Long Walks On Leafy Streets

3/9/2016 Honolulu, HI
Today was an unusually warm March day. While I enjoyed the warmth and the signs of spring, it was yet another reminder of the changes that we are creating in the environment. I was a bit surprised to see the cherry tree outside my office window start to bloom. I know it is a cherry tree and I could see it was blooming yet it was so early that I did not believe it at first. I thought I must have been remembering something wrong. But then I saw on the news that the National Park Service has announced that the peak bloom of the famous Cherry trees on the tidal basin will happen two weeks earlier this year, from March 18 to 23. Even my students complained it was too warm. Normally they can’t wait for spring to start and to start wearing their spring dresses, or to be more precise, to stop wearing all those layers of winter clothes!

Signs of spring are everywhere. I could see the crocuses here and there as well as daffodils sprouting.
I don’t see the geese bringing out their young ones, though. These days they probably go back to Canada for that because it gets warm so soon. It is also nice that I can now take Prashant out for walks. Yesterday my father and I took him to the nearby park at Elm St and Poplar Ave. We were joined there by Neal and his daughter Sequoia who is only two months older than Prashant. We enjoyed walking in the bright sun. Prashant enjoyed playing although, perhaps due to some virus, he was a bit low in energy.

I must say I was also feeling a bit low in energy. Lately I have been worrying about my place in society. I wondered if I have the capabilities to make a difference or am I doomed to mediocrity. I wondered if I was justifying my position at Howard University. I was comparing myself to my peers and feeling inadequate. I want to be someone that Prashant would be proud to call Dad and Nicole would be proud to call Husband.

I have also been worried by the developments in the election campaign. I have gotten into the bad habit of consuming a lot of political news, partly as a way to stimulate myself when I am feeling too tired or sleepy to do anything else. But now the news is no longer just entertainment. I am now keeping my fingers crossed for a good conclusion to the election, one that would bring better leadership to the U.S and to the world.

As I become more worldly I also see the flaws of people more clearly. I see how otherwise intelligent people get blinded by ego and their pet theories and ideologies. I also realize that it is hard to see through the veil that we have drawn over ourselves, unable to see the true beauty and nature of our selves and the world. In fact, perhaps it is more difficult for intellectually evolved people, as Thich Nhat Hanh and other spiritual teachers often point out. I have had people ask me what spirituality is or what Indian Philosophy is, implying that both of these things are just silly games people play. Perhaps the Dunning-Kruger theory works even for people who are intelligent but not spiritually evolved. If you don’t understand something then maybe there is nothing to understand – that seems to be the thinking. Then there are people who are not so intelligent who will cling to their false beliefs because otherwise they will have to make the uncomfortable admission to themselves that perhaps their thinking needs to be improved. In their case it is not pride but really fear that renders them blind.

So all these negative thoughts have been swirling in my mind. At times like these I seek refuge in nature and it never fails to clear the mind. As I walked along the reservoir with the water shining in the late afternoon sun I realized that I was worrying about unnecessary things. My heart was slowly filled with love, for myself and for others. I was able to see the beauty not only in the barren trees and the birds floating on the water but also in myself, with all my limitations, as well as in everyone around me. Each one of us, in whatever form or stage of life we are at, is part of the infinite. From that perspective, there is really no such thing as limitation.

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