Our housing colony shares a wall with a Hindu graveyard (picture below) and at least twice a week we hear the sounds of drums as funeral processions approach. If I walk along the wall, I can see the funerals taking place. As a writer, one is always curious to know the story of the deceased. Who was he or she? Who is the family? How many mourners are there?
Rather than finding it morbid, hearing the sounds of those drums and knowing someone is being buried, is a great reminder that finally it’s what life comes down to. When I am mindful of it, it helps me to remember that there is no need to scurry around trying to achieve a whole lot of things in life.
I’ve shared before that I don’t believe in bucket lists and goals. Despite that, it’s easy sometimes to get caught up with deadlines. Easy to imagine that if I don’t complete something, the world will stop turning on its axis! We often get so full of our own sense of importance that we forget how simple life really can be.
Life can be easy, if we allow it to be so. But we’re so busy trying to upgrade our gadgets, our houses and our lifestyles, that we don’t know when to stop. We fill our homes with stuff. We rush about trying to achieve things in life. We are always trying to prove to ourselves and to the world that we’ve made it.
We have forgotten when enough is enough.
“Great trouble comes from not knowing what is enough. Great conflict arises from wanting too much. When we know when enough is enough, there will always be enough.”
~Lao Tzu
Today, remind yourself that you have enough, you do enough and you are enough!
#MondayMusings has now officially shifted over from Write Tribe to Everyday Gyaan.
Would you like to take part in #MondayMusings? Here’s how it works:
- Write a post sharing your thoughts with us – happy, sad, philosophical, ‘silly’ even. Make it as personal as possible.
- Use the hashtag #MondayMusings.
- Add your link to the linky which you will find here and on the post of a co-host.
- Use our #MondayMusings badge to encourage other bloggers join in too.
- Visit and comment on the posts of other bloggers linked here.
- Share the love.
I am happy to co-host today’s #MondayMusings with Anamika of The Bespectacled Mother. Please visit and comment on her post too.
I agree that funerals make us stop and think. Whether others consider it weird or intriguing, I find burial places to be the most peaceful places on earth. And interestingly, I learned that the term cemetery applies to public non-religious places while graveyards reference those attached to religious houses of worship. Whatever the case, I am happy to say that I’m finding peace in this moment of my life. Good advice, my dear!
Glad to know that you are at a place of peace, Darla. May your year continue to be so.
And thanks for the information about the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard. Makes sense. I’m not quite sure which word applies to this one though. It does have a temple too, but I’m thinking it’s a cemetery.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..Everyday Gratitude #everydaygratitude
I once came across a dialogue from a movie – ‘It depends upon us alone what we want to make of our lives, whether we want our lives to get complicated or be simple’, and it has stayed with me forever since then. Life has to be easy and just knowing and being ourselves has the power to let go off so much of the burden.
Anamika Agnihotri recently posted..Let me introduce myself…#Monday Musings
So true, Anamika. We are to a large extent responsible for the quality of our life! Thank you for sharing and for co-hosting #MondayMusings with me.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..Everyday Gratitude #everydaygratitude
When we know when enough is enough, there will always be enough. – Such a wonderful thought, and so very true.
I love your #mondaymusings Corrine; such a great way to start a new week. 🙂
Shantala recently posted..Word of the (Reading) Year and a Bookish Bingo
I think I know when I am doing enough but as for having enough and being enough, I struggle with those. P.S. You share a wall with a cemetery? That would scare me…thanks to all the ghost stories told to me as a child! 😛
Have you read a creative nonfiction piece by Helen Garner on death? It’s fascinating! If I can find a link, I’ll send it to you. She did one on marriage, one on death and I think one on birth.
Sanch recently posted..Book Review: Daughter
Funerals are good reminders that life is short and we should enjoy it. 🙂
I don’t set goals either but I do have an informal bucket list, in my head. Since the number one item has been crossed off already (touring Greece), anything that comes after is gravy.
