GNH ways to find the missing

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Even when I’m as far as only 70 KM, I miss my mother so much.  

I dream of my mother every night and I wake up in the middle of the night with pain in my heart. And so, as soon as I see the mountains above Paro valley, getting closer to home, I feel my heart free from worry. I have this feeling of finally being where I belong, of something like, “Oh, I’m finally home.” 

I’m sure it is like that even to those who have come to think that home isn’t a happy place to be. What you grew up with gets culturally rooted deep within you—whether you realize it or not. And you will find joy in embracing and accepting them as part of you. 

 When you have a sense of belonging to the community you grew up in, you have a feeling of security and trust that keeps you in peace.  Back in my village, as long as I remember, we never had the habit of locking our door. We would just latch our door and go away to work in the fields. We never had the fear that someone would come and break into our house. But this is totally different in urban areas. When I first came to Thimphu in 1999, I can remember how surprised I was to find that everyone stayed inside the closed door and didn’t speak to people they met on the way. I have become a part of this same community where we don’t even know the next door neighbor but I certainly don’t enjoy it. So I make a point to at least smile at the neighbors when I meet them in the corridor. 

I’m now stuck in this so called urban area. I had not been to my village for three years. I was dying to meet my relatives and see that lone standing house where I grew up—waking up to my mother calling me for breakfast every morning. The thought that this house probably was crumbling into ruins was killing me. And then one day, I got an assignment that would take me right there. I never found the journey too long. I wished I didn’t have to hold a night in Bumthang. And as I met my sister and her children playing outside the house, I couldn’t hold my tears. One night wasn’t enough. I promised my childhood friends and my sister that when I came back again, I would come to stay for a long time. 

 (Trust in Neighbors (Sense of belonging) is one of the indicators in Community Vitality Domain)

Comments

ugyen said…
I have always felt the same...and deep down in my throat I feel it's a price we pay for development.
Even in developed nations...we hardly come across smiling faces in town but when you go towards villages we still come across that warm smiles...
November 25, 2010 at 10:10 AM
Sogyel said…
got it right on the point....thats always there....the way we leave for work without even locking our houses shows more...its the way society has become so much a part of with one another...and if any stranger comes to village suddenly, then it could take the reverse way...but in city, as i am here in delhi, the way we communicate is vast and difficult...i would take more than a week if not more to get a person whom i talked with somedays ago...its the urban character....and thimphu is at least okie that we meet few people we know and we can talk to...
December 8, 2010 at 7:21 PM
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