Looking without judgment

"The difference between a flower and a weed is - Judgement !" Wayne Dyer

"Such beautiful flowers....Where did you pick them up from?"

I had come to a weekend getaway with friends and what greeted us at the reception, on the side table were these bunch of pink and white beauties!

"They are all over the estate, " said the lady who had ushered us in our quaint cottage, " Didn't you see?"

"No, I guess we missed them !"

Indeed when I noticed carefully in the estate 

these pink beauties bobbed up and down in the wind in the grass, 

looking as if someone had laid out a verdant green carpet with pink flowers 

So intent was I on looking at the "BEAUTY", that I failed to notice it!

How typical...

I laughed to myself....

Missing the obvious, because I was searching for the profound...

as if one is superior over the other :) 

I live my daydreams in music....

"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. 

I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. 

I see my life in terms of music.”
~Albert Einstein~

Ever since I can remember,
music has been an integral part of my life...

The whisper of crickets in the leechi trees in Dehradun

The loud drone of fighter planes in Basra

The koooo-koooo chook-chook of train from Mumbai to Benares in the summer holidays

The incomprehensible yet loving loris of Daddaji in chaste punjabi

The gurgling sound of Ganga at Laxman Jhoola and the swish of the paddle boats

And Lata Mangeshkar- Kishore Kumar duets on Radio Ceylon

I was a dreamy child and sought music wherever I was!

Sawant dadaji in Theosophical society, Benares, astutely channelised my love for singing
and introduced me to Gayatri Mantra and Hanuman chalisa at a very early age
Getting up at 4.30 am to hear the vedic chants reverberating in each and every cell of my body,
was the highlight of my summer holidays.
I can almost hear them even today

Bandra East, Mumbai was where I was introduced to the wonder of playlists
Those TDK cassettes zealously purchased from the duty-free shops,
Our old antique-looking German tape-recorder
And my brother and I painstakingly writing the name of the each song neatly
with our black Schaefer ink pen...

Chitrahaar, Movies and Antakshari made me the original acapella  specialist, even before the background sounds were in vogue!

Though I did not know it then,
learning Hindustani Classical at that age, was a gift given by my parents to me at that tender age!
I ofcourse, resisted the alaaps and the bhaavgeets that time, as I could hear my friends enjoying their evening play when I was practicing the aaroh- avroh ...
and struggling with passing Music exams
while my spirit was dying to participate in the unstructured play in the colony playground!

My love for gaana continued in my dating days with Uday
where his Meri bheegi bheegi  matched my Beeti na beetaayi raina 
and our romance blossomed over our eclectic choice of music:
his old Kishore Kumar numbers to my Disco Station...how we laughed at the differences...and yet the deeper almost divine bonding

and Soumya was born in a very musically alive home!

Cooing rehashed and remixed versions of nursery rhymes to put her to sleep
Converting the cups of water to jaltarang
It was hardly a surprise that my toddler was soon swaying to songs,
making playlists and swooning over Jonas brothers and Miley Cyrus!

The first playlist she made for me was the sweetest gift anyone had ever, ( and since ) given me,
each number meticulously woven in the necklace of a pretty playlist which Mom could wear and listen to anywhere, anytime....specially when she missed her moppet!

Her tradition of this gifting of love and connection still continues for me in my life ....

I make playlists whenever I want to gift a part of me to someone
and my love affair with Music continues unabashedly, unabated !

Every song with a rhythm , a heartbeat and woven with the richness of life or the ordinariness of it :)

Happy
Sad
Slow
Classical
Old
New
Rock
Jazzy
Dhinchak
English
Hindi
Regional
Global
through the ups and downs of life
bringing me closer to emotions and feelings : the aliveness of life...the joie de vivre of existence

When I look back at almost five decades of my musical moments, 
they encompass it all - 

the voice, the breath, the melody 

and the silence between the notes

the said 

and the unsaid 

I am blessed to have lived and hope to continue living in this cauldron of notes...till eternity !

Check my playlists in this youtube channel

My Playlists

Poignancy and love

As the sun melts into the sea and allows the evening and the night to unfold,
it also brings forth moments
of unspoken
or unrequited love

and

the memories of the beloved.

