Tuesday 1 April 2014

The universe's way of aligning us with our stars

Composition VII by Kandinsky




She lived in the world that Kandinsky painted. A mush of colors, sounds, lines that made no sense. It was all mysterious, all so mystical. She did not know where her world began and where it ended. She was just there; lost and overwhelmed by it all. 

She had lived there her entire life, and that was probably the only constant she had ever known. Everything around her was constantly changing. Everything else, was unknown, abstract. On somedays she would enjoy it, she loved wandering around her world, seeing all the colors, the blue, the red, the yellow, the green, the shapes, that were not specific, so she could make them into whatever she wanted. On most days however, she hated how tangled and messy her world was. She hated that everything was abstract, she knew nothing and she felt like she had no anchor to the ground, that when she'd get carried away with the melodies and tunes, she would struggle to find herself again, and never really does so fully. 

But in her darkest and most confusing hours, she would sometimes see it. A shinning star, up in the sky. And she felt as though that was her only anchor, the only sense of direction in her life.

And on one foggy day, which she thought was the luckiest day of her life, only to find out otherwise later, she found what she had always secretly wished for; a way out of this abstract unknown world she lived in. 

A green car pulls over, and the driver opens the door for her, "I'm here, get in." 
She hesitates for a second, looks up to the sky hoping to find her star, her sense of direction, but it was foggy and the star was not there, or at least she could not see it. 

So she left the star and everything else behind, and got into the car as it drove away to another world. 

The car took her to a new world. A world, where she knew where things began and where they ended. She had never been there before, and unlike her previous world, constants were many here, there were routines, things were in order, people knew where they belonged. 

This world fascinated her, the way all new things usually did. It was like she was seeing her life, and for the first time, through different eyes. There was something very appealing about it all, maybe it was the stability she found, the people she met, or the places she went.

And in her darkest, and most confusing hours, she would sometimes long for it. The shining star up in the sky, what used to be her anchor, and only sense of direction. And when she would think about it, she would find herself missing it too much, and secretly wishing she can go back, just to see it again. 

But she would get busy with her new life, and forget about the star, only to remember it again a few days later. 

And one stormy day, which she thought was the unluckiest day of her life, only to find out otherwise later, a storm came and wrecked her world. Her new world, fell into pieces right in front of her eyes, and everything that she loved about this world, the stability that she was enjoying, was a wreck, even messier than the world she had left behind.  

A green car pulls over, and the driver opens the door: "It's time to go back, get in." 
She hesitates for a second, but then she remembers her star again. She gets in the car, leaving a world she thought she would have forever, behind, and the car drove her back to the world where she came form. 

She was back in her world, the world that Kandinsky painted. 

She was back in the middle of all the colors, the music, and it took time, but she realized that maybe being lost in a world of unknowns and a single star up in the sky, was where she belonged. 

So she danced to the rhythms of the colors, and her eyes enjoyed the shades of the melodies. And every now and then she could see her star up in the sky, and from that day onwards, that was all she ever needed. 

The other world became nothing more than a sweet memory. She would think of it sometimes, miss it at others, but ever since she got back, she felt like she was right where she was supposed to be. And maybe she needed to be somewhere else for a short while to realize that. 

Kandinsky was an artist who was inspired by color, and music. He felt like they had the power to tap into deep human emotions that could not be expressed through words, or communication. He wrote "Lend your ears to music, and open your eyes to painting, and stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to 'walk about' into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?"

So she lent her ears to music, and opened her eyes to painting, and she stopped thinking. She just walked about in her unknown world, grateful that the universe had brought her back to her star, and she wanted nothing more. 

We all have our worlds; confusion, and uncertainty are an inseparable part of them. We all long for something, something different, new, something we do not have. And sometimes we end up in the worlds we long for, but other times it seems like no matter where we go, we tend to end up back where we started. 

And at one point we will see the storms - that wreck our worlds and leave them shattered - for what they really are; the universe's way of aligning us with our stars, and there is no where better to be than right there, with your star.

Composition VII whispers, the universe's way of aligning us with our stars.