A few years ago, in a high-rise building, close to where I live, a mother, who’s married daughter returned to the US, climbed to the terrace the night after her daughter left and threw herself down. I heard she’d enjoyed the time spent with her daughter and grandchildren but couldn’t bear the thought of life without them. Tragic as this may be, there are many of us, who either have our children visiting us, or we visiting them and when they leave or we do how we wish those days would last forever!
I recollect this incident two thousand years ago, when Christ and a few of his disciples climbed a mountain and there met saints from Heaven. They spent three days up there in gloriously divine moments. One day, Peter, a disciple, turned to Christ and said, “Why can’t we pitch tents and stay up here forever?” Yes, isn’t that how we feel when we experience these mountain top moments? Why can’t we enjoy them forever?
A friend who’s become a grandmother, and who’s son and family have left for a while told me, “Bob, I’m missing my grandson like crazy! I keep inhaling his baby clothes which smell like vanilla!” A son or daughter whose parents have visited, stands at the airport asking the same question, ‘why can’t we stay on that mountain top together forever?’ Why can’t we?
It’s a thought worth pondering upon. Wouldn’t it be nice to always be in a state of ecstasy? Ask a drug addict about his first experience with drugs. He’ll tell you that it was mind blowing, so was his second and third and fourth experience, till he starts craving something stronger. He needs heavier stuff to keep that ‘mind blowing’ feeling alive. And that is what happens if we try to live in a state of constant happiness, we’d crave for more excitement, as yesterday’s moments of ecstasy, becomes today’s boring moment.
Which is why Christ shook his head and told his disciples to climb down to the ordinary world below while holding the joy of those cherished mountain top moments in their hearts. Our mountain top experiences are meant to be carried along as we return to our normal world. Watch papa smile even as he grimaces with the pain of an arthritic shoulder; he is recollecting the joy of a grandchild in his arms! Watch yourself suddenly comforted as you reel under the assault of a business defeat; you remember the antakshari played by family and close friends, one evening at home!
And those memories, nay they are more than just memories, bubble up, comfort and gladden when situations get difficult and unbearable later. It sure must have been unbearable for the lady who died nearby, but it needn’t be for those of you who are missing your grandchildren or children or children who are missing your parents, start taking the memories of the mountain top and mingle it with your daily life in the valley below..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
