Lost and Found

Short Story 13

“And I’m back! Ma, are you in there?”

“Coming! You took your time but you returned!”

“You’re acting as if you’re shocked. Like you didn’t know.”

“I had my misgivings, yes. But my love, more than the wisdom I perceive I’ve acquired all these years told me that I would see you again and very soon too.”

“But why? I had the wish to see the entire world, to explore and feel it in its entirety.”

“But you didn’t. You explored a part of the world and in it, you found the whole.”

“Yes. Just like a fish in a pond, which can wish all its life to move to the seas, only to realize that the seas contain only a part of the wonder. And that the same could be found in the pond too.”

“There’s this Zen thing, that if you’re willing to go around the world in search of one, a teacher will emerge next door.”

“Exactly! Just like happiness! I’ll keep travelling, I’ll find new places, make new friends. But now, I’ll travel for the love of it. To seek peace, I won’t need to go anywhere. All that I’ve and all that’s in me, is here.”

“Yes. For all outward travel is incomplete, without making that long innate journey into yourself.”

“Ma, when did you start yours?”

A wry smile. “The day I was born.”