The Garden of Mind
Here is a simple thought..
Let's say you like birds.
You like to surround yourself with the beauty of their wings.
You like to feel the enchantment of their sounds..
They give you hope with their ability to fly wherever and whenever they want..
They help you forget about the stresses of life and remind you of a world that is more serene.
So you start chasing them..
Try to catch them..
Try to find a way to keep their company forever..
Only the thing is..
The more you try to catch them..
The more they fly away from you..
Never coming within your reach..
Taking you as an enemy..
Maybe they start resenting you.
What most people do in that case..
Is to create a trap..
To lure the bird with a false promise..
And then cage them forever.
We pat our backs on the achievement..
And try to forget about the inhuman act that we have done.
By creating boundaries..
We are humans; they are birds, and that is how it is supposed to be.
But the problem is..
A bird in cage in not the bird that you fell in love with..
Yes it sings, yes it is beautiful, yes it becomes loyal as well..
But its soul is lost..
Because it was precisely the risk of losing her..
That made us fall in love with her
Without the unpredictability of her behavior..
She becomes a thing, an item of possession, an automaton.
A better strategy..
Is to build a garden..
Yes, it takes a lot of effort..
And it takes constant upkeep..
But that is the sure shot way..
To attract the birds..
They will come in their original form..
Not as a servant but as an equal..
They will do whatever they want to do..
They will jump, sing, and frolic.
Only a Garden can ensure a constant supply of..
That we most wanted.
It's a paradox of life..
The more you will focus on getting the thing that you want..
The more it will run away from us.
The best thing to do is to create an environment..
Where the thing we love can flourish..
And we return the love by caring about the things they love.
Now replace the word 'birds' in the passage above..
With whatever you want in your life..
And reread it..
And try to imagine what your garden will look like.
Not everyone will get to make a garden in their lives, only a lucky few.
A few more will get to be part of a garden that someone else has built..
But if we take care of it alone, we can still benefit from it.
But more importantly..
Each one of us has the potential to create a garden in our minds.
A garden of mind will attract the thoughts that you want..
To make the right decisions..
To take you towards whatever you want.
Success is as simple as that.