I have a cactus plant which I keep on the ledge outside my window. Over the last few years, it has been flowering just a few days before the beginning of monsoon. The flowers bloom as the sun rises. Within three to four hours, they start closing their petals and wither away. But during the short period of their bloom, they are at their beautiful best! This is the first flower of my cactus plant this year. There are many more that are in their buds as of now. As I looked at the flower and marvelled at its beauty, I sensed it wanted to convey something to me and the entire human race as we fight the Covid19 pandemic. So here I am, conveying the messages as they came to me .
Message 1: Life can be as thorny as hell! But you can emerge pretty and proud!
It is up to you to keep crying over the thorns(problems) in your life and lead an ineffective life or you can work the thorns into a beautiful foundation on which you can create something beautiful and emerge a winner; just as I have bloomed today, amidst the thorns. The Covid-19 virus could have made your life and that of the entire world, very difficult. The virus may impact many health-wise, may lead to a loss of a near or dear one, may lead to a loss of job or less income, may make you paranoid about socialising, spending, travelling, enjoying life. These are all like the thorns in my plant. I have emerged through the thorns and here I stand pretty and proud! You too, can emerge from the physical, mental and financial thorns in your life and stand unfazed and firm. Make these difficult times the stepping stones to leap frog onto a better you and a better world!
Message 2: Life is short. Live it to the fullest!
Like me, you too are destined to live on this earth for a limited time. I may live a few hours, you may live a few decades. But wilt we all must, eventually. So in the limited time that you are on this earth, do what you are destined to do naturally and intellectually, but while doing so, do it with joy and give it your best, just as I am radiating joy and beauty in the few hours that I am alive. If I am able to do what Mother Nature expects me to do and give happiness to you even for a few hours, my mission is accomplished. Similarly, enjoy being alive, be grateful and appreciate the beauty in everything around you. You are on this earth for a purpose. Do things joyfully and selflessly, and by this, you would have accomplished your reason for being on this planet.
Message 3: Life may not always be bountiful.
I herald the onset of monsoon. My plant does not forget to welcome the onset of rain every year. Some years it welcomes the monsoon with a lot of flowers while in other years, there are hardly any. Three years ago, this small plant on which I have come to life, bloomed 36 flowers like me in a span of four days! Last year the plant had just one flower. There will be scarcity in some years. And that is a fact of life. One has to accept that and be optimistic. This year, I see that the plant has a lot of buds that will bloom in the coming days, but it may not be as many as the bounty three years ago. But that doesn’t matter to the plant. It will keep doing its best and make efforts to flower as much as possible, to welcome the rain. Likewise, you may have ups and downs in your life. Some years will be great while others may not be so. Due to the pandemic, this year may not be good to many of you. Accept it. Like I see many buds in the offing, you too should see opportunities in this adversity and work towards a fantastic bounty in the near future.
Message 4: This earth is a gift to us. Cherish it.
I am a flower, you are humans. You have an intellect, a thinking mind, which I do not have. I do what I am bound to do as per Mother Nature. You the humans, are a special creation of Mother Nature. You are only next to God, in that you can create wonderful things with your intelligence and thinking abilities. The best part is that you have feelings and emotions. You can appreciate beauty and can create beautiful things yourselves. And yet, you increasingly are becoming materialistic; so engrossed in your pursuit of money, power and fame that you have stopped appreciating the gift that has been given to you. Your creations have started harming Mother Nature and she, being a mother as gentle as they are to their off-springs, has been warning you mildly in the form of hotter summers, melting ice-bergs, unseasonal rains, rising sea-levels, flooding, virus infections, locust attacks etc. If you do not heed to these warnings, the time is not far when she will lose her temper and come down heavily on you. The earth could then become inhospitable for you and to us, the other creations co-habiting this earth. Please pay heed now! For your sake and ours!
Message 5: Adieu!
And now my time is up. Time to say goodbye. I wish you all the best in fighting the pandemic and emerging victorious! You can do it and you will! Please also think about my above messages to you. I want to come back, to this beautiful earth, in any form that Mother Nature wants me to. And when I come back, I want to see you healthy and happy, creating joy for the World!
Hi Radha, so beautifully articulated “Manogat” of a cactus flower.
Hi Supriya, Thanks for the encouragement!
Very nice Radha. Keep them coming.
Sure Sanjay. Thanks for the encouragement!
Hi Radha… Very nice lessons can be learnt even from a cactus plant. You have nicely analysed many things from that plant which even a keen observer must have missed. Very optimistic and positive views that makes us introspect in this pandemic.
Thank you for the blog.
Hi Prasad, Thanks. I am glad you liked it. Such positive feedback encourages me to keep writing.