Collecting Hobbies

I was having a discussion with my daughter about collecting various things and why people have such kind of hobbies. I told her that I used to collect stamps. My daughter collects erasers and I was making fun of that. I asked her, whats the point of collecting erasers. And then I was trying to explain why people collect stamps. I was explaining that they are like memorials for people or places (less expensive). People used to use a lot of stamps for sending letters in those days when there was no mobile and internet. So it would be a good idea to create memorials in the form of stamps that will be used by a lot of people on a daily basis. So the more stamps people collect, the more memorials or stories they are collecting.

My daughter heard this argument and she told one line in support of hers. She told "daddy, erasers remind us that it's ok to make mistakes in life". And she rested her case :)

The sun that rises

I had the opportunity of sitting on the deck of a cruise ship and watching the sun rise. It was one of the most beautiful things I have experienced. Initially it was dark with little clouds. I was worried that I will not be able to see the sun rise. Slowly it started turning orange and later on, the color of the sky changed to bright white light. As if everything was absolutely ready for the sun. Still no sign of the sun. It started turning to bright orange again at the far end of east. The sky started to light up. I felt as if the sky was overwhelmed with joy and everything was lit up. There were few clouds still blocking the view. As the sun started rising, I could see an intense ball of light. The light was so intense, that it can just knock down any sign of darkness. It could just make everything visible, even the things I haven't been able to see. It was amazing to view the first glimpse of the sun rising up. Then I thought if something or somebody is as bright as the sun they can only shine. Neither the clouds nor anything in the world can stop that.

Once the sun came up, it felt like the sea was very happy with a bright colored carpet laid out inviting sun to come onto the earth. I always thought religion should take you closer to the god.  A doubt arises in my mind, may be we did not understand the religion properly.  when religion said, offer prayers to sun in the morning, it was just trying to make us feel absorbed into the experience of watching the sun rise every single day. Who would have thought, that I will get these kind of ideas sitting on the deck of the most luxurious ship. Then I thought may be meditation is not an answer to everything we are facing in life. "LIVING YOUR LIFE" is.