I would like to share a little story.
You always have the question in life, don’t you?
How can I become wise or wiser?
Because seemingly, when it comes to life, we have an education, and education plus experience should bring us expertise.
But of course, expertise does not necessarily mean that we are wise.
So many years ago, I went to a yoga conference in southern India.
It was in an ashram outside a city called Kambattur.
So I flew to New Delhi, and then flew south to Kambattur and got to the airport.
And truly absolute chaos.
I got a taxi to take me to a homestay.
I got in the front seat, and of course the driver is on the right side in this case.
So I got in and I strapped the seatbelt on, and I pulled it really tight around my chest, and we were off.
And it was insane.
We were passing people and motorcycles and literally cows and tuk-tuks and carts and wild.
So we got to this home, and the home was really a palace of tranquility.
It was in a little development, and it was a different style that I am used to.
More tile and carpets than wood floors but still very beautiful.
And the man’s wife, curiously, made us a wonderful dinner, but she didn’t sit with us.
So this was my beginning of my cultural shock, and of course we ate with our hands.
Now when I was growing up as a child, if you would touch food with your hands, you were admonished by your mother, because we were taught to how to use cutlery properly, and only a savage basically was eating with their hands.
And I noticed people later in life used to use a piece of tissue paper if they were eating a hamburger.
You couldn’t touch the bread with your hands, and of course that’s a thing of the past.
So then I go to the ashram the following day, and the ashram once again, enormous and clean, and I was given a room in a dormitory with another chap.
Everything was spotless.
It’s kind of not my first impression of India at all.
And then we did our seven days in this yoga conference, and the conference was curious because it began at six in the morning.
And if you were late, five minutes, they tolerated you the first second, but the third time they dismissed you.
I think there were three, three foreigners there, a couple of hundred people.
Three foreigners, two were Spanish ladies and me, and the rest were all Indians or Indian born.
Perhaps they lived in other countries, but in their hearts, they were still Indian.
And what I learned from all of this, from this yoga practice, was the Guru said, look, if you really want to become more thoughtful, learn to see the small things in life.
The bugs, the bees, and the ants, because they don’t care about you, but they are still undertaking a given function that’s necessary for the hive or the anthill or whatever it is.
So you think to yourself, this is so very true when it comes to time.
Many times I’ve met older people, and they say, oh, time has passed so quickly, now I am old, I should have done this, should have done that.
Regrets, as they say, I regret doing this, I should have done that.
This is very foolish, of course, because you cannot replace the time.
And a regret, if it exists at all in your head, is pointless.
It is only something you bring from the past, and it energizes or depresses, if you will, the present.
It has no value.
Yes, we need lessons in life, many, if that’s possible, but regrets are absolutely a waste of time.
So, how am I going to get hold of my time?
Well, this is from the Guru in India, isn’t it?
I’m going to get my notebook, and I’m going to document each and every day.
I’m going to write the day and the date at the very least in my notebook, make the day precious, and then I’m going to begin to look at events around me.
Look at the eyes of people, look at the circumstances that are happening, and I’m going to study the ants and the bugs and the bees and all the rest of it, aren’t I?
Why not have a good look at things?
And then I grasp hold of time when I do that.
And I begin to realize that, gosh, I can be in control of this phenomenon called life.
My life, but I really have to want to grasp it.
So, right from the chaos of India, which in the end didn’t exist, all the way to where I sit today, up to me.
There is no one like me.
There never has been, and there never will be, but I must work on me.
No choice.
No choice.
And you know what they say.
You know what they say.
Critical thinking is everything, especially if I’m going to learn to become wiser in my life.
And critical thinking is great, truly great.
You take care.
God bless.
Bye bye.