Expression!

During a vacation to a hill station, I was witness to continuous downpour for days together. The clouds expressed themselves to their heart’s content and lightened they were, started floating effortlessly in the clear blue skies. It seemed as if they were conveying a message “Express, share and lighten” 

The streams were coming down the hills with thundering speed, ever eager to reach their destination and hand over the baton to the rivulets. In their eagerness I saw honeybees collecting nectar from choicest of the flowers and coming back to the beehive to deposit their pride find. In an environment away from mechanical life, I heard the streams say “Expression is the key to fulfillment”. I could not understand as to why they said so, till I traveled further in to my thoughts. 

The rivers, by now fully fed, were gently swaying from bank to bank and in their forward journey carried fertile soil and minerals for the mankind. This is their way of expression, I thought.

Not to be left alone, the trees and plants bloomed with colorful flowers and delicious fruits as an expression of their love for other inhabitants of the Earth.

Birds! Of all species, sizes and colors were singing with a passion to equal the best orchestra or symphony of this world. Some birds were so elegant in singing that their rhythm resembled  movements of the best  music conductors ever seen.

What a way to express!  There are no barriers; no expectations; no ulterior motives. The aim is to express to one’s heart’s content and in so doing touch few hearts and lives. 

When clouds, streams, rivers, trees, plants and birds can express themselves, why do humans shy away from expressing? I thought.

Express, we do but with lot of constraints. We seem to be tied down by many self imposed limitations in expressing ourselves. Whether it is expressing happiness or sadness, jubilation or depression, triumph or turmoil, we seem to be sending constricted messages and not heartfelt communication. Our smile is created on the lips and not in the heart. What to talk of touching others’ hearts, our words are so feeble that they do not even sink into the skins of the listeners. When we express, we are always thinking of the returns and not the difference it has to make to the environment and the lives we touch. When will the mankind learn from the nature? I mused aloud.

While I was still in the above mood, a picture of a mighty river joining an ocean came in to my view, as if to say that “my expression to the mankind and the Earth is over, let me now communicate with the eager souls living in the water”.

Closer to me, a toddler happily tapping his feet in the rain water, put a paper boat in a puddle in front of his house and was clapping merrily. “Expression with no barriers!”