The Unlived Life

A few weeks ago, my son very casually exclaimed, you never laugh these days…You’re always worried. When I had to go to the dentist, he said, “Your jaw seems very tight. Don’t you smile enough”, he joked! These statements seemed light on the surface but had an underlying deeper meaning. Something I wasn't happy with had started showing on my face.

To be a good designer, one must be a sensitive human being. Being sensitive does not mean being emotional. It means to sense things around us. To be observant. To look with our heart and feel with our eyes.

Landscape design cannot happen sitting inside tall glass buildings. As landscape architects, we need to get in touch with nature. We work with living elements and we design livable spaces for living beings!

It's from here that the road forks and asks us to make a decision. One is a natural mud path lined by grasses and trees, with birds singing often and butterflies fluttering about freely towards the creative side. The other promises to “climb the ladder”, wearing the uniform of the collared white shirt , formal black pants and running shoes, hurriedly in an ever-stressed mode towards that race where everyone is running. Where? Why? No-one wants to know.

As we sit behind a wall of multiple computer screens, armored by headphones and keyboards, discussing one square inch of landscape somewhere inside a mall in a far off country, let’s not forget to water that little plant sitting meekly in a pot by our desk! Let’s talk to each other and share our emotions. Let’s be human again and not racehorses who don’t even know where the finish line leads to.

Do we like that doctor who does not examine us anymore, but just continues to type into his computer screen, confirming the prescriptions from google?

Let’s start believing in acquiring knowledge. Just stop running for a while and look behind. Am I running just because everyone else is running? Where have I come from? Where do I wish to go? What we choose to do for a living is a means to an end and not the end itself. It’s time to rethink and to reset.

Deep down in our hearts, we all know what our role is to play in this universe. It's not for no reason that I strive to find time to pen down my thoughts and doodle away my daily woes. If you think you are different, then dare to wander away from the flock and find your own freedom. It's time to snatch the opportunity!

Its time to question everything that takes away our creative freedom…our need to make something beautiful…our chance to see some order in this chaos.

All these days I was trying to find my old comfort on this crisp new chair. But I guess one needs to adjust or accept what comes their way, or then have the courage to challenge it and change it!

A frozen moment of freedom is like a pause between two chapters. I want to enjoy that instant where I can escape responsibility and just bathe in the essential oils of the NOW. It's only when we are ready to release what we think isn’t for us, can we truly embrace the rainbow of Life’s hidden gifts.

There is always a way to be good again. I want to go back to myself. I want to live the unlived life!

I am keeping my diary open and inviting destiny to come over for a relaxed cup of tea, to write something new for me. Something that was always meant for me and is seeking me as well.

#unlivedlife  #freedom # dosomethingnew #quittheratrace #innerpeace #selflove