“No winter lasts forever; no spring
skips its turn.” – Hal Borland
There's always that one
moment that separates the Past from the Future, and that defining moment in
India is the multi-hued festival of Holi. A riot of colour permeates the air,
loud Bollywood music fills up the neighbourhood as friends, families and
neighbours let down their inhibitions and dance joyfully together, traditional
mithai and many glasses of intoxicating bhang get consumed rapidly, and a day
of absolute unabashed fun and frolic is celebrated across every nook and corner
of India.
In its many forms the
festival of Holi marks the end of the long dry spell of winter, and welcomes
the advent of spring. A reminder that there’s always a beginning to an end. On
this one colourful, dazzling, beautiful day, you feel like you are standing at
a doorway... your back facing the end of a cold dry world and your face
resplendently looking forwards towards the beginning of another world filled
with the promise of new beginnings. A threshold leap that offers rebirth,
reawakening, renaissance and regeneration. And in India it comes both with the
silent whisper of the first green bud and faint cry of the cuckoo bird, and the
big bang proclamation of the vibrant festival of Holi.
The festival marks a symbolic
new beginning. An aide memoire to help you set new intentions and goals, see
things in a new light, and ensure brand new beginnings. You are being granted
the gift of a second chance...a reminder that you can turn your life around and
start afresh. That you are not bound by the cold chains of your past. The death
of winter heralds the death of who you used to be. The wrong choices of yesterday
can be buried under the cold snows of the winter past. And your future doesn’t
have to travel the same path as the previous year. The beautiful fresh blossoms
and bright green shoots on the trees are a sign encouraging you to start afresh
all over again.
The death of winter also
reminds you that you don’t have to apologize to people that refuse to listen. You
don’t have to justify your feelings or behaviour that may have occurred at a
difficult phase in your life. You certainly don’t have to put up with those who
are insecure and hold back your progress. The birth of spring tells you that
all you have to do is shut the door on the past and walk forward with a
positive attitude, and trust that the Universe has a plan that is greater than
the life you have chosen to leave behind.
So even after the colours of
Holi settle down on the roads, nature slowly but surely resumes her splendid crowning
glory, and life gets back to its normal pace, the doorway connecting winter and
spring yesterday must serve as a brilliant reminder that this is the moment
where our Choice lies -- in determining how we will meet the inevitable end of
the past, and how we intend to welcome new beginnings.
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