Out here in Kerala, the Onam festival is in full swing. There are lights everywhere, it feels like Christmas, floral arrangements adorn every street corner, and it’s the perfect opportunity to go into town and buy yourself a new dress.
In my case, I invited my friend and his children to go to the circus.
“The Great Bombay Circus,” as they say.
It was like stepping back in time to the carnivals of yesteryear: clowns who weren’t very funny, dwarfs who clearly just wanted to go outside and smoke cigarettes, some really cool acrobatics, and aggressive marketing on the food and drink side.
A real business lesson for the whole family!
The other day, I had a profound realization. I’ll try to put it into words for you, my dear reader.
It’s morning. I’ve just finished my yoga session on the roof of the house where I’ve chosen to live. The view is breathtaking. You can see the sea at the bottom of the mountain, and I’m surrounded by coconut trees and birds flying overhead. The sky envelops everything brilliantly.
I open my eyes and in front of me is a brown plastic chair.
I start thinking, “Damn, that chair ruins the view,” and I feel slightly frustrated.
And then suddenly, in a split second, I realize how absurd the situation is: I am in a paradise, the wind is caressing my body, and the smell of the sea is filling my nostrils. It is completely absurd to think that a simple plastic chair could “spoil” the experience.
The apparent absurdity of concluding that the view is diminished because of a chair suddenly makes me laugh out loud.
I realize that imposing a story on the reality of the moment is a personal choice, and that I have chosen the mediocre story of the chair spoiling the magnificent experience of being alive in paradise. I laugh at the pettiness of my mind.
Life follows its course. The story we attribute to it is 100% optional.
Basically, my journey has been a reconsideration of the story I tell myself at every moment.
I stumbled upon some old, dusty tales that needed cleaning up, so I’m rewriting my own legend in a more conscious way.
In any case, my friend, I hope your legend is beautiful and surprising!
See you soon!
