Haiku — 0033: Effort

The Way, The Will.

The fifteen-year-old me, sitting in a class teaching verses (shlokas) of Veda, heard a classmate, who was perhaps around the age of 30, say,

“I have too many things in my mind, I can’t find the ability to remember the verses anymore”

Almost fifteen years later, I have reached that age (almost). It has been a while since I entered the hardcore world of rhythmic Sanskrit chants, but there are many things to learn.

And, of course, I am not one to give up.

Canyon of rocks,

Remains of mountains eroded,

An unyielding river.

When it comes to effort, I believe the rivers have a story to tell. Or, a scenery to show. And this story is on a very different scale unlike a couple of similar-themed Haiku I wrote in the past (linked below).

That being said,

The effort of sticking to learning is very important to me. Just a couple of days back, I dedicated most of my 90-minute return journey on the train to learning Taegeuk Oh-Jang. Like, watching the same sequence over and over and over again until I could remember it from start to finish.

And I spent the rest of the evening only thinking about this one thing.

Everything else was immaterial.

The fact that I was able to learn something new in a day gave me so much satisfaction. Pride, even. It showed me a new world, one where I do not run towards using age and circumstances as reasons to not focus on a new activity. And of course, I have been learning a few other things, that will come to fruition in the future.

Going back to the Haiku, the mountains of pressure, heaped on by daily life and elements in it, shall not wear down the river of spirit to learn that flows. And in the end, the river shall flow on, and the mountains wear off.

The flow, and the effort, remain to tell a tale.

On a side note, one of my oldest works on Medium talks about a similar topic, which I called “You are Never Too Old”. I would love for you to check that out as well!

Yesterday’s Haiku —

For the rest of my Haiku, please follow —