Monthly Archives: April 2013
Life is Good, My Friends
RIP Mary Oliver (September 10, 1935 – January 17, 2019). Thank you for your precious words.
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I was recently sent a quote that got stuck in my mind and refused to leave. It went like this –
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
Think about that for a minute.
…your one wild and precious life…
Every one of those words is heavy with meaning, dripping with significance.
Isn’t it?
It got me thinking.
It also sent me off on a short, beautiful journey of discovery. I discovered (better late than never!) that this is a line from a poem, The Summer Day, by the famous American poet and Pulitzer prize winner, Mary Oliver. From this, I went on to discover her other wonderful poems. And I’m not done yet. But that’s a story for another day.
The essence of that one line makes me think about how careless we sometimes are about our one wild and precious life.
We don’t value it enough to get the best out of it.
We abuse.
We regret.
We fume.
We blame.
We envy.
We look elsewhere.
We get so full of should-haves and could-haves, we don’t pay attention to how fabulous and precious what we have already is.
Why is that?
Shouldn’t we be mostly celebrating our life and the world around that makes it what it is? Why waste a single moment on anything but making the most of it – each of us, as we live our one wild and precious life?
So much better to live in the awareness of how fortunate we are, rather than to get subsumed by all the things we think we should be and imagine that we should have.
If we look hard enough, dare I say – if we look really hard – what we will find is that life is good, life is very beautiful, indeed. And that’s something to be embraced and treasured. Every. Day.
I just came home from listening to an inspiring presentation from a young lady I know who has faced some of the toughest obstacles in life. Born with a birth defect, she has had to endure more than fifty surgeries (so far) and is unable to eat, except through an IV tube. She told her audience that her life had taught her to be a fighter and to defy all odds, and that the many scars she bears are simply testimony to her determination and hope. After each challenge she faces, she simply develops a new normal. She truly appreciates what others take for granted.
Now, here’s someone who knows precisely how priceless her one wild and precious life is, regardless (or because?) of all the hurdles it has thrown her way.
And you? Would you say that you are living life to the fullest?
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
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Bollywood Famine, Movie Feast
I was just thinking that I don’t remember the last Bollywood film that I watched. Although if I search my blog archives, I am sure I could find something.
How unusual.
While in Bombay, this was one of my primary entertainment options during the weekends.
The in-your-face advertisements for the weekend releases prompted me to check out whether there was anything worth my time. Because there were few other options, over time I inevitably watched some of them. Even when I knew that they were not that great, even when I knew that less than 5% were worth my while. It was a good excuse to get out.
All of that has gone by the wayside. My free time has become too precious and there are too many other options for spending it.
I don’t even know what creations have come out of Bollywood for the past few months. Unusual indeed.
No more in-your-face advertisements. If I want to see what’s happening in Bollytown, I need to make the effort to look, and I haven’t had the urge to do so. Not at all. Who’s hot, who’s not? What’s new? What’s old? Who cares?
That’s kinda sad because in my recent past, I did. Location changed everything. What’s interesting is how quickly things were replaced, how quickly life moved on, with no time for looking back.
I still have my favorite stars so for the sake of good memories of my time in Bombay, I intend to make a date to watch the next Aamir Khan (aka my Satyamev Jayate hero) movie – whatever, whenever that is; but surely there will be one, sooner or later.
That will kill two birds – get me back in touch in some small way to the Bollywood scene, and provide me some good entertainment with one of my favorite movie stars. If Mr. Perfectionist’s reputation and history is anything to go by, that shouldn’t be an ordeal at all.
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Meanwhile, as movies go, I’ve switched back to Hollywood and managed to watch virtually every Oscar nominated film. That’s what too many long-haul flights do to you.
Plus once a movie buff, always a movie buff.
And I must admit that of all of them (and Lincoln notwithstanding), I’m still not quite over the absolute brilliance of Django Unchained.
That one has lingered on.
And on.
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Photo Credits:
Aamir Khan with David Cameron, Feb 2013 – By http://www.bollywoodhungama.com [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 