I wonder what it would be like to celebrate
and not lament
this bitter sweet emotion of poignancy and love
but mostly find it difficult to do so!

Music has helped me dive into memories of love with a spirit

to toast those times of connection and not sink into despondency and pity

Check this playlist which attempts to celebrate this love...

Youtube playlist : Aaye tum Yaad mujhe 

Did you take my charger?

I had woken up late....
rushed out for an early morning work-out
and then client meeting in the far off Mumbai suburb!

It could be my pms
or my need of affection,
or that I was missing him
or countless other reasons...

but I wanted to just hear from him -

FIRST !

FOR A CHANGE....

and he did message me as soon as he woke up.....

DID YOU TAKE MY CHARGER?

I sheepishly rummaged my backpack.

I HAD taken his charger with me....

and he would be mad at me, just now
Madder than I have been in the past

when he took my charger with him, by mistake....

Making him squirm and feel guilty, all together !

I did not tell him that!

Nor did I say :
that I missed him, 
that I wished I was cuddled up right now with him, 
instead of bumping along the dusty suburbs of Thane

that I loved him...

I just said : Sorry !

Hoping he would understand

WOULD HE ?
Really ? 

Do not leave your room

Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash


"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quite still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet"

—Franz Kafka

Lights! Camera! Drama ! Peace !

Most of the people I meet 

want to be happy and peaceful...

"PEACEFUL" like the crosslegged-meditating Buddha

with a
beatific 

serene 

nonplussed smile,
watching the world pass by !

For me, this version of peace is fine
but it can also be

very unidimensional 

Breathing in 

Breathing out

Mindfully 

or so it seems....

Peace almost seems to be an autopilot, in this version

As if in a controlled laboratory 

Non explosive 

and Too perfect to be true!

My version of Peace is more in the market place

It is the momentary Breath I take on the diving board before I plunge into the depths of emotional chaos !

The centeredness amidst the intense unpredictable "Life can be such a b***h' moments.....

Peace for me, is connecting to reality not perfection...sometimes you can be angry as hell and peaceful, both together!

It is being equanimous amidst ups and downs.....

in the lows...not making life appear "More Challenging" than it is  

and in the highs, allowing the adrenaline moments float by nonchalantly ! 

Peace is that one breath I connect to amidst the s**ttiest of heartbreaks 

and that palm I squeeze with compassion, during my biggest of fights !

Peace is that one sip of hot chai in the middle of the 

cluttered 

disorganised room...

Peace has all the drama, yet a clarity !

Akele hain to kya gum hai

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.

meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

— Jellaludin Rumi,

translation by Coleman Barks

Loneliness and I had kept a distance from each other....

Till she decided to visit me four years back!

I have been your quintessential extrovert, till then :

Surrounding myself with
hazaar action
peppy social do's
constant social media noise
mindless shopping
general chatter and cacophony of life....all in good doses!

When Loneliness decided to make friends with me,
it threw me off guard .....to say the least.

I was stand-offish and judgemental, in the beginning :

" I AM NOT 'THAT' SORT OF PERSON!"

The more I resisted the cloud,
more it cloaked me in feelings of isolation, despondency and unworthiness....

Finally I relented and stopped fighting her

"Come, have some chai with me !"

Some early mornings and late evenings,
I  began inviting my Loneliness to sit across on the chatai...
minus the distraction of my smartphone or netflix...
nudging her to open up her heart to me.

Initially she was reticent and she camouflaged herself in the cloak of sadness....
but slowly she relented and began opening up - and HOW !

Her devotedness to make me learn and grow as a human being, surprised me.

I discovered parts of me which I had not seen before-

Beneath the veneer of fear of being alone
was a very strong courageous human
who was committed to give herself and contributing to the life fully....

The seemingly flippant and frivolous chatter-box
hid a heart longing to connect deeper with people and with life...

the restless actions had hidden that part of me, which actually revelled in stillness.

Loneliness may have been an uninvited guest , but she has become a wonderful dost  and guide !

Rambunctious & reflective inconsistencies

"If one wants really to live life in all its richness, one has to learn how to be inconsistent, how to be consistently inconsistent, how to be able to move from one extreme to another — sometimes rooted deep in the earth and sometimes flying high in heaven, sometimes making love and sometimes meditating.

