The Power Of Baring Minimums

A beautiful click posted on my wall with the caption "I bare my minimums", haunted me the whole day. A click and caption that made me think of the depth in the simple but captivating caption. It was after a lot of thinking, I suddenly realized what it meant by “I bare my minimums in a positive way. It is the power of baring your minimums, which means I express only what I want to show you.  

 The power of ‘bare minimums’, is a daring act of confidence in being oneself, by just revealing what you want others to know.  It is just as simple as it...to bare the minimums or anything to bare minimum.... It is a dig into the daring side of life. Something about a person being sure of oneself...in spite of all the flaws life gives with its challenges. I would say, it is the way of showing oneself in the minimum way without any facade.

 Sometimes the day to day life, one tends to go on with an acceptance of whatever comes in a submissive way, without fighting out, worried about the consequences. Does it help in any way? It doesn't for a person who likes to question everything with a why? How? When? One has to have the confidence in life, knowing what is happening in life, to you, by you or for you. You crave for a need to fight out all the odds and fears of the unknown to accept what one is without any pretence of any sort.  It is then you start baring the maximum.

 It takes a lot of courage to think positive and accept oneself, and show the world what you are. Sometimes fate gives such blows, that you are robbed of your very identity. It is no use projecting yourself as someone you are not. You need confidence in yourself, your affections, your warmth, by being a person of worth. Having belief in the worth of oneself and showing it out needs courage. You may not have riches, you may not have cars, a house that you own, but without a facade owning it needs courage.

 It may be a daring act to think, I can bare my minimums.....but baring minimums is showing only the acts that could be taken in any way, any sense.....but fact is that it shows the world, I am not afraid to let the world know, what I am, what I show them.  It is a contrast in itself baring minimum and maximum. When you bare your minimum, you don’t show the vulnerable side of you....the paradox of vulnerability surfaces when you bare maximums.  It is a thin, precarious border that exists between the two. A unique juxtaposition of action and reason.

The ebb and flow of life.

Sometimes, you wake up with a feeling of low spirits for no apparent reason. You start wondering why. It may be a subtle feeling of discouragement you feel, when you are feeling worn out. Or it could be a combination of an unknown thought of the subconscious mind. The fact is that there is an ebb and flow to life. There are highs and lows, sweet and bitter, may be a gray or sunny day, but all these are tiny packages of our day to day life. If it were only sunshine, we would get bored of it. It may be a feeling that crept in, due to many reasons, that you are unable to figure out. 

 You don't want to let that feeling linger on and spoil your day. You try to resist it and immediately try to fix it. You can let it hit you, experience it fully by sinking into it and then slowly coming out of it. You have to learn facing those feeling, by writing about them, talking about them or even laughing at them. The more we resist it, it enslaves you. Try to acknowledge the feelings and learn to get out of it, by experiencing it and then shaking out of it. 

 More than anything, make it an opportunity to love yourself more ,love whatever you are doing, and all that you hold close to your heart. Learn to accept what is “normal” and practice accepting the highs, the lows and everything in between. It might be an insight to what you have been going through and that narrow line between, to balance your life. Life is always, one thing after another. The key word here is understanding and making a striking balance. When some thought comes to haunt you, try to think of all the positive things it could give. Trying to get a sense of balance and harmony at some point, in any aspect of life will soon turn to disharmony and loss of balance; if you try to hold on and freeze that moment forever. It is foolishness to do it and will lead to only pain and suffering. To a sense of self pity and negativity. 

 The waves,they come in, break and recede. Then they roll on in again. Instead of fighting and being tumbled painfully ashore, feel the waves coming and ride them out. Rarely, you find yourself resting peacefully on tranquil waters gazing at the glassy reflection of beauty. Seldom does life give us the change "to be" without any challenges. Life is something that ebbs and flows. The turbulent waters never bestow restlessness, but reveal darkest recesses of our heart that has gone unnoticed or ignored for far too long. The transitions and challenges of life are indispensable. 

 It requires little effort to perceive the joys of life as a contribution to personal blessings, but it is much more difficult to perceive the opportunities of joy in the turbulent waters of life. To be human does not mean simply to receive what life hands us. To be human is to actively assert one’s own self onto life's challenges to make it a unique one.

"Picture Perfect"

"Living photography is positive in its approach, 

it sings a song of life - not death." - Berenice Abbott

"A picture is worth a thousand words". Whenever I read this quote, 

it puts my mind in deep thought, wondering at the truth in it. 

A picture can say a lot. I don't know the technicalities of photography. 

For me a photograph is beautiful,when it pleases my heart and soul. 

An appreciation for simple things or an eye for beauty. 

I don't look at the way it is taken, or the hues and colors, or anything else. 

When I see a photograph, what attracts me is the beauty in it, what it depicts and then the way I connect to it. Sometimes a photograph may be beautiful, but beyond that it doesn't speak out anything. It just goes blank in the mind. You cannot visualize anything beyond that. However much you try, you cannot find anything that catches your eye. 

