THE HALT.

So a few days ago my mother narrated me a local forward on her WhatsApp which might have been on my mind since then. It started with a‘dine-in’ place. On one of the usual days, two high-class families were dining with a distance of literal two tables between them. Unintentionally on one of the family’s edibles was a roach lying. The well-dressed lady got up and yelled and in the trauma threw that creepy animal in the air with her bare hands and the same landed on another women’s table who was sitting two tables across. She panicked and hurled the napkin wherein the roach lied immovably on one of the staff members. The guy let that insect sit on his left shoulder while it was still firm over the place he was unaware of. The guy quietly extracted a serviette from its holder that lied there patiently waiting for the moment of its use, picked up the roach, and tossed it outside on the green grass. Mom recited this to me with high curiosity while I was listening to it with the same marvel. The next few words might have just captured all my attention to them, as if some energy jailed me to listen to them. Said she, “now that is the difference between a reaction and a RESPONSE.” Something shook my spine and forced me to think about it for days and now, here I am, spilling my thoughts like ink on paper. Isn’t it what we all do too? We react to certain stimuli and may regret that later? Why not give all of those reactions a halt and give them time and turn those into the valuable responses?   

Half the things we do are done as a sensitivity which is a response to the stimulus (I nowhere am referring to a biological stimulus though) I mean, why not give a pulse to things? Honestly, we never know what that halt could change in our lives until we give it, right? Maybe just give all of it a pause and calculate all the outcomes of a particular situation, just like how math works.

The entirety walking with you deserves time and attention which you lack to give, the question “why?” has the answer “rush.” 

Question yourself for things and the halt would have maximum answers within it. Try finding them all and then walk towards your destined place. Trust that breathe you give and keep going!

And hey! Give yourself a pause after this. Sink into this, think about it. Give this time.

By Jahnavi Dhoundiyal

Class XIth