GRACE UNDER FIRE

Somewhere in our heart lives a little monster.  This guy trips us up at every opportunity we subconsciously or consciously allow him;  making us lose control of our emotions and reacting aggressively to provocation is his forte.  Usually, it is by our own lack of understanding that he manages to stay as long as he possibly can.  He makes his presence felt frequently, at times intermittently and sometimes rarely – but he manages to stay stuck where he is, and continues to devastate our happiness whenever he decides to appear out of his abode-- our very own heart.  There is nothing we charge him as rent for accommodation ,  on the contrary, we end up paying a price for all his appearances.

How often have we lost our temper for trivial issues ?  Stuck in traffic, our train is late, being made  to wait for an appointment – official or otherwise.  Getting pushed on a crowded street or in a train.  Another bike or car cutting into our lane suddenly causes us to react negatively with a cussword instinctively.  There is not an iota of thought behind our reaction, in-fact we react within a millisecond of the occurrence, so there is  NO TIME to think.  It happens in a flash.  The monster takes over.

There are other types of flashes that occur accidently too - like the one when Hollywood star Anne Hathaway gave photographs an eyeful after accidently flashing while getting out of the car at the New York premier of her new film recently.  Janet Jackson had her moment too, also Serena Williams and closer home Yana Gupta.

Back to the little monster, every time he appears, our emotions are completely  ALTERED         .  After we finish reacting angrily; with time our feelings begin to plateau towards equanimity.  We realize that our reaction was wrong to the situation.  Even an attempt to rationalize our behavior is not convincing enough ,and we actually feel regret or in an extreme case – remorse for our action.  You may agree or disagree but you may have been faced with this situation before  “ re-act now and repent at leisure.”

You can prevent this from happening in your life ever again.  Yes, by killing the little monster so he never ever bothers  you again.  It is important to practice gratitude every day.  Gratitude has immense power.  By being grateful for our mistakes, we learn to accept them. Because if we do not accept and acknowledge our mistakes, NATURE will create situations for us to repeat them, over and over again till the time we learn to acknowledge them.  This may sound ridiculous at first but you can list out AT LEAST 10 reasons to be grateful for ANY of your mistakes.  If you apply your mind you can think of 15 or even 20.  Lets say someone pushed you on the railway platform, you turned around and slapped him, he hit back, the little monster has struck, you were separated from each other by passersby, but ended up with a bleeding nose and two broken fingers.

What can you be thankful for?

1)    By crashing into you, this guy probably prevented you from falling on the railway track and coming under the wheels of the train !!!

2)   The delay caused by the melee  or situation prevented you from another possible accident that may have occurred on the road outside the station – after all you were in a hurry and could have got run over by a vehicle which may have broken a signal at that time causing more serious injuries then a bloodied nose and two broken fingers!!!

3)   It was a wake up call to watch your step next time and not to react violently if for no other reason then simply because the other guy may be much stronger than you!!!

4)    It will be a lesson for your entire family and friends once they get to know how it happened.

5)   Be grateful for the people who separated you both when they did – it could have been worse if they hadn’t – the BIG guy could have beaten  you to a pulp, and made you look like road kill !!!

6)   It may have cured your SINUS, PERMANENTLY. Think about the money you will save , going forward.

7)     You can finally get rid of the shirt you are wearing (because of the blood on it) and buy a NEW ONE NOW, which you had probably been procrastinating  about since long.!!!

8)    You get to see the inside of the railway police station when the crowd took you after the scrap. For the first time in your life, perhaps!!!.

9)   You get to see the compassionate side of the police as they accompanied you for medical attention to the nearest hospital!!!

10)        Thanks to the doctor who treated you post haste at the OPD because you were accompanied by a policeman!!!

11)        You can take 2-3days off work.  Thanks to your injuries .. . . . . . .. maybe even a week which you had been waiting to anyways and were struggling to find the right excuse for !!!

Another word for gratitude is GRACE.  A grateful person can remain calm under very provocative circumstances too.  Surely you must remember seeing at least one such person through your life.  He/She may be an actor, a player, your uncle, father or friend.  These people are in control of their emotions – consciously or otherwise.  They  exude     calm and grace.  Their secret is that they have GRATITUDE 24X7.

TO SPEAK GRATITUDE IS COURTEOUS AND PLEASANT,

TO ENACT GRATITUDE IS GENEROUS AND NOBLE,

BUT TO LIVE GRATITUDE IS TO TOUCH HEAVEN.

JOHANNES A. GAERTNER (1912-1996)

                                                                                                       Theologian,  Poet, Professor.

THE RELUCTANT WRITER