The Whatchamacallit

My pot of Earl Grey is settled on my table, being warmed by a glowing tea-light; I'm seated comfortably here in my apartment study, listening to some Nocturnes from Chopin playing in the background and I'm now ready to tackle my blog article of the week.

As we all cruise towards year-end, there's a more relaxed feeling in the air. Everyone is clearing their annual leave and I'm also doing the same, at most 2 days at time for I dislike long breaks from work. I like my current rhythm of work and play, juxtaposing 'dull' IT work with my other pursuits--art, literature, philosophy, spirituality, music and science.

Weekends are reserved for reading, writing and appreciating the finer things in life. When I look at my collection of books, it feels like I've already gathered enough provisions to last me through all the remaining winters of my life.  

And because I have so many areas of interests, knowing that time is finite, I try to stack my activities so that I can kill two, even three birds with one stone. To pursue my interest in writing and to indulge in my fountain pen hobby, I journal daily using one, while listening to some good music on Spotify. I focus on the works of a single composer every week. This week I'm getting acquainted with the piano music of Scriabin and I'm loving it so much.

Of course, listening to audiobooks is another good way of 'reading' while doing something else that does not require any mental effort. I do this every weekend on my walk and jog at the park. I've been working through a book by Douglas Murray over the past couple of weeks. While driving here just now, I was listening to lectures on the History of the Catholic Church from the Great Courses series. 

Even though most of my favourite activities are solitary, I also enjoy socialising with my friends. I try to catch up with them whenever I can. Which reminds me that I have a dinner with some of my university mates this Sunday and look forward very much to it.  

People are interesting because you can learn so much from someone's experience.  It is a good source of knowledge. Each one of us is a unique experiment. We find ourselves born with specific 'boundary conditions'. And that defines and limits the possible solutions to the equation of life.

The sky is getting darker and I'm certain that the heavens will be emptying out its contents soon with lightning and thunder as it does almost every other day this time of the year. It's actually my favourite time of the year--good for reflecting on the year that's ending and to plan for the coming one. The piston of time drives us forward relentlessly and we just have to ride along its forward momentum, putting its power to good use.

It doesn't look like I will dive into any deep topic today and I'm just happy to ramble on about anything that comes to my mind, and marvel at the miracle of writing itself.  I can see the vertical streaks of rain outside my window as I type this, enveloping me within a curtain of solitary comfort. Nature goes about its job, fulfilling the karmic life of water as it reincarnates as raindrops onto earth, to restart its long journey back to the heavens.

I'm no different from these water droplets, surging up the roots of trees and leaping off leaves, lifted up by the sun into the clouds. I'm reminded again by those magnificent lines from Dylan Thomas which had enthralled me in my youth: 

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees

Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose

My youth is bent by the same wintry fever

When we see ourselves as part of nature, there's a certain transcendence that gives meaning to our existence, whatever meaning is. We partake in this cosmic dance that at once makes us both creator and creation, played against a larger canvas where the whole can only be comprehended by dissolving into its parts.

Philosophers over the ages have tried to articulate this mystery of existence and even the most inspired ones can only hint at. And as I write these sentences, I'm simply doing what I'm supposed to do, as dictated by the greater impulse of nature. 

And if you do chance upon these lines, maybe we could all marvel together at the beauty of it all. You and I connect now, and in that moment of contact, we catch a glimpse of the Infinite, the One, the Cosmic Mind, Brahman, Atman, Ishvara, God or Whatchamacallit. It doesn't matter.