Reflection

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. -Leonardo da vinci

I presume the title reflection has got you pondering. Scientifically, reflection is the phenomenon of bouncing back of a propagating wave once it strikes a surface. But what I choose to say here is not about the reflection that is bound by this scientific definition. I am taking the liberty of saying that humans are great reflectors, not only of light but of many things that we see around us and come across in our day to day lives. Humans in the twenty first century have access to almost anything and everything that happens around them, thanks to the gargantuan technological advancements existing today. Technology has so grown that world events and news can be read or seen within hours or even minutes of its occurrence, all by just sitting within the four walls of our homes.All it takes for this is just a click on our electronic devices. We can thus truly say that the boundaries between countries and continents have slowly vanished and the world has become a global village.

Would such exposure to information about every small action around us affect our own actions? The answer is definitely a yes. Man being a social animal is bound to see and imbibe what happens around him and react accordingly. I myself like to call this reflection. For example, let one of my financially well-off neighbour buy a huge luxury sedan in turn inviting great appreciation from the people around. Let us consider this action as a ray of light and let this ray fall on me. The way it reflects off me could be in two ways. I could go about minding my own business or do something as outrageous as to buy a similar sedan beyond my financial capacity just for the appreciation and gleam in the eyes of the people whom I drive by. My neighbour’s action of buying a sedan could well be the fruit of years of his toil and hard work whereas me doing the same is just a hollow reflection of what I saw, a futile attempt to prove that I am something more, which clearly I am not. This will prove to be more detrimental for me than advantageous. Was it right to reflect the way I did? This brings us to yet another question, what must we truly reflect in our lives?

Every day we see good and bad, highs and lows, falling and rising around us and most of this affects us directly and indirectly. But the truth is that to an unbelievable extent we ourselves can choose as to how this affects us. This is where reflection comes into play. I believe that the key mantra to leading a happy, successful and satisfied life is to always imbibe and reflect what is good, positive and non-detrimental. Let us go back to the example of my neighbour. Instead of going behind something materialistic like the luxury sedan, if I had tried to understand the work that my neighbour had put into achieving it and made a conscious attempt to do the same myself, then probably I could buy a similar sedan myself someday. So it all comes down to reflecting what is right and setting aside everything else.

As much as how things around us affects what we do, what we reflect or let out affects the things and people around us too. Thus it is all the more conclusive that to get what is best we must put out our best.

In the rat race that we live in today everyone’s ulterior motive is to grab the finest fruit, walk the greenest landscapes or to catch the biggest fish. This has grown to such an extent that people do not even stop to think about the atrocious means they adopt to reach their goals.From a very young age our parents, teachers and also the society at large are teaching us and setting examples for us in all walks of life both directly and indirectly. This definitely plays a huge role in moulding us into what we become. Thus the moral code that our kith and kin set for us must always be our reference. Blindly taking in what we see and reflecting upon it is never wise. Give a minute of thought before acting upon what we see, hear or come across. Take a pause and think if what we reflect is in par with our moral code and whether it is contradicting our morality. Take it upon ourselves to set goals in life and strive hard for it and make sure that we only reflect what is right as we proceed to our goal. Good and bad are two sides of a coin. Make it a point that preference is always given to the better side.

In summary bring in all the freshness, love, and compassion from around us and reflect the same. By doing so, not only are we developing as an individual but we are also sowing the seeds for a better society and a better posterity. At the end of the day it is definitely not the accolades we won or the luxury sedan we own but the happiness, satisfaction and contentment that we have in our lives. So choose what is right to reach our goal and filter out all that is unnecessary and evil. Let us all strive to reflect the brightest of lights shining around us.