Auspicious days like this means, temples are crowded - it's the same for Chinese New Year and Vesak Day - Easter Sunday and Christmas for churches. Devotees are dressed in their best to offer thanks and ask for blessings from God. It's actually the best days in any calendar year for a spiritual uplift.
Because I do not like crowds, I usually avoid getting my spiritual fix on days like these - I remember being stuck in a queue to get into a temple for at least 30 mins those few times - which is already not too long a wait. But I feel that I am not able to focus on actually saying my thanks properly when i'm rushed and one tends to feel rushed when the prayer hall becomes like a sardine tin. My solution, go a day before the BIG day - trouble is, it's not the same. The 'scene' is different.
No matter what I do to psyche myself about going there on the day itself, 80% of the time, I will not take any chances and go a day or so before - I have even gone a day or so AFTER - which means that i'm not doing my best to do things right.
Today, I made it into the 80th percentile and I must say, it felt good, because I woke up before dawn, dressed and arrived way before the rest of the devotees hit the roads. I made it to 3 temples - the usual ones I visit over the year. By the time I was done at the 3rd stop, people were beginning to be very very visible and I was ready to go invisible, back home, to my kitchen.
Imagine that, it never occurred to me that I could still bask in the wonderful finery of the festivities without feeling like fish - all that took was to wake up before dawn. Something so basic and simple, took me this long to figure out.
so, when there's a will, there IS a way.
We just need to be determined enough to find and see the way.
As long as we are clouded with doubts, it's forever going to be cloudy, misty and foggy.
What's the bottom line?
Be clear what the goal is and then just reach for it.
It may take a little tweak here and a tug there, but after that, we are on the home run.
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