And then, slowly slowly, your heaven and your earth will come closer and closer, 
and you will become the horizon where they meet." Osho

down in the dumps of loneliness or
high on the ebullience of connections

focussed on the goals for the quarter or
scattered and chaotically ambling along

quietly reflective in solitude or
rambunctiously dancing on Bollywood numbers....

time to make peace with inconsistencies as a norm,
rather than an exception.....
in life

Afterall, there is no consistent destination to go towards, but this moment!

The nest is empty......but does my life have to be so ?

Soumya's going away  to the University was tough....
rather I made Soumya's leaving for the University tough for myself!

Initially I would spend time in her room
to feel her presence and to fill the void,
reminiscing over the times we spent together...
brooding over the emptiness I felt in her absence.

I tried
retail therapy
mindless chatter on whatsapp

just something
to fill the hours which
seemed
to stretch on and on

Over the weeks, months and years 
I realised how much I had used my daughter as a surrogate, 
to define and live my short term goals and long term dreams!

No one asked me to do so,
it just felt easy :

in the Comfort Zone ...
playing the Mommy !

being worried about the grades, courses to take in the university, emotional highs and lows in school and the junk food intake of a growing teenager....

rather than looking at deeper, maybe more real questions of life, for myself :

How do I add more meaning to my life and to those of others around me?

What work/role brings joy to me 
and more importantly , what am I doing to pursue it?

Slowly it has begun dawning on me that
loneliness and restlessness inside of me are
nothing
but

a Reality Check to connect to

Who I really am :

Beyond
a friend
a daughter
a team player
a lover
a wife
and a mother.....

Some use travel, others mindless chatter, food, templatized fun life....
to deflect from visiting this space of inquiry of truly who they are , sans all the roles and titles

I have used my motherhood!

The nest may be empty today...
but life is still full of all the meaning that I can choose to create in it now!

Noticing what surprises and disturbs me.....

"Noticing what surprises and disturbs me has been a very useful way to see invisible beliefs. If what you say surprises me, I must have been assuming something else was true. If what you say disturbs me, I must believe something contrary to you. My shock at your position exposes my own position. 

When I hear myself saying, “How could anyone believe something like that?” a light comes on for me to see my own beliefs. 

These moments are great gifts. 

If I can see my beliefs and assumptions, I can decide whether I still value them.

I hope you’ll begin a conversation, listening for what’s new. 
Listen as best you can for what’s different, for what surprises you. 

See if this practice helps you learn something new..." 

~Margaret Wheatley~

Regular, boring, mundane chores.....

"An act in totality is reward in itself.

When your act is total, there is no reward except itself.


Whether you are drinking tea or painting a great painting

or playing music...

if the act is total, it is your reward."

Osho


I have been noticing how I start something with great gusto...
but the interest wanes as soon as something
more "profound"
more "glamorous "
or that which will get me more "taalis" comes up...

Regular, boring, mundane chores...

at home or work are usually ignored
and/or dealt with half-heartedness
and many a times

even dropped off like an orphan :)

There is obviously a hierarchy in my mind of what is important and not important !

Creating workshop collaterals for clients becomes more important
than cleaning the wardrobe.
Making that all important presentation for Social Media obviously gets priority
vis-a vis the daily meditation practice,
Bills are almost always paid last minute...
with the slowest of internet speed, buffering my irritation...
as I forgot where the minutes flew by in the all engrossing chat in the WhatsApp group !


In my mind some tasks will help me shine ,
others are the not-so-important irritants which need to be dealt with

Yet,
I do wonder...

If you can't take on the simple tasks in totality as you can, how can you conquer the big things? 

Famous : Just being myself

Almost nearing the golden jubilee of existence....
still wonder sometimes at what does
being Famous or
being Successful mean....

These words by Naomi Shihab Nye resound in my heart with their authenticity.

Famous 

"The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,

which knew it would inherit the earth

before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds

watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom

is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,

more famous than the dress shoe,

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men

who smile while crossing streets,

sticky children in grocery lines,

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,

but because it never forgot what it could do."

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,

but because it never forgot what it could do.

Home is the place where you stand...