Debbie D. recently posted..RAVES AND RANTS – #MONDAYMUSINGS
Good post to start a busy Monday morning and stay grounded! Once in a while, we take a detour via a cemetery to avoid the traffic snarls. And every single time, the place reminds me of how fickle life can be. It brings me back to the basics and focus on my priorities. Very important to take every day as a blessing 🙂
A lesson that doesn’t come easy and often experience both in quantity and quality can assist the process, I feel. But yes learning that life is limited, in the end this matters.
You know Corinne these past few weeks I have been contemplating this fact that I do have enough and I should be happy and content in my own little world..But sometimes, actually most of the time I tend to forget that and keep wondering what is that one thing that I must get for my family or achieve by myself…Well, your post really put things into perspective, again I must add..
Thanks for reminding us not to take life too seriously….. that we should accept things for what they are and not constantly be on the go to improve, get better and get more
Bellybytes recently posted..In danger of dying: a thing of beauty #MondayMusings
I had written about a little girl who came as a rainbow to my cloud when I was busy nagging and worrying about the petty things in life. How silly we are, isn’t it!
And yeah, beside a cemetery? That’s definitely scary! :O
Oh yes, I believe in it. Life is simple, it’s we who make it complicated.
We’ve becoming so busy hoarding things that we fail to be happy and grateful for the things we have and enjoy then! Nice post.
Great reminder! You paint such a nice, peaceful picture of the funeral procession. I can definitely get behind the idea of #MondayMusings.
This is such a beautiful reminder. Life is too short to keep worrying about upgrading our lifestyles, houses and gadgets.
Astrid recently posted..Bar of Expectations #MondayMusings
The world will go on and we are not the axle of everything. Profound thought, Corinne. Sometimes I wish to take the weight of the world off my shoulder. I wonder why!
“Today, remind yourself that you have enough, you do enough and you are enough!” If only I could do that…. maybe that constant feeling of inadequacy would go away!
Wonderful reminder, Corinne. There’s nothing like the end of life to put things in perspective.
Absolutely, Roxanne. Thank you!
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..Can I Be Judge Judy For A Day #MondayMusings
Corinne, you have a knack of writing what I am feeling. It’s almost like a validation of my thoughts and I feel better! Lately I have been very drawn to my art and craft – it is all I think about and all I want to do in my free time.
I know I will come back to writing again when the other creative urges have subsided so after reading this, I am going to stop worrying about not getting ‘everything’ done. What is ‘everything’? It’s stuff that I tell myself I have to do – that’s all!
Great post and I LOVE the picture. One of my neighbours is Hindu – such a lovely calm and kind person. She totally gets my aversion to eating animals too and I can’t say that about many people around me! Thanks for the musings Corinne x
Gilly Maddison recently posted..Paper Pendants – Jewellery From Junk
What a beautiful and peaceful spot to see every day … and the daily reminder of the brief and temporary nature of this life we are living must do so much for your perspective. I don’t think contemplating death is morbid at all, unless we make it so.
“It is enough” … “This is enough” … “We are enough” … “I am enough” is a series I practice with breath-work, breathing in with one phrase, out with the next, always ending with breathing in the “I am” (my greatest hurdle).
Beautiful thoughts. Thank you.
T.O. Weller recently posted..Plan and Find Your Freedom to Write
It is truly peaceful, except for the certain times when there’s a lot of activity involving cleaning and painting the graves.
I love your practice and must incorporate it into my life too. Thank you for sharing.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..Write Your Heart Out With The Artist’s Way #wyho
It would be a lovely world when we learn when enough is enough. 🙂
Yes, indeed. Thanks for stopping by, Lux.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..Another Myth About Women Busted #WhenAWomanShops
Enough is enough ……. a powerful reminder about life, Corinne …… some seven years back i was also scared of death ……. but now i understand the beauty of death also …… Thanks for this powerful message …..
The post is relevant in this world where each and every one is one a haste to achieve one thing or the other. Not that we can discard the whole race overnight, but there ought to be a siren occasionally that screams out at us to slow down.
Loved the photograph !
I am also not into bucket lists and goals. I believe in living life spontaneously and watching it unfold. Makes life simple.
Me too, Suzy, although I’m trying to be better organized this year.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..Find Your Tree #MondayMusings