Though I don’t do it enough, I love travelling. Walking from one place to another, ducking under trees, listening to walls, hiking steep hills, and gawking at great sights—that’s when I feel most at peace. Exploring, that’s where I feel like I belong.
After working in the tech industry for five years, I now know that it’s the only viable way of surviving the future. Sure, I’ve always known it, but a smaller part of my heart never accepted it.
That small part of my heart is the entire part of my being.
It’s the part that gravitates towards all things non-technical. The one that got away from science classes, math sessions, and chemistry experiments. The one that inhaled fresh prints, old parchments, and coffee dregs, revelling in poetic licenses. I’m a hopeless romantic—the latest Java Script breakthrough doesn’t excite me; the oldest of Shakespeare puns do.
What’s my place in the tech world then?
I can write. Ah, yes, the hipster glasses, the grande coffee cups, the iPhone with multiple notebook apps, and the whine and the wine.
Stereotypes aside, I found my way into a tech company because I wanted to write. But I soon saw that technology grew faster than I can comprehend. We’re now in the era of chatbots waking us up with inspirational quotes and sharing over two-thirds of links on Twitter. Social media has redefined itself from human-to-human interaction to human-to-bot interaction.
All this, even without the slightest interference from the world’s largest tech company. What happens we bring them into the equation, though?
This.
I don’t applaud scientific humans. Our minds are fascinating. The signals we communicate to and from others form our essentials.
I’m all for convenience and getting things done faster, but that small part of my heart—the one that makes my being—cherishes the little things that make humans, human.
The rush of adrenaline, the veins pulsating with blood, the mild exaggerations in prose, the excited squeaking of the voice, the racing heartbeat, the elevated tension, and the undeniable climax—that’s what we’re made of.
To experience the smartest of technology being smarter, more human-like than humans themselves is more than just an achievement. My pencil-wielding hands, poetry-laden mind, and puny self finds it an unacceptable abomination.
It’s hard for me to digest this transformation—this spurt of growth, this advancement in human intelligence. I don’t understand why we try so hard to invent replacements for ourselves. But I realise that this is the way we live now, and I, too, will learn to live with it.
But—hey—the heart doesn’t want what it doesn’t want.
“C’mon. You’ve got great figure. Flaunt yourself!”
“Yeah,” chorused her cheerleaders. She’d agreed to meet Jason, the new boy in school, to help him catch up with the curriculum. Julie’s friends were helping her get ready.
“For heaven’s sake! It’s not a date.”
“Oh, but what if?” wondered Katie.
Waving them goodbye an hour later, Julie sighed. They’d forced her into a little black dress and black heels, with her hair in a bun.
“Good luck!” Ruth yelled walking away.
As they disappeared, Julie ran upstairs. She pulled on a ragged t-shirt and shabby jeans.
She’d rather flaunt her mind.
Gardening. It’s a weird concept. Though I don’t do it anymore, I have I have in the past. And that’s why it surprised me when a friend compared life with gardening.
It got me thinking and I realised that in each of its steps, gardening teaches us a valuable life lesson.
Step one: Get down and get dirty.
When we divulge in the dirt, turning up the soil, both our body and our mind connect with the earth. It teaches us to stay grounded, to remember we are only a tiny speck in a greater evolution, and that we came from the earth to which we will return as well.
Step two: Sow the seed, watch it grow
Gardening is about planting a seed, watering it every day, nurturing it, pruning it, and waiting for it to sprout. Life is the same.
To cultivate a thought, a philosophy, we should first let it seep into our soul and take over our body. We should nourish it with encouragement and positive thoughts for it to evolve into greatness.
It’s inspiring to observe a plant grow from a shrub to a branch to a strong benefactor. It makes us realise that we too will grow stronger with time. We’ll face challenges like weeds and pests and our own self-doubt. Despite the challenges, the many painful twists and turns, we will emerge stronger.
Step three: Clean up, prune away
With every plant comes along unnecessary weeds. For a tree to grow without hindrance, to achieve its potential, we should prune away those weeds and make space for new sprouts to appear. Likewise, in life, uncertainty and negativity will surround us, but just as we prune the plants, we should learn to chip out the evils that hamper our progress.
When we eliminate the obstacles, we’ll create room for positive people and good vibes to occupy our soul. Like spring-cleaning our lives.
Step four: Re-plant, re-live
Regardless of how much we fail at times. Some seeds don’t grow, no matter how much we want them to. Maybe the soil isn’t right.
We learn. We try again. We become better gardeners.
Sometimes in life our efforts aren’t fruitful either. We whine—and it’s understandable—but we shouldn’t give up. We should try again, because that’s how we grow.
Gardening teaches us to persevere in our goals. Every strife during the journey is only a lesson that makes the destination all the more worthwhile.
Good things don’t happen overnight. No seed flowers in a day or night. Just as gardening is a long and arduous process of growth, so is our life. The purpose, thus, is to enjoy the journey.
Thanks for the muse, Kumud and #SpiritChat.
The Chaos Within 