Cultivating daily calmness

For me the most precious and coveted characteristic in a person is his or her ability to give others the gift of calmness.

In a world where everyone these days is jumping up and down like a demented Jack in the box and giving everyone perpetual high blood pressure – there is much to be said about the man and woman who is able to remain still like the calm within the eye of the storm.

That is because all of us are at our very best ONLY when we are calm and not jumping up and down as if our pants are on fire.

To me it is not how the person would look that really matters. Not at all. Or even where he or she was educated or for how long did he or she work in that prestigious company. These things are of course important, but in the relative scheme of things, they fall into the same category of shoelaces and dental floss – because if had to go on a very long, difficult and uncertain journey….I would only probably bring someone who is dead serious about the whole idea of calmness and the only person who can do that is someone who is has enough calmness to give me some.

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‘I need to buy a plot of land that is next to mine. It is not very big, but nonetheless I need it badly in the way a ship needs the sea to do what it is supposed to do – don’t ask me to elaborate why it’s strategic….jugular even necessary that I get my hands on this sliver of land before anyone else’s does – As I can tell you one hundred and one reasons why my fortune hinges on it…that it is the only parcel of land the leads to a nearby river where the waters flows fast and clear…that it rings the most vulnerable section of my other lands…that this is the key the unlocks the opportunity for me to spearhead to buy more lands in the south. I need it like the way my lungs needs oxygen and a fish needs water.

But I have to remain calm…..no one must know my desire. My yearning. My delightful torment. The one that keeps me turning in that sea of darkness – the night.

I shall confide to you the complications relating to this transaction. I fear that it might be yet another elaborate bear trap fashioned by my enemies – after all what else can explain the curious turn of events where this landowner seems to be offering to sell his lands to everyone except me? Strange don’t you think so – when one considers, I am the only one in the position to pay him a good price. As since this parcel of land is adjacent to mine, it makes good sense for me to pay a premium and attach it to what I already own – or maybe that is what he wants me to do – to show my cards and betray that which I desire most….

No I shan’t do that – jump up and down like some dandy on a string of some fancy. I keep very quiet and still. And whenever the subject of the land crops up. I will feign disinterest, yawn prefer to talk about other diversions – like the weather and the lengths of helm lines – yes…it must be incredibly frustrating to deal with a man who one is not able to read. A man written in a strange alphabet….an enigma. That I imagine is what I must seem like to these people who are trying so hard to bait me…a man of infinite contradictions.

Yes…it’s decided then, I shall wait….quietly…calmly. I will be like a metronome – the man who sits in his rocking chair and nurses the embers of his cigar as the remains of the day oozes out like blood to the encroaching death of night…not the fidgety sort, but the variety of man who seems content to watch by as time kills itself while he rocks back and forth in sweet repose – every so slowly – I will wait calmly for their Chinese opera to run the last stanza. After all what is the point of putting on a show. When the guest of honor isn’t even present?

Yes time is a weapon that I will have to learn to use to good effect,if I am going to win decisively – by waiting calmly. By doing absolutely nothing. The chastening passage of time itself will be enough to prise open the door of opportunity – as it ticks away….mystery is furiously at work…the tension will ratchet up ever so slowly like a spring being wound up with each passing day, till it’s tight as a drum – it will really only be a matter of time before my enemies will begin to wonder – why doesn’t the man who lives on the hill make his move? Give it more time and they will doubt, quibble amongst themselves, suspect that there is traitor in their ranks, sweat blood and eventually curse beneath their breath, ‘why does he hesitate…..it’s a bloody clear shot! Why?’ A fog will close in. They will not be sure any longer. Perhaps they might even eat each other up like desperate rats. That is the time when I will strike like a cobra. But for now I will have to wait calmly and quietly and just watch the world go right by in my rattan chair.’