Day 27 - When you find all the answers in your cupboard!

Cleaning stuff gives me a big high. Whether its cleaning my cupboard, shoe rack, my dressing table drawer, my jewellery box, the attic, the medicine kit, the kitchen cabinets, refrigerator, what have you. Cleaning and organizing gives me the bliss that's unequivocal. Also, disposing off or chucking away all those things which are worn out, defunct, useless or don't use anymore is another pleasure altogether. As a kid, I won't be lying if I tell you that I used to actually envy (secretly) the job of the municipality sweepers. I thought they had a cool job and even felt that I could do their job with much more flourish, exactness and that's no 'sweeping' statement.
Obviously, I never could fulfill my childhood fantasy and the chance to wield my personal broom stick! But as the years moved on, so did my versions of 'What I would like to be, when I grow up?' fantasies.
So here I am, fulfilling one of my long withheld desire,  not as a professional (thankfully!) but as a hobbyist. To me, there is no greater joy than unearthing a few trinkets from the hidden crannies, extricating an old pair of jeans that I once again can fit into, finding a silk scarf I thought was lost forever and many such moments of discovery. Not to mention, the favorite cream bottles, oils, shampoos and moisturizing lotions which were unused for long but finding them to be still within their expiry dates. Fancy leather sandals which I thought had 'kicked' the bucket and then find them to still have many years in them. Also, the Tupperware storage containers I thought had been sent to next door neighbor to share some home cooked experiments and never came back, only to find them 'self-contained' and sitting smugly in a corner. And hey, I forgot to mention the many forgotten timeless classics that I stumble upon as I reach out my hand deep inside the library shelf. There is definitely serendipity at work here.


Just like all my previous 'clean-up' weekends, this one too went off exactly as expected, rummaging, clearing and cleaning, albeit with a small difference.
As I was cleaning the medicine cabinet and  going through the many tablet strips, ointments, balms, vitamin capsules, tubes, sprays, I had a sudden realization, as if like a shot in the arm .
I remembered a Hindi lesson that we learned way back in school, 'Mama ki Ainak'. The Mama in the story i.e. the Uncle goes around the whole house searching everywhere looking for his spectacles which have been misplaced, only to realize much later that they were sitting all along on his forehead.

Isn't our life exactly like this? We all go through life seeking answers for questions, problems, issues, difficult situations at one point or another. To find the key to the lock, we go out to hunt for it. Though each of us have our own method of seeking the right answers, the one thing common for sure is, we forget to look for it within us to begin with. We fail to realize that the 'magical solution' is not outside or anywhere else but lies within us. We are just not attuned to seek it where its supposed to be. So, just like 'Mama ki Ainak', we go about searching high and low, here and there to find it, obviously without any result. All we need to do is just 'change our lens' and perspective and then it becomes all crystal clear.
That weekend as I sat amongst the mess sifting the old medicines from the new, I didn't anticipate that my old childhood fantasy would eventually help me 'find' the simple elixir of life along with a few strips of Vitamin D3 tablets.

Next time, when I am searching for something (answers), I must remember to first check my cupboard (my soul) before I go out shopping (seeking) for it elsewhere.