The Respite Lies in the Journey…

Resting is tiresome. My respite begins with the travel. The social obligations are obliterated when the final goodbyes are said. The journey thereon is the real time – time when you no longer have to be constrained by who you pretend to be. In that moment, you are who you have always been – naked and unabashed about your truth.

If there were encores, I will probably pick up the same clothes I am wearing today. They fit me and they have served me well. I have handled them rough at times but I have also looked after them with love as and when it was required. I am grateful for them. I will always be.

I no longer aspire for what holds me together. The straps have been taken away, the ties severed. I soar, I dream and then stand united with my maker. I no longer believe in heaven or hell. Whoever sits high above, is not the punisher. I am sure when it is time, I will sit upright and wait for the drops to mingle back into the ocean. This thought liberates me from the talons of scriptures which humans invented to gull themselves to fall in line. I feel lighter, free from the stress of constantly worrying about my eligibility with Him. The only key to this inner sanctum is knowing that I bear no grudge or animosity in my heart and walk with my head held high.

For this night and beyond, I will sit in silence and watch the stars with my child and together we will try and talk to the infinite space above our heads and then sink back and have a dialogue with the one who lies within. This is my voice, my religion and what I intend passing on, without being named, without aspiring to be a savior. I am, but one of the drops, hoping to pass on the torch to another.

I don’t need clerics or middlemen. I don’t need elaborate rituals or sacrifices to make a connection. I am, because He is. I will be, because He wants me to be. There are no books to follow, no pilgrimages to be made.

My stay here is the exertion, my journey will be my rest.