The Lighter Side……

“When Calls The Heart “, a beautiful serial I am watching on Netflix.

It’s simply beautiful and so profound in its simplicity, it impels you to look at life naturally as it is.

The whole set up is simple and ancient, virgin and fresh, untouched by technology, where mechanical thinking has no place. It is the age where the heart rules, and the purity of it all is so explicit, that one has no choice but to get lured into it.

 

The story revolves around this little place, called Coal valley, later renamed as Hope Valley and speaks of  the trying times, faced by  young widows of the miners, who were killed in the mine blast,  and how all of them spirited souls, manage to overcome a lot of  hardships bravely and by  perceiving the lighter side of life.

The theme, the small quaint town and the young lovely folk living there appealed to me, and as I dwelled into their lives, I felt drawn in.

Life’s simplicity,  made it all the more uncomplicated.

Human emotions existed, pretty much the same as they do today. The difference was that the heart called then and now it is the head, contaminated with ifs and buts, and a lot of  other outer influences, causing a change in direction, and successfully helping you to forget your true self.

When Elizabeth Thatcher,  a rich heiress, who comes to this little valley to help educate the children of the miners, volunteers to look after, two children at the homestead, as their father had to urgently leave town, she did so, as a moral cause we think, however   when  her beau Jack Thornton the Mountie ( Constable of the town), appreciated her, for such a noble deed, the answer she gave him was straight from her heart.

She told him that she was guilty, as her reason for doing the same, was more out of a need to prove herself capable of the job, rather than as a noble deed.

Jack seemed to understand, and accept it as natural.

It seemed to me, that out there those days, people were in touch with themselves, and were not lost to what they actually were.

Uncamouflaged and as it is there is a freshness here, that makes you wonder.

What will it take for us to get the freshness back in our lives?

How can we undo, and bring to the open what has been camouflaged till now?

Can we listen to our true callings from within the heart, or do we have to shut it up, and live the superficial life we are living.

Let’s first understand that we do live a life, tainted by painted  exteriors.

It could be a painted picture of our feelings, thoughts, actions and words, which have no resonance with the natural hues of our real colours.

The lighter side of life is when we can see  the good in the bad, when we stop analysing everything, person or situation and accept what is as is.

Another beautiful instance in this fresh serial was about a young widow Abigail, who has a flair for cooking and baking, realises it when Elizabeth, who is close to her, tells her that back home even though her father hired the best of cooks from all over the world, she never quite tasted such marvellous cookies as the ones Abigail conjured, merely by her talent and the love she put into them.

That is when Abigail decided to reopen the café, which was shut in the valley.

She had to put up with a lot of odds, having to give up her home to the wicked mine owner, for permission to  open the café, as well as to give him 50%of the proceeds, and to repair the place at her own cost.

She agreed to do so, and signs the agreement with Mr Gowen, the mine owner, who doesn’t make things better for her, and as she signs up the agreement, he tells her that her place would never run, as if it would he would have opened it himself, however he was happy to have her home at least, as a consolation for not getting all the widow homes. She is a little taken aback, but undeterred however  she opens the café,  to inspect repairing it. As she takes measurements of the curtains, her face lightens up thinking of the new look of her place, just then water drips from the ceiling, and as she looks up shocked , her despair transforms into a positive thought like “A little rain is good luck,”  it was indeed short- lived  for as she looks around, the dripping is endless all over, as most of the ceiling leaks out water.  She realises that the repairing she expected to do, far exceeds what was required.

However her expression from despair, to a firm determination does not go unnoticed,and won her laurels.The success of the café highlighted it.

Life’s definitely like that.

A stream of waves up and down, flow on undeterred, until we reach the shores of calm and peace.

So learning to tide over these waves, the first step is to be on the lighter side, the side we perceive as “it is” rather than” why is?”

No questions asked, just accept and move on, acceptance is the centre, the balance between the positive and the negative, and as we balance ourselves, we flow over and beyond  to the other end to a valley we never knew of, the valley where all is as is….