Now the chilling blasts of winter grow more insistent, forcing the experience weary soul to symbolically retreat back into the haven of the family circle, to
submit once again to the meditative, negative-feminine Night Forces.

– Linda Goodman (Love Signs)

Family is our very first introduction to the world- those people who will be our co-travellers for this lifetime. For most, family signifies people we can trust, people who understand us or sometimes keep fighting with us and people we can be ourselves with. Family also means people we fend for, people we take care of and people we earn for.

As humans beings or Homo Sapiens as we like to call ourselves, we believe we have transceneded the petty world of animals and are in a higher plane. Yet, every day, we step out of this shelter called home and go hunting for money which will eventually help us to buy food and the basic necessities of life (for some fancy trappings to decorate their caves and call themselves the more civilized of the civilization). We like to call ourselves fancy names as we go out but we are still the same- beings hunting for sustenance in the jungle of the world, battling others who appear bigger than those beasts with their conniving ways and politics. Yes, our fashion sense has undergone a chance, we don’t wear raw hides and leaves anymore but perhaps more processed versions of the same. We don’t hunt with cudgels,stones and hand-made spears but we use our brains as a weapon to trap our prey and get what we want out. Yes, we don’t eat raw animals (except for the guy in Man and Wild) but we bring back food for our family (we get it delivered to our homes sometimes while we are busy hunting for more so that the stocks last and we are more stocked than our neighbour!)

When we come back, tired from the day’s adventure, we step into our shelters and just wish to lick our wounds in private. Our family members ask us about our day and we growl our displeasure at being disturbed. We want them to bow down in reverence to the great sacrifices we’ve made for them and express their gratefulness little realizing that they too have battled their demons through the day and need the tender loving care that we yearn for.

In these times, when COVID 19 has forced us back to our shelters, we miss our adventures in the jungle. We distract ourselves with the little toys that we have collected. We waste hours on the mobiles and laptops watching new and old movies, news, remembering long lost friends across the globe and chatting to them endlessly for hours while completely ignoring the people who have been craving our attention from the very beginning of time.

As the icy blasts of COVID force us to retreat into our homes, shoudn’t we for once open our hearts out to those who have actually made this house a home? Perhaps, express our love for them? Maybe, talk to them about themselves rather than continue with our endless monologue? Isn’t it time that we look within ourselves instead of losing ourselves to the meaningless twitterati, glittering distractions that are nothing but furhides hiding conniving minds and empty souls?

Think about it!