Trees Posed for a Photo

Some of God’s beautiful sky blue beard is escaping the frame. Next time, I’ll be careful

A loooong time ago, God created trees. Then he asked all of them to pose for a photo. In heaven, God has a family photo album of everything from the beginning of time. The trees were extremely happy to be part of God’s photo album and so they posed. Then God took out his nifty little camera and clicked.

The trees were still getting used to the Sun and the flash was so powerful that they put their hands up to shield themselves from the light. And so, they were forever frozen in time with their hands held high.

And that, kids, is why tree branches grow up and not down.

Then, after so many years, when humans were made, they saw the trees and imitated their posture. Trees gave them fruits and shade and they were full of life. Thus, the pose came to be synonymous with life, abundance, and joy.

So, next time you see a tree, raise your hands up, look up to the sky, and smile for the camera.

Never Cliché

Dear …………………………,

I saw a great movie today. A beautiful one.

The sun’s almost down here. The birds are all returning to their modest abodes. If every day was a movie, then this would be a very cliché ending. But yet this is beautiful. Every day is filled with ephemeral clichés that we seem to enjoy with a satisfaction that makes no sense at all. Stefan, haven’t you gotten tired of seeing the sunset, the flying birds, and the full moon? You’ve been loitering on this earth for 18 years. But no, you still enjoy them. They still make sense to you.

The movie I saw today ended with a cliché. And yes, I would have liked it to surprise me, but it didn’t. But yet, it was beautiful, full of meaning. Today, films are trying to survive. Everything is becoming cliché. Around a lakh movies are made every year. New clichés are made every day. Playwrights and directors are rocking their brains left and right to find something new.

Why do I never stop loving a good sunrise? Why do I never get bored with nature?

Is it the acceptance of my unawareness of many of the delicate details I have yet to see? Maybe.

I have a feeling that a cliché becomes annoying only when you are aware of a better possibility. If this is indeed true, then it is the limitations of my imagination that makes me fall in love over and over again with nature, love, beauty and another human being.

And that, I find extremely beautiful. In a world that keeps changing in time, I find it comforting to think that my sheer oblivion to an alternative for many things and my sheer inability to form one, makes what is there everlasting and beautiful.

God, you have indeed painted your glory in the skies and in the most minute vestiges of nature. I can’t find anything to replace it.

Yours,

Stefan

 

 

 

Explosion

‘Every work of art is an explosion of a lifetime of creative thoughts that passes through the mind of an artist’ – Stefan 🙂

For many years I’ve felt that our fascination for many things is very much connected to our inability to explain our object of fascination. It is not the factual information we know that raises our fascination but what we don’t know.

Every song, every book, every blog post, every word you say is influenced by the information you have collected from your birth to that moment in your life. Every creation is a result of millions of thoughts of a unique person and thus, a unique way of thinking.

When you look at the Mona Lisa, you see the result of the millions of thoughts that passed through the mind of the great Leonardo Da Vinci in the many years he spent before that canvas. And you immediately question why he painted it. You look for an answer in the canvas before you. An answer for a question that is explained completely only by the millions of thoughts that passed through the complicated mind of the famous painter.

The ‘what’ question is not the signature of human fascination. It is merely a bridge to the first question that sparks research – the ‘why’

When you see art, it is like standing in the middle of an explosion of millions of creative thoughts that could have passed through the mind of an artist. An explosion sparked by a question of ‘why’ it’s there, why the artist made it the way it is. You only see a few fragments during the explosion, parts of the painting or the song that clicks with you. Different people see different fragments of the creativity of the artist and we all form our own opinions and conclusions.

We are all great artists in the sense that we all feel a very similar level of emotion when we are creating something new. The difference lies in how well we are able to take the person witnessing our work of art, to the level of emotion we were at, when we were creating the art. There is the art that talks of great complex things, philosophy and ideology, and then there is the art that talks of simple things, everyday things that we all know of. But both find place in the museum.

It’s not just about what you speak but how you convey it.

Songs, poems, paintings and novels are all explosions of somebody’s creative thoughts that evolved through a lifetime of thinking. Many strings of thought, forced into a small canvas or a 3 minute song. Kinda like taking all the water on the earth and filling it into a balloon

This is why successful people are often people who’ve been denied and rejected many times. The time they spend, sticking to what they do, one day, becomes really explosive. Their strings of thought and experience become so long, they cannot be forced into a few words or a few strokes of paint. But when they do, they are explosive. You can’t figure it all out. There’s no cliché when you read a really explosive story. You just can’t predict what happens next. You have no idea of what’s going on!