'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;

A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,

Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.

Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!

There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!

~ John Howard Payne~

I  have been a nomad for atleast half my life.

My father was in a transferable job and we kept moving from one place to the other ...- Delhi, Dehradun, Mumbai, Basra.

Every city had a charm of its own, 

yet

Every move brought out its challenges and adventures... 

It made me approach strangers and new situations unhesitatingly, make friends at the drop of a hat and adjust to new environment through different schools and social circles, grudgingly, but with a naive acceptance!

Then my parents settled down in North India, 
the place which felt closest to home for them, 
and that became home for me it too....
till I got married!
My nomadic journey and the search for " my HOME" restarted !

From the one room terrace flat as newly weds in Seshadripuram, Bengaluru....

to a 1BHK ( a one bedroom hall kitchen) in Bandra, Mumbai to the bigger residential ancestral home of my husband, where we stay at present....
Every home has been an active witness to my life's journey....

"What is home for me, today ?"

A haven of my own....safe from the eyes of the world? 
A place where I can unwind, be myself ?
Nurture family and create community of friends who fight and love and grow together ...
Dream dreams : big and small...
Clutch a pillow and cry my heart out at night when things don't work out!!


It's so difficult to pin down what EXACTLY home means to me...

It's all of the above, perhaps...An extension of me and more!

Pico Iyer's words come closest to what I feel about home : 

Home is a place where you become yourself, a place where you stand!


"Where you come from now is much less important than where you're going. 
More and more of us are rooted in the future or the present tense as much as in the past. 
And home, we know, is not just the place where you happen to be born. 
It's the place where you become yourself. 

And home, in the end, is of course not just the place where you sleep. 

It's the place where you stand!"

~ Pico Iyer~

Do I need to keep the pain alive to keep the truth alive?

In recent times have seen a lot of relationships crashing :

Close friendships of childhood,
Marriages...
Work partnerships of 20+ years.....
crumbling just like that!!!

Personally too ....
a breakup in a relationship which mattered, has been excruciatingly painful!

The sorrow that lingers on ....has not been linear.

The shock of the misunderstanding
and the break-up was immediate...
almost surreal...

Traces of sadness have dragged along
gradually, deeply, insidiously...like a lost child 

They surface at  most inopportune of times -

During formal meetings when I am supposed to be my professional best

When I am waiting at the checkout queue, ready to pay my bill 

and there is one drop of tear and the other...

and the lady at the counter is left wondering

what catastrophe has befallen on me!

Even if I have avoided the pain by numbing it during daytime, the demon crawls up the wall of the heart and begins gnawing n clawing for attention....whilst I lay alone in bed at night!

More often than not, I give in... allowing the pain to envelop me with the sheet of despondency.

Where did  I go wrong? 
How could I .....?

If allowed a second chance, would I do it differently? 

Being in grief has taught me the importance of connecting to deeper feelings and vulnerability.

Earlier I would be impervious to feeling such emotions or would shrug them with a
" One needs to be practical and move on in life!" kind of a platitude...

Today I notice the hurt and sorrow and welcome her with open arms :
allowing her to collapse in gently in my acceptance and embrace, whenever she wants to !

I have also become clearer of priorities and what I value and need in my life.

Do I come from neediness or do I provide space in my relationships ? 
Do I value honest communication and respect in my relationships? 
Both in giving and receiving? 
How do I hold  and value : polarities, divergence  and rejection - with dogmatic zeal of protecting what's dear to me or with an openness of heart?

Perhaps the best gift of fall-out of my grief is my changed relationship with Silence!

I have begun to befriend Silence rather than shun her for the difficult questions she asks me.

I like the insights which she throws up unflinchingly, and in a very unbiased way -
something I was either unable or unwilling to listen, caught as I was in the throes of emotional highs of a relationship!

Things have begun to feel lighter as many knots are being untied by my connection with self.

"Sometimes suffering the losses and the unexpected betrayals and break-ups that befall each of us becomes the places where we grow deepest in our capacity to lead an authentic and free life. 
Here is where the heart grows in dignity and care. 

