On nature, healing, and the smallness that makes you strong
Sometimes you just need to rewind. Reset your mind. Start again. And many a times, it is not just always about finding something new. It is about remembering who you were before you forgot. It is about returning to something that was always there – waiting for you to come back. I believe nature as a supreme power. Not as a concept. As a lived experience.
What the Himalayas Told Me
I had a trip to Himachal where I also went to Shingo La. Nothing planned, nothing grand. Just mountains and snow and sky.
I went to Shingo La and saw the snow fall. Massive snow. The kind that fills everything, erases everything, transforms everything into white silence. While watching the snow fall, the massive snowy mountains made me smile. Gave me happiness. Looking at the snow fall, wondering at the beauty of nature, I understood something that I had been searching for. I understood where I belong.
A small trip, yet it felt as if nature wanted me to tell myself where I belong. What I love. What I want. And what loves me. It was not just the connection with nature. It was a connection with myself. Through nature. Nature as the mirror that showed me back to me. That time, two songs were playing in my head. One by Salman Elahi: “Mera Dil Kahi Door Pahadon Mein Khoo Gaya”
(My heart has disappeared somewhere in the mountains)
And one by Prateek Kuhad: “Tedhe-medhe raaste hain Jaadui imaratein hain Main bhi hoon Tu bhi hai yahan Khoyi-soyi sadko pe Sitaron ke kandhon pe Hum naachte udte hain yahan” (Crooked paths exist, magical buildings exist, I am here, you are here, on lost streets, on the shoulders of stars, we dance and fly here). These songs were not random. They were the voice of something in me that recognised itself in the mountains. They were the language my soul was speaking when it finally came home.
The Lesson of Stone Balance
While travelling between mountains, we saw Himalayan ranges. Just randomly. Massive heights of mountains that we witnessed from so far away. And I asked myself – who are we in front of them?
And then I saw the stone balance art. Rocks stacked on top of each other, impossibly balanced, defying gravity. And it made me realise something.
Nature tells us who we are. It shows its power. It makes us realise we are nothing beyond nature. It shows our limits. And also shows our strengths. It simply tells us everything about life – our limitations and our strengths. The beauty lies within us.
When detractors try to destroy nature, when anyone tries to harm it – nature will show up with power that no one can handle. Nature has a way of reminding us that we are not the masters. We are the guests. And when we forget that, nature teaches us again.
The Healing That Comes
Nature made me cry. It made me think. It made me realise that healing is important. Otherwise moving forward becomes nearly impossible. Nature made me realise that letting go is the essence. To receive love again, you have to let go of what was. You may have a special place for someone in your heart – and that place will remain. It will be as beautiful as it always was. But you have to let it go. You have to stop holding it so tightly that your hands cannot open to receive what is coming. That is the hardest part. The part nobody wants to hear. But nature does not lie. Nature shows you the truth, and the truth is that everything cycles. Everything changes. Everything ends so that something else can begin. And that is beautiful, even when it hurts.
Growing Like a Pine Tree
To grow like a pine tree, you have to be strong. You have to be rooted. You have to be able to stand through storms and snow and wind that would break something weaker. I have always feared speed and water. I love beaches, but even with that love, there is an edge of fear. Fear of the depths. Fear of the power of something so much larger than me. But the minute I saw snow, snowy mountains – I felt happy. I felt I belong there. And I realised something in that moment. The fear I carry is not about these things. The fear is about surrendering to something greater than myself. And in the mountains, in the snow, I found myself willing to do that. I found myself wanting to. The mountains do not ask you to be brave. They just ask you to be small. And in being small, you become strong.
What Nature Showed Me About Life
Nature tells us our limitations. It shows us how far we can go and where we reach the edge of ourselves. It shows us that there are forces bigger than us, and that is not something to resist – it is something to surrender to. But nature also shows us our strengths. It shows us that even in the harshest conditions, life grows. Trees grow. Flowers bloom. Snow falls but it does not stop the mountains from standing. Winter comes but spring comes after. Everything circles. Everything returns. Nature shows us that beauty and power are not separate. The same mountain that will destroy you with an avalanche is also the mountain that holds you in its silence and teaches you who you are. The same snow that is deadly is also the snow that is gentle on your face and makes you feel like you belong. Life is like that too. We spend so much energy separating the good from the bad, the beautiful from the harsh. But nature shows us that they are the same thing viewed from different angles.
The Reset That Nature Offers
Sometimes you just need to rewind. To reset your mind. To stand in front of something so much larger than your problems that your problems become small. Not because they are solved. But because they are placed in perspective. The Himalayas did that for me. Looking at those mountains, I realised that my heartbreak is temporary. My confusion is temporary. My fear is temporary. The mountains will be there long after I am gone. And that is not depressing – it is liberating. It means I do not have to carry everything so heavily. I do not have to solve everything. I do not have to understand everything. I just have to show up, be as honest as the mountains are honest, be as strong as the pine trees are strong, and trust that the cycles will continue. That winter will become spring. That letting go will make room for receiving. That being small is the beginning of being strong.
Where I Belong
Looking at the snow fall, I understood where I belong. Not in a place. But in a way of being. In the alignment with something larger than myself. In the surrender to what is. In the willingness to be small and strong at the same time. Nature wanted me to tell myself this. Nature wanted me to come home to myself through the mountains and the snow and the massive height that reminds me how little I am and how much that matters.
I belong wherever I can be honest like nature is honest. Wherever I can grow like the pine trees grow – through harsh conditions, through winter, through snow that weighs heavy on the branches. Wherever I can let go the way the mountains let go of their snow in spring, trusting that more will come and go and come again.
That is where I belong. And nature showed me the way.
Author’s Note: Sometimes you need to stand in front of something so much larger than yourself that it reminds you who you are. Not smaller than you thought. But exactly the right size. And exactly strong enough.
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