Why?

Because there is a lot of input that went into it. A lot of detail, detail that makes it more real to you.

What is your passion? What do you have in abundance? What is that hidden talent?

Bring it on! Put everything you know out there. Use every ounce of resource you have. And then force it into as small a package as you can. Make it into a blog post, a painting, a song. Make it explosive.

Why did Da Vinci spend 12 years of his life before the Mona Lisa?

He was bringing in all he knew, he was trying to put in all those millions of creative thoughts and ideas into that one canvas that would change history. He was creating something explosive. He was creating a ‘masterpiece’!

It’s all about an endless space of remarkable potential, a blank space. It’s all about filling it with who you are and what you know.

Every work of art is an explosion. Some are small and some are big, but behind every work of art, there is a very similar excitement. It’s all about bringing that out. It takes time and in time, that explosion of words and that explosion of colour, grows into something magnificent, something that changes history.

Let’s all work on our small explosions. Let’s stick to it and make it something wonderful!

God bless!

What do you think about ‘explosion’ ?

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Sea and Sand

The wind whips through my hair combing it with cool air. The sand reaches and clings to my feet each time the water comes in. The water is cool to the ear, soft to look at and noisy to the touch. It is transparent in its beauty, but vast and without boundaries. Opaque to the eye, hiding what lies beneath the surface and where it ends. But take it in a glass and it becomes transparent.

That is how I explain the beach.

It’s a weird beauty I think. A strange juxtaposition of the fluidity of water and the solidity of the earth. They come together to create this great scenic beauty that we cannot describe in words. In this beauty we find solace, calm, even romance. We cherish the moments we spend by the sea. We love sitting there feeling the water, the sandy earth and the wind all at once. A strange yet beautiful mix.

You walk on the wet sand, your footprints leave a mark. You walk into the sea, you look back and I assure you, you will not see your footprints.

So different and yet the sand and the sea create such beauty!

I was thinking about this yesterday. I had just woken up to the sound of rain. The lightning, the water pelting on my window and the rolling thunder all forced me to remain in my bed, my eyes fixed on the window and think. It’s amazing how God has brought together all these different things to create the captivating natural beauty we see around us.

Another thought passed through my mind when I was thinking about this.

Isn’t this what our world is like?

We are all different, yet together we create such beauty.

The ‘difference’ among us adds to the beauty.

Today we see people parting ways because they are different. We see friends breaking up just because they are different. Today, we look for similar. We don’t try to find ‘different’. We don’t want ‘different’ because ‘different’ calls for effort, sacrifice and courage.

We want everything to just work out. We want relationships to just move on like a train on a straight, endless track. And it’s only normal that we should think this in an age where everything is made for comfort. But it’s not always ‘easy’ that creates value and beauty but ‘sacrifice’, ‘love’ and ‘courage’ when it comes to many things in life.

Yes, there are times when you need to part ways. But there are times when you can work things out. When you know there is hope. There are also times when you cannot part ways, like when it’s family. But when you emerge from it, in victory and in joy, you will see beauty. You will see the beauty that comes when sea meets sand.

Putting time into understanding each other is important. It just doesn’t come to you. You have to pick up the book, open it and learn. That is when the sea becomes like water in a glass- transparent. It is at the edge of the sea, where it meets the sand, that the sea is the most transparent. The more you stay together, the more you learn.

There are times when you have to part ways with people, but there are also times when you can work things out. We are all different. Understanding each other and learning to love and forgive and accept is what creates the best of friendships, the best of marriages.

God made us different. There’s a reason why.

 

I hope you guys got something from this post.

What do you think?

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God bless! 🙂

Music is Everywhere!

Hey guys,

Today I am going to attempt to share with you how I see music in the surroundings around me. I hope you like it.

The sun just came out. It’s morning!

I slide out of bed on to the floor and just lie there looking at the blades of the fan on the ceiling as they cut through air. The sun fills my room with a yellow light. A flickering shadow appears on the ceiling above my fan as it’s blades cut through the light. I smile. I lie down there and say my prayers. ‘Good morning, God. It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?’ He smiles down at me.

