn’t serve a purpose.. until I hit one of the most longest profound ‘low’ periods I’ve every experienced and found myself naturally clutching at faith to feel calmer, better and probably most importantly, give me hope.
Ever since, I’ve always done my best to set a few minutes aside every weekend for a ‘thank you’ prayer so I don’t just think of divine help when I am in trouble. That said, even when I’m in trouble, I’ve never really asked for help. My mom always taught me to say thank you for all I had. I still do that.
These days, more than ever, I do my best to remind myself that tough times exist to give us a sense of meaning and difficulty in our lives. We couldn’t be heroes of our own life if we didn’t have obstacles we had to overcome. Thank god for them. Can you imagine a narrative to your grandchildren without these challenges and obstacles? Joy wouldn’t be good if it wasn’t for pain.
And at the end of the day, especially post my trek to the Himalayas, I am doing my best to remind myself often enough that life.. is indeed very good.
Thank god for that.
A Learning a Day 
