This Week: Word Prompts

Educate

Ethereal

Epiphany

Extraordinary

Basic guidelines:

Use the prompt in your posts.
Write a minimum of 100 words on the prompt.
Visit others. That’s it 🙂

It was the first day of February, The month that portended love. The month when many hearts came together as one, and many were reclaimed.

Jay and Sriparna were taking a trip to Thailand. A trip celebrating 10 years of togetherness. They had barely taken any one on one holidays due to their hectic schedules at work. They had left the kids with Dadi who was always more than happy to have them over and spend time pampering and teaching them new skills like baking, even making samosas, donuts, cross stitching etc.

On this balmy yet beautiful February morning on Sriparna’s insistence, they had taken off to yet another Buddhist temple. They had visited a few during their trip, but this one was supposed to be highly revered. As they walked through the grand, majestic door of the temple that was built in various hues, superimposed with a lot of gold, they caught sight of the extraordinary looking statue of Buddha. It sat there ensconced on a majestic seat, covered in the most resplendent finery. The look on Buddha’s face was ethereal and so very calming. The Buddha seemed to look back at Sriprana with benign eyes and bless her. Even Jay stopped short on his feet to gaze at the Buddha. He normally just wandered around aimlessly, just trying to be a good husband and giving Sriprana company. After all, they were on a romantic getaway together. 

Jay and Sriprana could not take their gaze away from the Buddha, There was something unexplainable, something so real, life-like about this Buddha that it had them spell-bound. Sriparna had read Buddha’s Lotus Sutra and many books written on him and his philosophy, but her leanings were always dismissed and brushed away by her side of the family, a family of staunch Hindu believers. Yet her quest for finding what worked best for her spiritually never ceased to exist. Jay was an atheist, yet open to any religion or form of spirituality. 

Sriparna saw a set of meandering stairs that led to the floor above the statue. She followed them through, to be greeted by a foyer which directly looked over the Buddha’s crown. She felt a magical halo around the crown of hair or Ushnisha, the three dimensional oval at the top of the head. She went down on her knees and  started meditating. The temple was almost empty and serenely quiet. As she meditated, with her eyes open, she felt tears of happiness trickle down her cheeks. She was experiencing a spiritual epiphany of sorts. She could feel the presence of Shakyamuni and his aura emanating back to her and speaking to her about the reason she was there- to embrace the Buddhist path, to imbibe the beautiful practice of unconditional love, of touching lives through compassion and acceptance, of making a real difference in this hatred-ridden world, and propagating world peace by educating people about love, harmony, and co-existence. 

Sriparna had found a love of a different kind, a love that was unexplainable. After all, it was the month of spring, the month when love found its way into many a hearts, knowingly or unknowingly. This was a divine kind of love. Ethereal, magical, truly incredible. 

Jay came up the stairs looking for her and was surprised to see that pristine look on Sriparna’s face and the blush on her cheek. The doors to love had just been unlocked, and a new kind of life awaited them.

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This post is written for Wordy Wednesday # 1– February 2017 #BARWoWe

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