Tag: viewpoint

Miscellaneous, My Digital Universe

Rock Vs. Water

Cheran Ratnam

Determination requires discipline and discipline requires consistency. Do the best you can and do your best to do it for the right reasons.

We can be a leaf in a stream and get taken wherever the water flows. We can also be a rock in the stream. But it’s better to be the stream.

The stream will flow where it needs to flow. It will go around the rocks or over the rocks to get there.

Consistency has power that a stale rock doesn’t. A rock can only resist. But water can overcome resistance.

A rock, that’s too heavy, cannot move. Though strong, it can only experience decay. Water sustains life. It is refreshing. It flows. It can carry. It can be useful. It can transform. If it is stored for too long, it will evaporate or seep into the soil and nourish the earth. When it is too cold, it can be hard enough to destroy the Titanic. If you boil it enough it will disinfect and get rid of the germs.

Be like water. Strength is not only what we can see or do. It is also what we can become!

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Miscellaneous, My Digital Universe

Inside, looking out

Cheran Ratnam

The eyes reflect what the heart tries to hide,

Your thoughts won’t contain, although you fight,

Your concern for how I should fly my kite,

Is eating up the moments before your eyes.

Life is but a moment depleted,

So why focus on someone else’s misses?

Time is only moving forward,

Why not focus on your journey?

There are no secrets in life. A sincere smile shows a sincere heart. It reflects that a person has no qualms about what someone did or ought to do.

The words spoken behind someone’s back, a negative thought or dislikes cannot be hidden with a smile or a gesture.

It all shows.

There’s no magic about it. What you think of someone will show with your smile. What you told of someone will show through the one that you told it to.

Call it energy, vibes, juju … These are all ways that someone’s perception of another manifests and how the receptor experiences it.

Perhaps one solution is to not concern so much about other people’s lived experiences. Curiosity has a place. When curiosity becomes an obsession over what someone else is doing, you forget to live the very short life you have. Now you are not only meddling with the limited moments another has to experience life, but also wasting your own, on futile analysis’.

Ever wonder why faith causes so many problems in the world? It’s not so much the teachings of a faith but the application and interpretation of that faith that cause issues. Often times the application of faith is blatantly hypocritical when compared to the teachings.

Devotees are so concerned of how someone else is living their life that they feel the need to take on the role of a deity. Or, do they feel as if everyone must agree with exactly what they perceive to be correct in their minds? I don’t see an issue with someone’s firm belief that what they believe is right. However, when you impose that onto people and derive moral authority, it becomes a problem. Spiritual practices do not have measurements or evaluation procedures. For better or for worse, that leaves room for all sorts of things. If you can’t accept another human being based on their merits, I don’t mean the standards that you uphold to be worthy, but simply for who they are, perhaps you need to reevaluate your faith.

Is it a spiritual practice at that point? Or is it a crutch that you need to define who you are in terms of who someone else is?

Part of the issue lies in hierarchical view points that dominate our society. Whether we like to admit or not, modern society in general, still operates under the pretense of importance that people attach to professions, qualifications and achievements. So instead of seeing the most obvious oneness, we are programmed to compare, dissect and position ourselves in relation to those we meet.

Ever thought what a human would look like to an alien? At a glance, an extra terrestrial would categorize animals based on their common characteristics. And all humans, regardless of color, race, gender or qualifications will be categorized under one generic umbrella.

If we need faith to feel good about ourselves in relation to another, to me there’s little value in that belief. A spiritual practice, first and foremost should nourish and sustain the individual practitioner. Next, it should create harmony and unity with everything around them. It should dissolve and dismantle illogical untruths that one accumulate as they grow up in a world with conflicting opinions and ideas.

At the end, truth shouldn’t require any justification. If it requires persuasion, think twice. If something is so true, wouldn’t it be undeniable obvious? Wouldn’t it be inescapably comprehensible? Is it fair for some individuals to understand it and not others, if something is true? Or is truth like mathematics? If so, wouldn’t it be math and not the truth? Can truth be relative? If that’s the case, what’s the point of enforcing laws?

Poems

Morning rain

Cheran Ratnam

Rain drops in the sky,
Slowly pouring while,
Early morning smiles;
Everything worth while.

Through the gentle tides,
You whisper gentle plights,
There’s a warmth deep inside,
No ladder left to climb.

As the flowers bud in time,
So the grass holds its right.
Just to lay down and ride,
The waves of this light!

And it’s raining down,
So deep inside,
Not a worry left in sight,
Dreams revived, with light.

And the sun will shine,
For the wandering heart,
With the rain in sight,
It’s blooming time!

Poems

Devil in Blue

Cheran Ratnam

The devil met me dressed in Blue,
Guess I was next in line, in his cue.
Must be fate, he hates my dark hue,
So he pressed me down pretending to subdue.

Breath was gone, my words were true,
So now I lay in plain view.
Videos repeated, the talk of a few,
Even a painting that someone drew.

But the devil will keep hunting in blue,
Because the people … well there’s not much they will do,
Than say a prayer in some church pew! 😡🤬

Miscellaneous, My Digital Universe

So, you think you know it all?

Cheran Ratnam

Don’t expect someone that didn’t see you break a sweat to understand your journey.

Sometimes it’s all about how you interpret something. For some, a journey is straightforward, so when they see someone that is curious and don’t mind getting lost, they may interpret the wanderer as someone that’s lost. But, isn’t life more about the journey and less about the destination? Then again, sometimes it’s less about the journey and more about the destination.

Some journeys, like the Annapurna circuit in Nepal, is about the journey AND the destination. Which brings me to my point: it’s always better not to jump to conclusions about another’s experiences or choices. Don’t play God.

A person’s experiences in life, what they do and why they do it, is a subjective mystery for everyone (except the person). Who can see the insides of someone’s mind, their emotional state, their true desires, to be able to accurately decipher why they chose chocolate over ice cream?

Perhaps I am one of those that feel as if I can sense the pressure of the probing eyes of those who know me, wandering what I’m doing with my life. I feel as if I can sense their judgmental (not always negative) interpretations as to what may be going on with me. Perhaps they are right. If so, they know about the inner workings of my mind and heart more than I do. But, do they really? On the other hand, they are making judgments based on their subjective understanding of the world and the even more limited understanding of who I am as a being. For in reality, we all pick and choose what we share with the external world.

We share our sense of fashion with total strangers by the way we dress (whether we intend to or not), while our smile can communicate our stress-levels to someone that’s known us for years. Since there’s no exact science (to my knowledge) that accurately decipher what’s goes-on inside someone, the goal is not to figure out how to get that information. It’s none of our business to figure out something that another person is purposely hiding. THAT, is an invasion of privacy and extremely annoying. What’s more annoying is when people THINK they know what’s going on and try to interpret or TELL the person as if they know what’s going on with them.

In my opinion, it’s better to make anyone feel at ease and accepted, so they can freely share and be themselves around us without fear of judgment. Let them define who they are to us. Listen more and remind yourself to put your interpretations in check. That will open up an opportunity for honest conversations rather than playing hide and seek. Hide and seek is best played with kids, not adult behavior.

Poems

Two Worlds

Cheran Ratnam

There are two worlds,
One that you can see- theirs,
The one that others can’t see- yours.

When it comes to your world,
Knowing too much is a pain,
Since part of knowing your world
Is to know enough about theirs.

When it comes to their world,
Curiosity takes the better of you,
You waste your time figuring out their world–
Yet, it’s all in YOUR head.