I’m usually swamped with mixed feelings at the end of the year. Sorry to let go yet eager to know what lies ahead. As I grow older
though, the melancholy and excitement seem to morph into a giant knot of
trepidation instead. My concerns range from Toffee getting old and ill, my
family and friends’ health and wellbeing to larger world issues of peace,
security and global warming!
I traveled to northeast India this November and it troubled me
greatly that such incredibly beautiful places did not have shiny, happy
inhabitants to match! My distress would have been explicable several years ago
when I was young and still embryonic in my thinking. Now that my adult
awareness is able to comprehend dissonance why did it still bother me?
Maybe idealism knows no season or reason and once you’re imprinted with its
gene, it follows you to the grave!
Mother Nature gifted us so many breathtaking moments on our
trip—spectacular sunrises, the glorious sight of a peacock soaring majestically
right above us in a forest, gentle mist filtering through trees growing in
vertical uniformity, frolicking river dolphins in the Brahmaputra, rolling
hills under the bluest sky, a noisy flock of scarlet minivets that suddenly
appeared on the horizon and the zillion scenic views that we were treated to as
we drove past tiny villages. The joy and gratitude of witnessing such awesome
beauty was however tinged with sadness knowing that it was transitory in a
world of strife and need.
My
deepest wish for 2013 is for universal peace, prosperity and good health. Maybe
if we all carried in our hearts the inspiration that nature provides us, it
would be easier to attain.