By grieving honorably and tenderly and working our way through our difficulties, our ability to love and feel compassion for ourselves and others deepens, along with the trust that will help us through similar problems in the future." 
~ Jack Kornfield ~

After all ,

"The pain is necessary to know the truth but I do not need to keep the pain alive to keep the truth alive " ~Mark Nepo~

I DON'T WANT TO DO IT!

http://unsplash.com

Many of my conversations/actions happen in my head...

technicolor, vivid and in all ernest! 

The list is endless :

recipes which need to be organised
books which need to be sorted
documents which need to be purged
cupboard which needs to be cleared
projects which need to be completed
hurts which need to be expressed...

and truth be told, I don't really want to do them :)

Why add to the clutter and just admit the obvious: 

I DON"T WANT TO DO IT !

Simplifies life!!

"I see two smart reactions to this:
Stop lying to yourself, and admit your real priorities.
Start doing what you say you want, and see if it’s really true."

~ Derek Sivers~

https://sivers.org/arv

Just not me

https ://unsplash.com

Its so seductive to live in the "glorious past" 

and the "glorious titles or roles' which defined me in the good ol' days ..
Some titles make me appear taller than I am...

Ahem! and more important...
and some.....well, they are just NOT ME , in my current avatar...

but are present, like an addendum...an afterthought!

Some of my Ad nauseaum titles which are pulled out as trump card but longer resonate with me, today are :

Academic Achiever & School Captain ( 35 + years back :)

Entrepreneur ( All of 17 years ago)

Rubble rouser & Dabbler at work ( All of my professional life LOL )

Hoarder ( practically all of my life )

Today as I embark upon a journey of simplicity and meaning, time to expire and knock off titles which have outlived their use.

Check out this wonderful article, which delves deeper into this 

https://sivers.org/expire

'Ring out the Old....so that you can Ring in the New' !

The art of stillness

https://unsplash.com

'In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.'
~Pico Iyer~

Its been a while, that the need to slow down has been knocking hard....
Permeating every moment when I am harried and rushing through the day

Pulling me back when I want to multitask mindlessly

Egging me on 

To        
Slow down 
and chill....
And become more attentive!

What's there to rush like this???

My body decided to join in this coaxing and cajoling : 
Fell off the stairs whilst I was climbing , a few days back...The foot hurt badly and ego was badly bruised 😉 !

What seemed like a small cut was actually a deeper wound requiring immediate attention and stitching up.

Doctor was categorical in his verdict - Complete bed rest for a fortnight and a strong dose of painkillers! Your world will not stop! 

No, it won't....

'Ahem, Really?'

I have been playing the 'grounded kabootar' ever since...

Trying hard Not to move or to DO anything which adds pressure to the hurt foot.

Playing a 'patient' patient

Allowing everyone time to attend to me after I holler for the nth time!

Its not helping that I had decided just last month to do a facebook/whatsapp detox and wean myself from inane conversations and peripheral connections on social media....

Becoming aware how difficult it has become to quieten down and listen to my inner voice- Practicing the art of stillness! 

OhYes........

' in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still!'

One of those days...

Yesterday was one of those days:

A faceoff with my judgments and shadows...

Woke up feeling dreary 
Despite the bright cheerful sun
And the awesomely blue sky outside

You know, that happens

kabhi kabhi ???

Ruined a perfect omelette...
with extra oil and salt
And anger....ainveyi...

Snapped for no reason
At every creature who had the audacity to cross my path!
Upset that everyone looked so bright and chirpy....
And no....

I could not blame

"Those days of the month!"

Unlike in the past, where I would launch into a tirade of emotions when I felt thus,
This time
I just kept quiet

n the irritation simmered somewhere in the background....

A few hours later

whilst watching the interplay of waves and
our shadows
as we sat on the rocks,
Watching the seagulls n distant white sailing boat in the beautiful Dawlish Beach...
... it struck me....

I have struggling so hard to maintain this
perfectly coiffured image
of a perfectly balanced person....

Like the perfectly photoshopped images on Facebook

Always smiling
Always achieving
Always living it up and having a good time

This cranky part of me
Which snaps and bitches
Hollers and simmers
through the
Duniya jala daalongi moods at times

Is all hidden from the world

Oh so much of a burden.....!!!

When the shadows and bitchiness can be embraced as effortlessly...