I look at the ceiling again. The light from the sun is more of a brighter yellow now. As it flickers on the ceiling, I see a silent beat. The fan’s blades swish through the air like the drum sticks in the hands of a drummer.

I smile. Welcome to my new song, ladies and gentlemen. So glad you could drop by. I jump into action. I moonwalk into the bathroom, brush my teeth dancing, put on some clothes and grab my guitar. The silent beat I saw, playing in my mind.

I go into the kitchen, give my mom a hug, say hi to my dad and open the front door. It squeaks. Like a synthesizer.

Now to get my bassline.

I go to the lift. It’s at floor 8. I press the button. The lift comes down one floor at a time. It stops at 5, then resumes it’s descent to my floor. I follow it’s progress in the language of  music. Silent music. I hear a ping as the lift opens. Bassline?

I get in and I start ascending. I am heading for the top. On the way, I hear a baby cry. Hmm. Shorten the time period, increase the pitch and you get a classic Michael Jackson. My song starts to feel like an old 80s song.

Anyway.

I get to the terrace. I make clap sounds as I climb up the stairs to the terrace.

I am out in the open now. The wind hits me with a gentle nudge. I hear it pass through small cracks here and there. There’s a flute in the house!

I sit down and put my fingers to the guitar. I tap on it and give sound to my silent beat. My fingers now slide up the fret board, a little pressure here, a little pressure there. My fingers pluck on the strings. They come to life. The yellow morning sun makes a colourful reflection on my guitar.

I imagine myself in front of millions of people, like all amateur musicians out there ( I am pretty amateur ). The chorus comes in and I hear a choir as the wind gets faster. I smile. An electric guitar kicks on somewhere in my mind. A slow lead line follows. The clouds now move slowly. We end our first song with a crescendo.

I smile, thank God for the day. Now to get some breakfast. I’m starving!

What music do you see in your surroundings?

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Awakening

It’s that one word we all hold at the back of our minds with some sort of strange respect. We like to connect it to some kind of internal revival. A spark, maybe.

But I find awakening to be much more. It is that moment when you start appreciating the beauty of who you are and who you are with, that moment when you become aware of reality and yet choose to be inspired by it.

Every morning, you look out the window and you see how the sleeping plants and animals come to life. How the leaves wake up and look up to heaven, glorifying God and how the flowers bloom into their surroundings, blooming into a funnel made from petals of colour, that seems to take in all the beauty and concentrate it into a unique beauty.

It’s amazing how light brings to the light, things yet unseen, how the rays of sun curve behind the clouds. giving it a golden lining. Every flower, every tree seems to be taking in it’s surroundings and uplifting it.

What is awakening for me?

It is that moment when I turn to God and I say, I am willing to do what I can, to take in what I have and lift it up. Awakening is awakened that moment when I decide to bring heavenly love and compassion into the things around me and the people round me. Into my everyday reality.

It is a call to reality, but then you view it differently. There is a touch of excitement to it somehow.

The dictionary says it means ‘waking from sleep’ or ‘the act of becoming aware’, a ‘coming into existence and awareness’. Well, all true. But the magic resides in how you view what you see when you finally become aware.

I believe the magic in the word is complete only when something amazing comes out from being aware.

The true awareness we need today is in how we are able to bring change into our lives. God wants us to live productive beautiful lives. He created beautiful beings. We are already aware to the harsh, turbulent roads of life. What we need to be aware of today, is not what is wrong, but what is right. We need to look up from the thorns and see the rose. We need to catch our heads from falling to the ground in frustration and turn it towards the heavens in hope. Only then you will be able to walk with your heads held high. Only then will you be able to see the faces of others. Only then will you be able to join hands in prayer for our nations, only then will we be able to stand strong together.

We need to ‘awaken’!

To sad reality?

No!

To potential change?

Double yes!!

I just want to encourage you today, to look around you. Things may not be all going right. You maybe asking God right now: Why?

But change and hope resides in reality only when you learn to see the right things, when you choose to be ‘aware’ of what you can change!

Awaken!

What does ‘awakening’ mean to you? Share. Comment. Be a part of the movement!

 

The song of the rain

For those of you guys who know me and read my blog posts( I am extremely grateful to you for your interest, time and feedback), you know how I am greatly inspired by rain and sunlight. One of my favourite hobbies is just sitting in front of my window looking out into the rain, my head resting on my palms and making up lines of poetry, not necessarily with rhyme schemes and alliteration, but just filled with what I love.

