Serendipity

Colours of the Wind

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair” 
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

 

 

 

When you sit down on this balcony chair with a cup of coffee on a quiet evening, alone, you often ruminate on your ‘apparently perfect’ life. To the world, your name is synonymous with everything paradisiacal- incomparable career, worry free life and unblemished memories. Very few, a handful maybe are lucky enough to peek into the strongly shielded life of yours, secured in a locked treasury chest well wrapped in velvet and muslin. The ones who do get the opportunity, know, that your life is as normal as theirs and yet inexplicably more mystical than others.

So, when the winds blow past the veranda and kiss your cheeks, tinting them with a rose coloured hue you compare each wind to the people and memories of your life.

SPRING

The winds in March are as ferocious as the lion and yet as soft as satin. They indicate the stirring of new life from within. Winter is over after all- spring is just around the corner. The sap is beginning to run, the buds are swelling, and wildly exotic flowers are beginning to poke through the mould and duff! Rejuvenation is in the making and a thousand things are happening underground that for six long months or more were dead and forgotten.

In all creation there is nothing more exhilarating that this rebirth of life and the powerful March winds signify the same. So, when the night is still chilly and the full moon casts a pearly glow on the lake below, you think of birth and rebirth.

John’s death-your rebirth. The arrival of that knight in shining armour-yes, your Don. Your life and death. He, for who you’d stop time and change the will of fate. Your God, to whom you look up with reverence-for whom you’d sacrifice yourself.  So, when Zephyrus blows past you, you pray to him, ardently and ask him to always forgive when you wrong your God. You pray for your togetherness in this life and in the ones to come. You promise to love and worship him in every reincarnation.

That’s the story of your rebirth, which changed you forever. However, March also reminds you of the birth of your four children. Created of your own body, whom you nurtured and loved from the moment you knew of their presence in your womb. You vividly recall that moment when each of them was born-the dress you were wearing, the shirt Don was wearing, the colour and smell of the blanket in which each was wrapped, the sound of their first cries, their first dress, their red wrinkly faces-same yet unique and everything trivial. Now, they’re all mature people of their own- righteous, undaunted, fearless and joyous, you couldn’t be more proud of them. Their entry into your lives took you by surprise every single time- that injection of extreme joy after months of  pain and waiting was as colourful as spring.

You tell yourself that they are still those little bundles of joy who you could hold close to your bosom, but the truth is that time doesn’t stop. You hope you could have loved them more, given them more attention, perfected them just a wee bit more-however, in the end all this doesn’t matter. They never complain and you don’t either.

So, even though they are already starting families of their own, they will always remain your spring even if you’re not theirs. You will love them unconditionally and hope that spring is eternal.

SUMMER

Spring retreats almost as soon as it comes. Soon it’s May-the month of Helios. The winds change course and vigour.  They’re more unforgiving now. Hot and fiery, the angry winds blow across town jabbing and flinging everyone aside that dares to cross its path. Yet, sometimes they mellow down and there is that short spell of rain when the Earth breathes again. The smell of petrichor combined with wisps of the purple fountain grass carried away by the wind provides momentary solace- a certainty that all undesirable things will come to an end.