The seagull which I had been admiring in the blue sky just a wee while ago, swooped down and snatched the dinner roll in my hand...

Such a mean b****!!

It's taken time , many years and places....

Uploaded from http://unsplash.com

Now I become myself

It's taken Time, 

many years and places;

I have been dissolved and shaken,

Worn other people's faces...

~May Sarton~

Sometimes...
Instead of exhilaration,
there seems to be a sense of

What-the-hell-am-I doing with my life?

Is life
a dazed window shopping spree on a frenzied weekend?

Zombie surfing on whatsapp chats
feeding the imaginary pets,
scanning the newspapers for the latest break-ups in Bollywood
and having the predictable automated conversations in social dos where the entire evening is templatized, including the playlists and the drinks...

Running an imaginary treadmill of success, knowing fully well that it doesn't sustain the fire within?
Seeking a 'like' in every conversation, every relationship..
as if that pat will finally liberate the chained puppy inside!

Time to unpeel the mask
and say hello to the acne on my face
the restlessness in the heart
and the loneliness in the dark abyss of the soul

Befriend the shaky ordinary dreams which refuse to go away....

Persistent and determined

Doggedly nudging, cajoling,
Leading me like an awestruck child who sees the shooting star on the sky

and discovers the bliss within ...after chasing it for aeons outside

Time to lose myself....and become Me

Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, pursued, who madly ran
Stand still, stand still, and stop in the sun.

~May Sarton~

Dismantling our truth

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“ If we are going through a major crisis, it means we are going through a major dismantling of reference points. There is nothing more creative than dismantling reference points, because the reference points do not represent the truth.” 

Stephen Schwartz

Anguish in the air is palpable…As a mother I feel it more because she is away from home in the university and yes, she was in a concert in London a few months back and is excited about another gig in December again, as I am sure the youngsters in the Bataclan Hall were…

Just another fun evening to enjoy and be with friends! 

Just that it ended in anything but…..As it did for other people in Paris, Beirut, Islamabad, Mumbai, Boston, NYC and the numerous other cities and townships across the world...

Can feel the helplessness and frustration in the discussions among friends, in WA groups and on media at large…

How else do people give a voice to something over which they have no control?

Who do they reach out to…for consolation and just to feel that things are FINE? 

We know very well it could have been any one of us…

I was, after all, one hour too early from the bomb which went off near the passport office in Worli in Mumbai blasts in 1993...

We were just fortunate…that we were not present at the wrong place at the wrong time!

Perhaps time to question more deeply…

Does it matter whether the terrorists were Greek or Syrian refugees?

Do we now prepare ourselves for the next city where indiscriminate gunshots/bomb blasts will terminate lives ?

What is escalating this organised terrorism?

What leads seemingly sane youth to commit heinous crimes such as these?

What socio-political and economic dynamics fuels this phenomena …how else is it burgeoning so rampantly?

Are we so blind that we do not know that proliferation of weapons and encouraging jihad in one region will reverberate with hatred elsewhere? 

Who are these elusive politicians who are supposed to wave the magic wand and make the world “ a better place?” and for heavens sake, 'What is this “better place”?

Is retaliation and fighting back the only solution to such a barbaric act or do we think there is a quick-fix one-shot solution to terrorism or we have lost all hope of solution? 

This is not a crisis for one city and/or one nation/continent.

Whether we like it or not, terrorism and organised hate attacks are the new World Wars , completely a world wide phenomena and we can’t pretend to live in our safe havens…which aren’t anyway safe any more!!

Time for us to lift our buried heads and stop the pretence that ‘THIS' doesn’t impact us…

It does !!!!

Whether its a young boy who died as he was refused a refuge 

or a gun-toting jihadi who uses religion and hate as a refuge to exacerbate his hatred...

Time to dismantle our thoughts around hate politics,
divisiveness and rigid beliefs about ourselves
and the world we are living in
and to look at the truth more realistically and in the eye

Terrorism and divisiveness does not exist out there...
it is very much present inside us, in our unforgiving stances and unresolved hatred...
From the racism inside of us which wants to feel superior and rule over the other!

Perhaps small steps in resolving these resentment within
can contribute much more than jingoism and false hopes of candlelit marches!