A twirl of grey smoke Over arboreal skyline ... Assurance ! - Self IN THE fading, failing evening light, the lone, hungry, weary traveller on the forest footpath is mentally downcast -- hopeless about any human habitation nearby, fully ready to cast aside the heavy backpack, all eager to throw himself on the grassy ground of the animal-infested forest, probably opening himself to risky possibilities of predator attacks; yet his bleary eyes scanning the darkening skyline of the tree-tops that have lost their greenness in the twilight.

 

But then hope appears -- hand in hand with assurance -- that there may be in the distance somebody of his human clan -- indicated by a lean twirl of grey smoke rising over the tree-tops -- may be just some distance one can trudge on. What a feeling that -- of relief, of hope, of assurance ! Even in this godforsaken place, I am not alone. There is soon going to be somebody I can bank upon -- for a little splash of water on the face, for a little morsel of life that would feed me, for a little space in the corner to spread my little ragged rug and roll over for a good night’s sleep !

 

This assurance has driven adventurers and explorers and lone travellers on and on through human history ! They have traversed terrific -- and terrible -- distances exploring new lands, new possibilities, new people, new cultures. And as the day nears its end, in those darkening moments, each of them has looked for some familiar sign of human connect -- a twirl of grey smoke, a strayed cattle, the smell from a distant kitchen, a tall spire of a temple craning over the skyline ... ! The seafarers, too, strain their eyes as the evening fades into night to look for a lighthouse on the shore in the now-invisible distance.

 

As the pale yellow light butts up in the sky and gleams on the sea-surface, their faces, too, light up. Now they know, there is land up and out there. So, there is no need to be anxious. That assurance ! It has driven humans across challenges through time -- with an innate, quiet sense of confidence. Even in the family of man, as life’s vagaries take toll of human hope on many occasions, what most people look for is nothing but a little word of love, kindness, understanding, a little silent pat on the back, a soft eye-to-eye stare that says, ‘no worry, I am with you’. Once that unspoken assurance rises over the mental-scape, tired, bored, weathered, withered humans get the potion of assurance that enlivens them for future.