Well-Being- Refurbish your 'MUST'.
...for there isn't any MUST in life,
And if there are...they MUST NOT be.
I MUST do well every time, each time,
and win the approval of everyone, each one,
However hard I try, I do not get it right.
But why do I try so hard?
THEY MUST treat me kind and fair,
They need to be flogged and whipped for not liking 'ME.'
I try in desperation, just how do I manage?
To hold people by leash and command them to like me.
To MUST get my want, to not get what I don't want,
I scurry like a rat between the two ends,
happy in one and sad in other,
lively in one and dying in other,
See- Saw I play, See-Saw I play.
To believe that life MUST go MY WAY or MY WAY,
To conclude that there isn't any other way,
To suspect every different path that shows up,
Such restlessness and discontentment paralyze me.
These MUST's have crippled me,
For years, I contort my existence,
To fit into the design others have made,
except that I forget my own frame every time, each time.
To breathe a MUST every day is venom to my being.
The unfathomable yearn, an eternal desire,
To win, accomplish, label and broadcast,
is a surgery I perform on myself every day,
dissecting my being if all is well
Stitching it back to see if others see well too.
Unthinkingly, I am a judge for every ticking moment of my life.
Giving judgments to my own self
Charged Guilty or Innocent.
And if there are...they MUST NOT be.
I have come to realize, my name isn't an identity just in itself. Standalone it falls, the crutches of labels- writer, teacher, painter, photographer, dancer - help me stand. I wonder why? I wonder why I cannot be 'NOTHING.' Can I not be just me sans the labels. Would I still get respect? Would people still admire me, want to befriend me? Would it taint me unambitious and laid back, lacking focus and vision? I met a friend last Thursday. She was accompanied by a friend of her's whom I fleetingly know. Her introduction to me comprised of her name and how talented her children are, how many trophies they have won etc. I was perplexed. I didn't need that. To know that she is Aprajita and a wonderful friend is more than enough. To add that she is sweet, earthly, and likes to spend her time with plants would have been icing. That's all: no labels, no judgments, and no trophies. Sometimes, the best people come sloshed in alcohol with tattoos all over their bodies.
That's me, BUT.
Hi Meenakshi, being a mother is not a graded label. Being a mother of a son who who is an AAPAS student, GATE qualified and swimming champion places that mother above those whose children are not so. I have a discomfort there. Another example- I was accompanied by someone in an OC women's meet. The lady is a SAHM(Stay at home mom). When it was her turn to introduce herself, she got up and said, 'Hi, I am Preetha and I live in Tustin.' She stopped but 30 women kept looking at her for more. She was confused. People wanted to know what she does, what is her business, her brand name etc. Other introductions were pretty much similar- 'Hi, I am Namrata from Four Clover Life.''Hi, I am Priti from Priti Henna Art.' etc. That made me pause and think. Why does everyone need to belong somewhere, have a tag, a label which describes their position in the social set up. Preetha felt really awkward at the silence that stared her and wanted more out of her but she did not have more to offer. Then what?
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