23 Sunflowers I planted at 23(part-4)

19. Time heals many scars. 

What’s healing for you? I feel healing is a journey, the journey that is meant to embrace many scars, the journey that is meant to overcome many sorrows, the journey that is meant to love life, the journey that is meant to feel proud and confident of oneself, the journey that gives us a sense of strength to face challenging situations in a better way, the journey that helps us count our blessings, the journey that helps us offer gratitude to the Universe and what takes us on this journey is ‘time’. There are good times and not bad maybe but difficult times. If good times can pass, don’t you think difficult times can also pass? It is all about our patience and trust. The hope we carry each day to make our lives better is the partner of time that makes this journey beautiful. As time passes the scars fade.

20. Self-love not selfish.

I had a very wrong perception on self-love, I thought self-love is narcissism. It took me many years to realize and understand what self-love is, it helped me change my perspective towards it. I feel self-love is one of the steps towards healing. I feel it kind of helps us to get over our insecurities that we carry in one or the other way. I think self-love is not just loving oneself, it is about having self-awareness, knowing our flaws, knowing our abilities, our beliefs and ethics. There’s always space for self-improvement, loving, learning and growing, understanding all this and accepting oneself is something about self-love that is magical. I also believe in spreading love and kindness. Is it possible to serve from an empty bowl? Definitely not, when there’s no love for oneself and there’s no acceptance for oneself, how is it possible to give unconditional love to the people you have in life, when I’m not being kind to myself, how can I spread the word of kindness to the entire world? I stand in front of mirror and sometimes I get the flashes of wrong decisions or mistakes that I’ve taken or done, but accepting it, forgiving myself, learning from it and trying to be a better human can make that flashes of pessimistic perspectives to change to flashes of optimistic perspectives.

Was there love around is what I always searched for, 

Always looked at the world around,

Thought insecurity is the only reality,

It took me years,

But I realized,

There’s love inside,

World within,

My perspective forms reality,

Let me love and love,

Accept and no expect,

Grow and glow,

Only good thoughts and intentions, good deeds and sow seeds of joy,

Self-love not selfish, spreading love and kindness is my wish.

21. Universe, belief and its magic.

What’s spirituality for you? 

Do you believe in Universe or the supreme power?

I remember Amma telling me to offer prayers to God every day when I was a kid. As an obedient kid I followed what amma asked me to do. She taught me some shlokas and I used to say it almost everyday whenever we offered pooja. But somewhere this helped me develop belief and trust on the Universe. As I grew up, visiting temples gave me a pleasant feeling, I felt serene and always came back home with new energy and hope. I felt I’m protected and guided by an energy. My belief has strengthened day by day. I feel Universe puts us into many tests to create better versions of ourselves. Last year I had a very bad phase in my life, whatever emotions I was going there I penned it down, I did complain, I did cry, I felt lost, but somewhere there was always hope and trust that made me over come my situations and I feel that trust on Universe gave me right things at right time. I believe Universe knows what is the best for us and gives us the best only at the right time. Prayers for me is one of the forms to communicate with Universe, this decreases my anxiety, improves my confidence and gives a sense of hope that ‘everything is going to be alright.’

22. Be grateful

Don’t you think we all have one or the other complain about not having something in life. We always tend to forget to appreciate the things that we already have, I remember a line from my favourite bhavageethe ‘yavamohana murali kariyithu’ ie ‘Eruvudellava bittu eradudaredege thudivude jeevana’. It is always we tend to feel ‘oh I don’t have this, if I get this I’ll be satisfied’ but I don’t think life works this way. The way we count our blessings matter a lot. Any difficult situation and we easily start complaining. But have you all experienced about the beauty of offering gratitude. I think being grateful shows how we actually appreciate what we have. I write a journal everyday and I offer my gratitude to Universe. Even on my bad days I write a gratitude note, this makes me realize there are 10 better things in my life to be grateful for and consider that day as an experience. I see people working for one meal , I pray they also see better days, if I can help them in any ways I do it, then I offer gratitude for giving me a life that is someone’s dream and I thank Universe for keeping me in a state of giving. Being grateful reminds me the difficult situations that I have overcome and gives a sense of hope and strength to face tomorrows, it helps me keep myself grounded and a sense of awareness that this world is a beautiful place and we must have a broader perspective to look at it. 

23. Sunflowers and hope.

What is your favorite flower?

For me it is always Sunflower.

The flower that I always compare to life. The color yellow reminds me of Coldplay song ‘Yellow’.  The way Sunflowers embrace the golden time, the way it appreciates darkness, the way it glows again, the way it shows the cycle of life is just magical.

We embrace its beauty during the day and its beauty goes unnoticed at dusk. This is how we deal with many things in life. We feel so happy and blessed during our happy days and we immediately start questioning our blessings when there are difficult situations. Every flower has got different colors, fragrance, quality, beauty, in the similar way each person is different with unique characters then what is the point of comparison? The Sunlight brings its beauty to life similarly the hope we carry lights up our lives. 

Sunflowers shows the cycle of life. 

‘It might be dark and I might be weak, it might be windy today, thunder-storm tomorrow, I stand still because I carry hope, there has to be a better tomorrow, where Sun shines and I glow.’

This is the final part and I hope you all somewhere connected with these 4 parts of ’23 Sunflowers I planted at 23.’