Walking the Sharp Edge

They say- we are all born into the truth. This truth is what, we are all trying to explore through various ways. The truth at times presents itself as a burning desire which we vie to achieve with all our heart. At other times this truth becomes a person who we long to be with to share our love. Then the inevitable happens, the desires once gained loses its charm, the friend moves on to someone else and here we are left again to discover the truth we were born into. The truth which we can feel inside us all the while, but not really put a finger on. In our pursuit of being able to touch and live our truth, we explore and experiment with so much outside of us. Some experiences exhilarate us and quite a few others leave us down in the pits.
Almost all of us have wondered what makes me- Me at some point in life. What it is that I am meant to do with this life? Did Newton know by birth his special calling of being a scientist, did Sachin Tendulkar just know he was meant to create magic with a cricket bat in hand? Do we know our (I coin a new term here) Inherent-ness, i.e., our personal truth for this life?(click here to find the truth of life quotes)
Let me take an example – A knife is a knife is a Knife. If a knife does not know its Inherentness of being the one with a sharp edge, it may not be able to live its own truth and thus land up feeling unfulfilled its entire life. The Inherent-ness of the knife is its sharpness. There are many uses that the sharp edge can be put to- it can be used to do surgeries to save lives, it can be used to chop food and it can also be used to murder someone. One cannot judge the inherent-ness of the sharp edge of the knife itself. But if one chooses to discern the sharpness of the blade, it may well be used for its worth. Also, it’s pointless to ask the knife to try to be living like a feather. The feather may be liked by all and many may feel tickled, soothed and safe with a feather, but that is the inherent-ness of the feather. A knife would best live its life, by acknowledging its sharp edge and being useful through the inherent-ness of its edge. The choice of using our inherent-ness to serve life than destroy it, always lies with us, which means that there is no right and wrong per say in any one. Though there is always an element of inherent-ness. One would have to discern that inherent-ness in self as well as others to be able to make the best use of their own truth and the truth of others.
The question that now pops up is how does one discover their inherent-ness? I hereby suggest something which worked for me.
Go back to your childhood, unlearn all that you had picked up from parents, peers society. Observe what did you enjoy doing as a child most. That was your inherent-ness. Those were your gifts to explore your truth. You had to learn to use those gifts through your education to benefit self and others. Sadly, though the education of wanting to be a feather, makes most of us forget our gift of the knife’s edge, thus leaving us clueless to our own truth. As a child I was very talkative and an expert at dismantling things. I was credited with breaking toys and other stuff which had been kept fairly well preserved for the last fifteen years in the house. In my growing up years, obviously no one encouraged me for being so talkative and being a destructive Thanos par excellence. I kept trying to be me and the conditions kept brewing trouble due to my two misaligned abilities. As I grew up, I slowly realised my gifts. Now I teach and my ability to talk gives me the edge of clarity over many other teachers. The ability to take things apart which was labelled as being destructive allows me to dissect my subject well and put it across very simply and nimbly to my students.
To end a long story into a short truth-
Are you ready to walk on your own edge and find your own truth of being a useful Knife?
or
The other option is trying to be a feather which you were never meant to be.
May the grace give you the truth of your inherent-ness.
Grace & Gratitude
Garima Goyal