The tsunami within

Now this is not about any spy thriller and some witness protection plan that one hides away in some other remote place in the world with a new identity and a new life to boot.

But what it is, I believe is something that applies quite universally to everyone who’s feeling the “thick of battle” or the weariness of having to deal with less than desirable people day in and day out.

Yes, you know what I’m talking about. We all have desires, whether hidden or otherwise, to just run away to another place, another city or another country so that we can leave all that unpleasantness behind us and “start afresh”. Sometimes, too, it is more than a desire… it is a need.

But while I am all for one to just pack his/her bags and leave to that place where the sun should shine brighter and the grass is real (and not some astroturf), I sometimes wonder too, whether all the running will actually produce what we’ve after.

See, many will say “Yes, I do love myself… it’s the people that I can’t stand” and that there is a need to break away and go on a sojourn to “find ourselves”.

But honestly, do we really love ourselves as we ought to? If we did, we would have “found ourselves” already.

See, we love the things or the perception of ourselves; the way we wear our hair, the way we dress, the persona we project for the world to see. Yet, at the very heart of it all, we failed to honestly love ourselves to a point where the hairstyles, the clothes, the possessions and the image does not count as much as the reality of a life that’s truly authentic, both to others as well as ourselves.

It is a place where we can truly sit restful with a peace that surpasses all the crisis, all the calamity and all the tsunamis that swirl all around. Yes, it is an inner peace and acceptance of truly loving who we are, not what we have achieved.

Some may term it wearing our character on our sleeves, while some others will recognize it as being so coyly confident of oneself. However it’s called, it’s presence is undeniable and its power to remain calm in the eye of the storm is real. And believe me, at the very eye, the core of the tornado, while all around swirls with mayhem, the centre is dead calm. Yes, it is surreal, but nonetheless, real.

So perhaps, while the troubles, problems and chaos may be from the world and the circumstances, and place that we find ourselves in right now, the greater trouble is within ourselves. And unless we can come to a place where in the midst of all that chaos, there is still a core of absolute calm, there may be no place far enough that we can run to, nor a heaven real enough at the end of the rainbow.

For it is not so much against others that we battle with, but is with ourselves. So, unless the battle is fought, the war cannot be won.