Today as I was reading some blogs, I heard a tug on my door. I looked outside and the trees were bending so hard, I thought they were going to break. I live in a flat. This means the only sounds I hear are the soft strokes of the heavy wind on my window and the small rain drops sky diving onto its glass.

I used to live in a house before where I could hear the pouring rain on the roof and the wind was more noisy. Here in the flat, I hear only the softest sounds as the roof is much higher above me. This thought absolutely inspired me and I am going to do something new today. I am just going to sit down and write the verses that come to my head, whatever they may be. This is an example of my ‘a day(rainy) in the life’. This is for all you poets out there. Please tell me what you think. I would absolutely love to hear from you!

I sit in front of the window, my head on my palms. My fingers lightly rub my cheek in the excitement of what is outside. It is as if the heart of the earth is beating normal, but its blood is going fast, craving for the heart to somehow keep up.  For inside my room, the atmosphere is calm and gentle, but on the outside, where it really matters, everything is fast. It is a strange strangeness, a beautiful confusion.

I blink as a flash of lightning erupts in the sky, cutting the dark and bringing light. Seems very strange that from the very clouds that make it dark, a light would shine. God suddenly seems to whisper in my ear-‘Just as I make ‘everything’, even the hard and painful things in life work out for you for the better because you love me’. I smile and my eyes dart back to the rain.

The trees are now bowing, the branches like hairs on end. I get up and slowly and carefully open my window a few inches, air gushes in and sends the papers on my desk flying. They seem to be jumping up and down, happy! I stand and look. The door of my room slams shut and I am thrown back into reality. I shut the door and sit back again.

I hear the orchestra playing outside, like the ocean in a sea shell, somehow refined and coloured just for me. Now and then a drop hits my window creating a rhythm  so consistent, it baffles my senses of logic. I lie down and hear the wind outside. Here in my bed, inside my blanket, wrapped up in a cocoon, like a butterfly waiting to go out, into a world that will be brand new in a matter of minutes, I feel nothing but hear.

My eyelids start to droop, ever so slightly and the lightning outside wakes me up. My eyelids droop again, this time, the lightning is not heard. My brain stops worrying about the rain, but I still hear it somehow and then I lie there still, my mouth slightly open. Why do I always sleep with my mouth open??

The rain stops after a while. It slows it’s song down to a whisper then to a single drop. Very much like the tap of a pencil on a cymbal, dull but unique. The song of the rain is somehow strange. Instead of starting with a whisper and ending in a crescendo, it does the exact opposite. God is indeed a great artist. His song of the rain is my favourite yet.

 

If you like this, also check out an earlier post of mine very much like this and tell me if you want more posts like these. Hope you guys have a fantastic day and God bless!!!!

https://thefourthdimensionoflife.wordpress.com/2017/07/16/when-leaves-bow/

 

When leaves bow. . .

Today, I am going to talk to you from the eyes of a poet.

Do you like to sleep?

Oh yeah!!!!

You don’t know the number of times I’ve longed to get just 2 more minutes of sleep. At school I am the ‘sleepy guy’. Whenever I am learning something uninteresting, my mind starts to wander and before I know it, I am asleep, sitting.

Okay, that’s not the kind of sleep I like. That is what I call my ’embarrassing moment of the day’.

Coming back to the topic, I was in a similar situation learning something I felt so boring and my gaze shifted to the windows of my classroom. It was raining outside and as I looked at the drops of water that adorned the green clothing of the trees outside the pane of glass, I noticed something.

A tree was sleeping!

Scientifically speaking, the drops of water on the leaves had caused it to bow down like a person dropping into a peaceful sleep.

It was so wonderful that I praised God for that moment.

Many a time I have wondered why I felt sleepy when it rained outside.🤔

Was it the cold breeze that drifted into my room, making the curtains flutter and embrace me?

Was it the clean life outside making it look like the earth had been put into a washing machine?

Or was it the peace, the beauty that has put an exclamation mark in front of man for a long time?

Or was it the sleep of nature, the trees sleeping and the birds looking on in wonder as they cuddled their resting young ones under their wings that moved me to sleep?

Well, I will not answer that for you because I just don’t know what words will describe this beautiful phenomenon.

I would like to end this short post with one simple question we all can take some time to answer:

What makes you sleep when it’s raining outside?😉