A few days back, I changed the Display Picture of my Whatsapp (though I hardly ever use it, being the loner that I am). It read: Say YES to new adventures!
Why? Because I had just been open minded enough to say yes to one such adventure and was now hungry for more.
So, when IB and Luftansa came up with this idea of falling blindly in love with the world, by creating The Bucket List #TheBlindList, I sat up to take notice.
What if the world invited you on a blind date?
To travel to a place you know nothing about for an experience you have no clue about?
Would you be openminded enough to say yes to the world?
I read the questions again. And again. The questions made me reflective, and even as my mind started to relentlessly raise its powerful voice, deep within, I could feel the beats of my tiny crazy heart - it had already begun to dream...
Saying YES to the World!
The unknown is scary.
Actually, it’s terrifying!
The thought of stepping into an uncharted territory makes me restless, anxious, and fearful, just as much as or a maybe even a little more than it makes me excited, eager and upbeat.
To give up on things and people that provide security, comfort and pleasure can be so difficult more often than not. Uncertainty creeps into my heart and scares the crap out of me.
Will this proposal strangle me? Extinguish my fire?
Plunge me further into darkness? Kill me??
Yes but not in a way that I think it to be.
O Heart, are you mad?
How do I walk the unknown paths, the paths that I cannot see?
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| By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called . . . . And he went out, not knowing where he was going. — Hebrews 11:8. |
To counter the many logical questions of my mind and to say my Yes to the World, I would take some travel inspiration from Abraham. I would cling to the One who knows all things, before exercising my faith by standing on the edge and jumping into the unknown. Saying YES to the uncertainty that the future holds would be easier as I rest in the knowledge that I’am in good hands -- regardless of what might lay ahead of me or where my Father might be leading me to.
Getting Lost While Exploring the World.
Stepping into the unknown brings to life – life itself… that life that had until now been running on autopilot. Suddenly, she is eager for interaction - asking me for my choices, my likes and my decisions. Choices and decisions.. that are not easy to make as they bring with them the alarm bell of responsibility.
Inundated with the numerous voices and opinions in my head, I struggle, cry (a lot – very healing!), feel embarrassed at the choices I make and sometimes pity the sorry state of my own self.
It hurts – hurts like hell. To be lost, in the muddy puddles that fear leaves aside in the form of anxiety, despair and misery. All this after saying your yes.
My body cringes at all the worries and unanswered questions racing and plaguing through my mind.
Where is this path leading to?
Have I done the right thing by saying yes?
Where in the world would I open my eyes to greet a brand new day tomorrow?
I feel a surge of the so called negative emotions raging through my veins BUT does this mean I quit? NEVER!
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| Lost is crazy for adventure. |
Taking a deep breath and sitting in quiet silence has the answers to many an unresolved of our mysteries. I would sit myself down and patiently, gently ask myself sincerely where is it that I really want to be and what is it that I truly want to do.
Opening a channel for a healthy dialogue between the conflicting voices, the perfectionist part of me will have to be constantly reminded that it's okay to hurt. Life is just as brutal as it is beautiful – that there are no quick answers and neither do I need them. My fears and my struggles are giant blessings that are here for my own growth, as a price to be paid back for the rich treasures of life.
Self Exploration.
This moment of epiphany, this particular one is a gem, a rare dazzling gem. Reminding me of the juicy magic that happens in two seemingly simple words – I Am.
Who am I?
I am open like the throbbing passionate sea, ready to embrace the infinities of the horizon in my pulsating gaze. I am the fiery light, that cracks through the mountaintops, the first thing in the morning. I am the roaring sea, the gentle winds and also the mellow sunset after a long tired day.
I am vulnerable like nature, never perfect but just me. And it is enough.
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| I am MAGIC! |
Life meets me, here, in this moment, when I stop over thinking and start acting spontaneously, fully secure in the belief that I am not alone in this journey of mine… that I am so much more than this image of my restricted, individuated being. I am always, inherently, connected to something beyond my own self; the appearance of being separate from everything else is merely an illusion, a temporary, impermanent state of experience that belies my actual aware state of experience.
Enriching Experiences.
Taking baby steps in my renewed confidence and vigor… it’s time to broaden my horizons, expand my mental boundaries, deepen my understanding and push open my wings and fly!
And flying I am, with eyes brimming in magic, wonder and intrigue.
Once I rid myself of any expectations about how I’d want things to go, I open myself up to a whole new set of experiences and possibilities I could never have imagined otherwise.
Everything else that follows is just that - a dream, the one that I never actually saw but the one that came to me as a gift for my faith and commitment to the Universe. People, strangers, they all join in from nowhere -- finding, appreciating that unexpected beauty in the rawness, muddiness and craziness of life, enjoying the ride, no matter how bumpy — ah well, did someone say adventure? There is no time to think, just to see, every moment as they are unraveling before me. Tasting the new with my tongue and biting into the exciting with my senses is exhilarating as I am kissed so warmly by the early rising sun.
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| I rise, unfurling, blossoming, and shining in all my brilliant magnificence that I was always meant to be. |
Nourished with enriching experiences and every ounce of the sweet raw transformative power of the journey, my blind quest now comes to a vivid realization: Of the beauty there is to the existence I had no damn clue about, of the divinity that makes me and them, all of us who we are, the most magnificent of God’s creations, humans, and of an unfailing connection to that unique core that binds us all, as harbingers of love and light, in one single frame of life.
Rediscovering the Blind Love for the World.
What happens after saying yes to the world? Is it a season for a few moments or will it last for ever? Will there be a happily ever after?
Peeping out of the window, I see the promise of a beautiful rainbow in the distant horizon. Within the rainbow, I see many different colors, blended together in beads of love. All the beauty, all my realizations, and my blind date with the world flashes before my eyes in one single second. The dark cloud of thoughts that once threatened, poured, have now calmed down, leaving a beautiful rainbow in my heart, my window to the world.
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| May there be the colors of the rainbow, blended in love, lots of it - every time - with you. |
I don’t know the whole story. No one does. But what I do know is that right now, standing at the edge of my world, in this moment, I feel free. My heart roars, calling - longing for more, more blind dates with the world. It knows the world is there, longing also for me.
I could never settle again - I won't. I am ready to say yes to new adventures. I am ready to say YES to the world!
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#SayYesToTheWorld
Why do you love the world?
Do add your thoughts in the comments section below!
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