Here, I would like to quote a friend, that the photograph is for the viewers to analyze or penalize it. A photograph can convey a lot of things, if you are able to connect to it. It can convey just a valid meaning, or a long story itself. The appreciation is for the unique ones that conveys a different story to each person who views it. It depends on the mental attitude of the one who views it. It has a depth in it, that makes you want to dive into it, to look for all the possible analysis it can give you. It makes you want to write a story about it. All the words come out so fluently, when you start describing it. 

 When we focus a camera to click a photograph, we just look for the best. The outcome may be a picture perfect photograph, that says a beautiful story or a story of self pity and remorse. It depends on the attitude we take towards life. Life is like a camera and the shots we take are the efforts we take in life; Focus on what's important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if it goes wrong...Take another shot. We always learn to do better. Not just get into a remorse and leave it. The one who gives his best, gets the best shot, with an eye for reality that is natural. And the best ones are those in black and white.

You may see a lot of breathtaking photos but can never connect to it. It is not the 'know-how' of photography that attracts a man to a photograph but the simplicity, the realistic and natural image it portrays and makes a common man connect  to it. Sometimes you are left gazing at a photograph in awe wondering if  it is the caption or the photograph that is captivating and if they are complementing the other. Some photographs make you smile, some make you  sigh, and some you can just look at it for hours! Sometimes a photograph can make you write a story and can be depicted the way the viewer thinks of it

 As quoted by Ansel Adams,“You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” It becomes a "A photograph that is worth a thousand words. "A photograph doesn't teach you to express your emotions, it teaches you to see and what the human eye observes casually or curiously, the eye of the camera notes and captures. 

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.” ― Karl Lagerfeld

An unforeseen bond

Bonding is simple enough, but not always easy; it can happen but may not; and, as wondrous as it is, it is also unexplained in many ways. Sometimes There seems to be a deep, unexplained connection, which leaves us confused. it may be an instant bonding which leaves us asking why, what and when, we feel as if it is a feeling of knowing someone with our heart and soul; from the past life.

 It cannot be explained in words, it is a feeling that leaves us with a train of thoughts. An unseen one, who has touched your heart and soul. Someone whom you have not looked into the face, but been embraced by warmth of their being. An unseen friend who is more like a son, whose eyes can gaze at the heart and soul, and you are left in awe and wonder. One whom you can feel like a welcome breeze that comes to give you solace on a hot summer day, life a whiff of mist that surrounds to soothe the raging fire in the heart.

 When we sometimes get acquainted, we feel that there is something that attracts you to a person. There is no explanation to that feeling. It is said that if you are able to explain, it is just a liking.....because you like something in that person. But a pure affection and care has no explanation. It has no relevance to distance or age. You just find happiness in their happiness, a care and warmth so special that they become a part of your day to day life.

The little things you do gives immense happiness. Time mysteriously takes us to the threshold of missing another, leaving us flabbergasted at the unseen bond. An unseen bond, that's for keeps, as you feel that they have become a member of your family. Someone that time brought from nowhere, and leaves you wondering about it. Someone who has become a part of you, your family and an immense blessing in every way.   A bond of solely the heart and the soul, that of a mom and son, which gives you peace and tranquility.

Analytical conclusions.

Read, think analyze and then react......time and again......we are reminded to retrospect on that subject.  When we read a story, a poem or a note on something, we just superficially read it and then make our own conclusions. Do we stop to think about what, we have read and allow it to sink into us, feel that....  Comprehend what we had read and then analyze it. Many of us hardly do it. 

Sometimes we do connect to it, keeping aside the underlying depth and meaning of what we had read. We go off track to what had connected it to us. Then we draw a conclusion. But are we doing justice to the writer? We just throw in our queries and draw our own conclusions. It is said that a good writer, makes the reader think....and leaves them confused after reading. It doesn't leave our minds that easily. It returns to haunt us....the words keep churning in our minds. And we realize  the actual underlying meaning and depth of those words.

A friend of mine always says.....the stories, poems or notes once written and placed before public, it is at the disposal of the readers to make their own analytical conclusions. The writer deftly plays with the words to make a beautiful creation. It is then placed before the readers. Some just read it for the fun of it. Some understand the superficial meaning of it. Some brush aside the subject and the object. Some strip it apart. Some really sink into the articulately placed words and fish out the depth and meaning of it. Everyone connects to it and that shows the calibre of the writer.

As I was just analyzing all this, I realized with wonder, how well all these connects to our day to day life. Sometimes it makes us jump into conclusions. It is just superficially brushed aside because we want to churn only in the happiness it gives. Whatever life places before us, we want only that which gives happiness. We never try to sink into it and analyze it. We don't like to go to the depth of life and find a glowing light there, that can lead us to real meaning of life. 

Just as we place words.....we place our life on the threshold of all challenges and vulnerability. It is we, who have to analyze it and chaff out what is in the core of it. We can become a victim to it or emerge a winner.  It is our attitude towards it that gets us the connects and we conclude  analytically..... 

As Pablo Neruda quotes "The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.”   Yes.....what we read and makes us think the most......is what has the most beautiful message in it. Some thing that leaves us flabbergasted at the depth and meaning of what we see in those words. I feel so is it with life. A life that always make us wonder at the sheer meaning it gives us. A life that throws , depth and meaning to others, solely by the light it throws to others.