Trust

I have not done a reflective post in a while and something that Anjali did yesterday triggered this one. We were roller blading in the park connector- myself, husband and Anjali.

Anjali, instead of roller blading by herself, held on to the tail of husband's shirt and urged him to roller blade with her hanging on. Now, husband is a very good skater and he took Anjali through a number of sharp turns which led to her having a number of rather nasty falls. Where, normally she would have been disillusioned and slumped on the park bench, the kid picked herself up, laughing and urged husband to go even faster.

I know I would not have done this - I am even afraid to speed on the car above 40km/hour or to speed on the bicycle to the point where I cant stop suddenly -  but that might be because my second bicycle had really lousy brakes.

One of my favorite stories by Ramakrishna is the one of the baby monkey and the baby cat. The baby monkey holds on while the baby cat surrenders. I have often thought that being the baby cat and surrendering is the best kind of yoga. All you do is surrender. But seeing Anjali roller blade behind husband made me think of another way of trust. The trust of the baby monkey.

The baby monkey has an active trust whereas the trust of the baby cat is passive. It is the difference between having things happen and being part of them and enjoying the consequences or being a mover who plays an active role in the things that happen. One could ask God to carry you, or one could hold Him and go. I was reminded of the hour of God when Anjali and I reflected over this morning about holding husband's shirt and roller blading.

There are moments when the Spirit moves among men and the breath of the Lord is abroad upon the waters of our being; there are others when it retires and men are left to act in the strength or the weakness of their own egoism. The first are periods when even a little effort produces great results and changes destiny; the second are spaces of time when much labour goes to the making of a little result. It is true that the latter may prepare the former, may be the little smoke of sacrifice going up to heaven which calls down the rain of God's bounty.