Reflections of a restless eccentric

 I was reading 'Peace is in Every Step' by Thich Nhat Hanh this week, and these lines resonated so deeply with me: ‘I have lost my smile, but don’t worry. The dandelion has it.’ If you have lost your smile and yet are still capable of seeing that a dandelion is keeping it for you, the situation is not too bad. You still have enough mindfulness to see that the smile is there. You only need to breathe consciously one or two times and you will recover your smile. The dandelion is one member of your community of friends. It is there, quite faithful, keeping your smile for you. In fact, everything around you is keeping your smile for you. Oftentimes, when we lose our smiles, we are unable to see it anywhere else either. We are so deeply immersed in our grief and sorrow that nothing permeates through this. My workplace is a veritable forest, and at the nadir of my depression, I decided to go for long walks every day. Walking had always helped me, and surely walking in this beautiful

 For almost two years now, my narrative has been centered around outrage and grief at what my life has become. I went into great detail explaining how difficult, sad and horrifying it was to go through this journey. I truly did not know how to deal with this, let alone move on from it. I retreated from social life and spent most of my time alone. After a while, I realized something I had known all along but stubbornly refused to acknowledge: Life throws challenges at everyone. Maybe at different points in time, or in different ways. But my life was by no means an exception. After I had fully come to terms with this, I was curious to learn more about how people processed such experiences and what I could learn from them. In this series, I hope to share with my Reader anecdotes from my journey of healing and hope.  I bought a button rose plant in early June this year. I have had rose plants before, but this one surpassed the best I have ever had. It flowered 2-3 times a week, and each f