The Moment

Do we really have leisure?

Do we really enjoy leisure?

Do we actually know what leisure is?

In our busy schedule of meeting innumerable deadlines we do not have a breath of time to pause and enjoy and feel the fleeting moments of joy, beauty and peace.

In Hindusthani Classical music we were taught to “stand” on a note or “swar”. A note is just not a passing or small musical sound , it’s a world of melody in itself. To understand it we were told to go deeper and deeper into one note till we could reach its bottomless depth where real music and revelation of the infinite lay in store.

Similarly, till we press the pause button and “stand and stare” we cannot “breathe in” the feel of the moment which is full of life, nay, it is life – life of infinite happiness, tranquility and breathtaking beauty. In our hurry and scurry we make haste by each moment of life overlooking what we are missing.

The poet reminds us that a life wherein “we have no time to stand and stare” is a life half lived or lived not at all.

Footnote : William Henry Davies (1871 – 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer, who spent much of his life as a tramp in the United Kingdom and the United States. His poetry themes included observations on life’s hardships, the various ways the human condition is reflected in nature, his tramping adventures and the characters he met. (Wiki)

This poem was shared on FB.