Long Walks On Leafy Streets

8/23/2015 Beach Drive, Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
It is calm now late on saturday night, although I must say after the birth of Prashant life has become calmer in general. That may be a strange thing to say given how our life has been turned upside down, our routines completely broken up and our home filled with baby sounds. We have already had so many visits to the hospital, the clinic, daycare centers, home daycare providers, nannies and so on. A constant stream of friends and family goes through our home. At times he cries so hard or smiles so broadly you wonder how so much life could be packed into such a tiny frame.

The reason I am saying our life is calmer, in spite of all this, is that just like a fluid in laminar flow where all the particles flow parallel in one direction, everything in our life seems to be moving in the same direction as Prashant.
We don’t have much time to think about other things and so much of the usual noise in the mind has been removed. Even the things that do create noise are more in the background now, leaving little impression on the mind. I have learned by practice to let go of selfish and negative thoughts by simply focusing on the task at hand. One does this focusing not by thinking about it but rather just doing it. The focus comes from a part deeper in our consciousness. All the thinking and all the emotions then recede to the background, having been identified as merely superficial noise or turbulence.

Today for instance, I woke up around 5 after just 3 hours of sleep and then sporadically dozed off while taking care of him, sleeping when he was not crying for attention. He has a very clear way of getting attention now. I can tell when he wants to be picked up or walked. He would kick his legs and hands rapidly before starting to cry. Sometimes he almost gets up off his back or at least tries to. It is clear he is getting restless and tired of being on his back all the time. Anyway, afterwards I went running. I felt very tired and sleepy but just focusing on the breath and my steps helped to overcome that. We took turns watching him while finishing up our chores. By the time we were able to leave home for shopping it was 3pm and we had our lunch at the Elevation Burger in the Wheaton mall, around 4pm. Yet it was all thoroughly enjoyable and we had a good time. It was quite a beautiful day outside, too. Temperatures were in the low eighties with a cool breeze and abundant sun. Felt like being in Hawaii. I must say, despite all the challenges, Prashant’s arrival has been one of the most, if not the most, happy occasions in my life. It is almost as if I myself have been given a new start at life.

I feel like I am back in my twenties, when the whole world was in front of me and my career was just beginning. I am working on several projects with renewed enthusiasm. Next week classes start and I am looking forward to teaching a beginning mathematics course with examples from environmental science, jointly with my colleagues and friends Jill McGowan and David Schwartzman. I have been looking for ways to bring my passion for the environment to my teaching and research work and this is something I came up with during this time when I have been on sabbatical. I hope we can make a difference to the world by teaching young men and women about the issues facing them, chief among them being climate change. Their generation and Prashant’s generation will be dealing with the consequences of our action (or inaction) today.

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