Gita's Blog

I am feeling very grateful today for the small things in life. But, before I get to that, let me explain how I came to this realization.

I was speaking to a long-ago friend the other day and we had quite a philosophical discussion. I had not spoken to him for 23 years and it was nice to re-connect and discover who we had become. I was giving my “universal principles of respect” point of view and he was giving me “the Good Lord said” point of view. Now, I have nothing against what the Good Lord said. In fact I respect ALL that He said.

I tend to see my view as open and not restrictive, in fact expansive, and I am sure he feels his view to be the right one as well. I am sure he is shaking his grey head and wondering where all my education took me and how he could straighten me out!

We exchanged emails and said good bye. Soon, I started to get the usual hate-filled emails (not against me, just the “them”) about politics, religion, and choices people make and so on. I saw a process of demonization had begun and taken root in this person's mind and I was amazed how he too could fall into this process. This man is “highly educated”, holding three higher academic degrees from three top notch American universities! What happened to him? Where does this kind of hatred and cynicism come from and how does it maintain a hold on him?

I put all the emails in the Spam folder and thought...I still like this person, but cannot agree with his views. I felt his views had made him into a lonely, angry, spiteful and cynical old man. I reminded myself to make a note of this on my “what not to do when I get old” list and put several stars next to this entry!

This incident gave me food for thought.

Let me explain: I have always operated from the view that life is an open system. I don't like to think in terms of restrictions. I am sure I hold many restrictions in life, the boundaries that I erect to feel secure and I do follow rules and regulations. But my philosophical point of view is still one of openness and possibilities. Life to me is growing constantly, changing and evolving. What we believed in yesterday may not apply today. What we thought to be normal behavior may need continuous bits of expansion and fine tuning. We are always adapting to something that is internally probing our consciousness or externally inspiring us. At the meantime, we define and re-define what is timeless and eternal and what is changing.

For example, we adapt to “normal,” societal, market-driven values and we go along with the flow. We are one of the herd and follow along wherever the forces of common values take us.

Or we have a time-honored orthodox views of the world, adapt what we experience in life to these views, and try to put everything that is currently happening into this context. When we do this, strange things happen! If we believe in an “eye for an eye” philosophy and try to adhere to it literally, then we have no problem with injuring people who injure us or we feel have injured us. Never mind that this philosophy may just involve a symbolic view of karma. We appropriate what we see going on in life around us to the restrictive inner philosophy that we hold.

Or, we take the higher values and virtues of life (such as beauty, goodness, forgiveness) and we begin to change our life to adapt to these higher values and principles. We question our values, we question our normal ways of doing things and thinking. We question our assumptions and our entire take on life through a prism of deeper thinking and deeper understanding of the changing life. In doing so, we are interacting with the changing life; we do not freeze life.

So, in order to avoid the condition of cynicism, which to me is the freezing of the soul, I want to take time to reflect on the small things today. Although I realize I wrote a large number of words just to get to the small things in life, I realize I have not yet mastered the art of saying it simply; haiku is not in my bag of creative abilities yet!

I am feeling very grateful today. What am I grateful for? So many things, starting with my family, friends, loved ones from all times of my life, those with whom I agree and those with whom I disagree, co-workers from many places on earth, and the sunny clear day in Cave Creek on this cold January 1^st. I am grateful for having a life where I can read all day. I am grateful for growing up thinking that I can do anything. I am grateful for a Mom and Dad who were examples of open-ended thinking. I love to see how we all grow and transform ourselves every day. I see the bright side and the dark side of life. I read cookbooks and drink coffee from a pretty cup; the pink roses on the cup make my coffee taste specially good today. The bird bath needs water, the birds peck at the frozen surface trying to get a drink; they are wondering “Where is the water? I see it but can't quite get to it?” I walk outside in the cold air, my grey hair flying about, and put more water in the bird bath and more in the bunny bowl. When they come back tonight to drink, they will find water rather than frozen ice!

Zahtar and olive oil are very tasty on corn bread. The Lord is Good and He, in His infinite wisdom, gave us the mental capacity to capture life. Miracles in small things; I like that. The birds have their water; and the bunnies too. The Javelinas find the bunny bowl and empty it; they walk right into it and spill it all over the place. Perhaps a bigger bowl for them is in order? The conservationists in the desert will object, surely. I understand. And the symbolism? I have to think with my next cup of coffee, this time in a beautifully crafted Russian cup.

J. Alfred Prufrock I am not; I do not measure my life with coffee spoons, but with the grandeur of Cosmos. The birds and bunnies offer a poetic refrain in desert life; a continuity in the ever changing landscape of life.

Happy Year 2010. May your life be blessed with the small wonders of God and the grandeur of Cosmos.

Gita

Gita Saraydarian is the founder and president of TSG Foundation, the publishing and distributing foundation for the books and creative works of Torkom Saraydarian. More information on her work to build bridges to happiness, joy, and bliss and complete list of past blogs can be found on her new website, http://www.gitasaraydarian.org/