<p>Climb every mountain; Cross every stream; Follow every bye-way; Until you find your dream...<br /><br /></p>.<p>Thus sang the nuns in the hit movie, Sound of Music, a movie that encapsulates the immense and innate power of goodness and the beauty of music.<br /><br />I thought of this song when one of my students asked me to help her with a message for the assembly on the topic, ‘Mountains and Valleys’. This triggered off a whole barrage of thoughts in my mind on the symbolic significance of mountains and valleys. True, they are very much a physical, geographical phenomenon, but they can also symbolise a lot in our spiritual and religious lives.<br /><br />Indeed, mountains and valleys can signify the ups and downs, the pinnacles and nadirs, the good points and the bad points of any situation or circumstance in life. Everyone’s life is full of a montage of kaleidoscopic ups and downs. <br /><br />One cannot expect everything to be always hunky-dory, rosy or sanguine. There are bound to be instances when a person’s life is not necessarily always a bed of roses, but it would do one good to know that along with the roses, there are accompanying thorns.<br /><br />Does this imply that one should only relish the positivism in life and become downright downcast and hang up one’s boots when things go horribly wrong? No, just as all mountains have valleys, life, too, has its ups and downs, BOTH of which MUST be faced with courage and equanimity. No one in this world is immune or exempt from problems, issues or vicissitudes. It depends on how cool and collected one is to envisage a solution, settlement or compromise for the problem. “For every problem, there is a solution” though for some, “For every solution, there is a problem”!<br /><br />However sanguine and positive one is, one does many a time assume that only one’s OWN life is replete and saturated with sorrows and intransigencies whereas other people’s lives appear to be problem-free. This is just an illusion of the “grass always looking greener on the other side”, for every single person in this world is fighting battles and must therefore be treated with sensitivity and compassion. <br /><br />It would do one good to discern that God is compassionate and that one faces only that much of sorrow which that particular person can take.<br /><br />Life would be too boring, predictable and unexciting if one only experienced joys, comforts, relaxation and no challenges. If, on the other hand, one is faced with tragedy, pain, heartache, loss or disappointment, one can overcome it, bypass it and solve it. In such situations, one will feel truly rejuvenated and euphoric as one will probably compare the positive result to be a far cry from the pain that one has just experienced.<br /><br />A pivotal question to be asked at this juncture is ‘how does one cope with the pain and reverse one’s fortunes?’ One can do so by a very powerful spiritual tool which is, of course, prayer. In every religion, there are omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent Gods that help in removing obstacles.<br /><br />No God gives one insurmountable problems that last forever and are permanent. Therefore, one should not feel unduly disillusioned and despondent. Instead, one should gird one’s loins, seek refuge in a loving God and move forward.<br /></p>
<p>Climb every mountain; Cross every stream; Follow every bye-way; Until you find your dream...<br /><br /></p>.<p>Thus sang the nuns in the hit movie, Sound of Music, a movie that encapsulates the immense and innate power of goodness and the beauty of music.<br /><br />I thought of this song when one of my students asked me to help her with a message for the assembly on the topic, ‘Mountains and Valleys’. This triggered off a whole barrage of thoughts in my mind on the symbolic significance of mountains and valleys. True, they are very much a physical, geographical phenomenon, but they can also symbolise a lot in our spiritual and religious lives.<br /><br />Indeed, mountains and valleys can signify the ups and downs, the pinnacles and nadirs, the good points and the bad points of any situation or circumstance in life. Everyone’s life is full of a montage of kaleidoscopic ups and downs. <br /><br />One cannot expect everything to be always hunky-dory, rosy or sanguine. There are bound to be instances when a person’s life is not necessarily always a bed of roses, but it would do one good to know that along with the roses, there are accompanying thorns.<br /><br />Does this imply that one should only relish the positivism in life and become downright downcast and hang up one’s boots when things go horribly wrong? No, just as all mountains have valleys, life, too, has its ups and downs, BOTH of which MUST be faced with courage and equanimity. No one in this world is immune or exempt from problems, issues or vicissitudes. It depends on how cool and collected one is to envisage a solution, settlement or compromise for the problem. “For every problem, there is a solution” though for some, “For every solution, there is a problem”!<br /><br />However sanguine and positive one is, one does many a time assume that only one’s OWN life is replete and saturated with sorrows and intransigencies whereas other people’s lives appear to be problem-free. This is just an illusion of the “grass always looking greener on the other side”, for every single person in this world is fighting battles and must therefore be treated with sensitivity and compassion. <br /><br />It would do one good to discern that God is compassionate and that one faces only that much of sorrow which that particular person can take.<br /><br />Life would be too boring, predictable and unexciting if one only experienced joys, comforts, relaxation and no challenges. If, on the other hand, one is faced with tragedy, pain, heartache, loss or disappointment, one can overcome it, bypass it and solve it. In such situations, one will feel truly rejuvenated and euphoric as one will probably compare the positive result to be a far cry from the pain that one has just experienced.<br /><br />A pivotal question to be asked at this juncture is ‘how does one cope with the pain and reverse one’s fortunes?’ One can do so by a very powerful spiritual tool which is, of course, prayer. In every religion, there are omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent Gods that help in removing obstacles.<br /><br />No God gives one insurmountable problems that last forever and are permanent. Therefore, one should not feel unduly disillusioned and despondent. Instead, one should gird one’s loins, seek refuge in a loving God and move forward.<br /></p>
