As 2019 winds to a close, I sat with a friend, asking him to help me trace the year gone by. What he shared with me makes immense sense.
Citing from what is a belief in the Celtic tradition, he said, “The search for meaning is really the search for the lost chord, as in music. When the lost chord is discovered by each of us in our lives and by humankind, the discord in the world will be healed and the symphony of the Universe will come into complete harmony with itself.” This he said was a quote from the book Anam Cara by John O’Donohue.
My friend, in recommending the need to find within the self the chord, spoke also about the wolf spider. The wolf spider he said, again quoting from John O’Donohue, never weaves its web between two hard surfaces. The surfaces perhaps represent inflexibility, and the spider knows inflexibility only breeds discord. So she chooses two blades of grass and weaves her web between them.
Thus when the wind rushes by, the grass bends, sways, does not break, yet dances with the wind. When the wind passes over, the blades return to their original position. The web of the spider that connects the two blades of grass, swings along with the grass, it does not tear, and like the grass returns intact when the wind has passed.
It helped me want so much to rediscover the music in me, the rhythm that makes me feel alive, reminding me once again not to ask life what it wants from me, yet to ask myself what I need to feel alive and then go get it. For what the world needs is people who are alive.
When I feel alive, I become caring, curious and committed.
The writer is an organisational and behavioural consultant. He can be contacted at ttsrinath@gmail.com
