Today Unplugged

 Happiness and the search for it can leave you baffled. It is not a commodity that can be bought, nor is it something permanent. It is but a state of mind so flimsy and ephemeral that it needs to be handled with care. 'Today'...that's were happiness dwells...and it takes very little to live in 'today' without a thought of tomorrow or yesterday. Do everything you do 'today' as if there is no tomorrow! 

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An issue often to mind revisits

So nebulous and uncertain.

Always stirring deepest beliefs

Leaving me baffled in its wake.

Happiness comes from liberation,

Unattached to any form of possession,

Power, status, name and money,

Person, praise, comfort and property?

It seems an easy thing to apply,

Since I already all things enjoy,

And in my custody they will stay,

Going no place in a flurry.

Is it not human nature to protect,

All in the world that I possess?

Will I know liberation only if I lost

All in the world that I possess?

So stirred up was I, so stirred up,

Till like bulb it suddenly lit up,

Do all you have to do on this planet

But exist only for this very instant!

Like there is no tomorrow coming

Today! Take care of all your possessions.

Live every wakeful moment loving

Today! Enjoy the fruits of your labours.

When into future you do not look

Today! A pleasant time to be in.

This simple truth has me so shook

Today! A time to smile and be happy in.

Unattached to possession

Today! Liberated from attachment.

Not worrying for a better tomorrow

Today! Living in blissful contentment.

Love, give, catch a tear or two

Smile and the world smiles for you.

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved

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Bottled Happiness

Buy that black dress and the pearl string

Slip on the heels and dance all night.

As the music floods setting each atom agog

With lightness you float atop bubbles of happiness.

Can it last for ever and ever?

Can you buy bottled-happiness?

Fizzy like bottled-drink happiness bubbles

But petersout too soon before the cloud is clear.

Outstretched arms and an open heart

Catches some bubbles before they are burst.

Can the bubble ever be eternal?

Can money buy me happiness?

Dancing through the night or buying all that’s craved

If this is ‘that’ happiness, I can buy more than my need.

But something is missing in-between the fun

A something missing that rises like a ghost.

Can that be loneliness or discontent?

Can that be the ‘something’ money can’t buy?

Searching high and low in every mall that sells

Dazing the mind to research the lows

In and out of hearts and relationships that sink

Happiness eludes and slips like mercury does.

Can I learn to live outside the bubble?

Can I relearn the art of living?

A tough ask although but not impossible I think

Teaching myself to be detached from events

Letting pain and happiness wash over me alike

Watching as if from above at all happenings in life.

(31st October 2006, Nellore)

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved

Take a leap into my PhotoBlog