(Happy birthday my lovelies! As always, I write this little song for you!)
If you're not singing, you're not walking.
If there's no spring in your step, you're not walking.
If you're not dancing, you're not walking.
If there's no song in your heart, you're not walking.
If there's no tune on your lips, you're not walking.
If there's no smell in your nose,
If you don't see the butterflies,
You're not walking.
If you don't look up at the mountains,
If you don't lift your eyes to look across the plain,
You're not walking.
If you don't touch the fresh water flowing by, you're not walking.
If you don't greet the trees in your path, you're not walking.
If you don't feel the breeze on your cheeks, you're not walking.
If you don't listen to the birds, you're not walking.
Some days you just trudge along with your head down, shoulders hunched, your heart leaden, your mind full of thoughts that are not really headed anywhere good.
Other days, you walk the walk of life.
One leads to the other, and both are to be cherished.
Like night and day.
I just read your poem... and it brought back a memory, which I wish to share with you and your readers.
ReplyDeleteThe date was June 22, 2020, the time was about 5:30 am in Chandigarh. We had been in a Covid 19 lockdown for a good two months and then in a partial opening up for a month or so. We had made it a part of our daily routine to go cycling or walking every morning and evening, as maintaining healthy habits had become a priority in everyone's life.
That morning, as I left home for my 10-km jog-cum-walk, I forgot (for the first time in three months) to put on a mask. Running with a mask on was not very comfortable but I had been doing so because the respect I had for the health and safety rules in force at the time was real. That day, I just let it be and went ahead.
As I jogged along the cycle track, past houses and parks, I was amazed at how long it had been since I last smelled the flowers, the early-morning aroma of someone making tea or the foul smell of the garbage that the municipal corporation workers were clearing up to give the citizens a beautiful start to their day. With every step, I was revelling in the smells and sounds around me.
When I was more than half-way through my run, on the turn along the slip-way on the roundabout that would take me South towards my home, I lost my balance and fell. It was a nasty fall, which left me with a couple of fractured ribs on the left side and a dislocated shoulder on the right. It took months of tender, loving care from my family for me to recover from my injuries and get back to living a normal life.... but I have never really understood why I fell that day.
Perhaps, it was the headiness of the re-discovered smells of the city and the surfeit of oxygen in my blood that morning? I will never know.
You walked. You jogged. You felt. The sights and sounds, the energy. You fell. You got injured. You recovered. And by the grace of god, you're walking again, jogging again, feeling again. It's beautiful; this journey of life.
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