When I was in India cleaning toilets and doing all the jobs even the middle class Indians didn’t want to do, at least I had the pleasure of keeping company with some beggars. One little fellow whose name was Soma, (there is a meditation called the Soma meditation –looking at the moon) was a particular favourite of mine.
He had been orphaned at a very young age and had been left to fend for himself at about 6 years of age. When I met him he was a little older and had caught a train to Poona from Mumbai. This little guy was always positive, cheerful and bright and he taught me much about survival, hope and positivity.
When I see some of the comments online from time to time I know that the biggest complainers are the ones who have barely set foot outside their comfort zones and thus can afford to gripe, complain and moan about anything and everything.
After those early years in India around the eighties and nineties I went back again and as chance would have it bumped into Soma outside a local video store. He had been overseas to Germany as an IT consultant and had married and had two beautiful children. He told me that he had never thought of himself as a beggar and was hell bent on overcoming his initial setback. He also said I had always treated him just like my other friends with respect and friendship and this was indelibly etched into his mind.
Anyone who knows the Indians knows that they are very hospitable even if they own nothing and they will share whatever food they have for the day; such is their faith and hope. If we Westerners had at least half their positivity there would be far more things done and far less complaining.
If we decide to move in the direction of positivity, we have to become indifferent to all those doubts and questions that plague us all the time and forget our insecurity and our survival fears. Everything is a risk, including even positivity, but a risk worth taking.
All of us have lived in a certain way because of our upbringing and we have proceeded down a path almost predetermined by our circumstances and our reluctance to change our perspective. If we are courageous enough to try something new, we will never be disappointed.
Image Credit:Unsplash.com/Ron Hansen
Chris Borrett