Fairy tales make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.~ G.K.Chesterton

 We all have a longing. A certain hunger, a thirst which wants to be quenched. But we seldom figure out what actually are we craving for.

And that's how we lead ourselves astray. 

Let me tell you a story, 

Once a man was travelling in afternoon, when the sun was high. He had not taken a water bottle along with him, so he pulled over to the nearby gas station. Approached the small store of eatables to get himself a bottle of water, but then his eyes fell on the cold soft drinks kept on the counter. And he paid for a soft drink, gulped it down and resumed his journey. But the thirst was never quenched.

Which made him pull over to the next gas station and get himself some water.

His thirst was never for a soft drink in the first place. But to him, those soft drinks seemed attractive, cold, a relief and a better substitute. But that was just an illusion, for some mere moments. He was still thirsty. 

Just as the man was diverted from his longing by being captivated by a soft drink. 

We too lose our path from time to time. 

We have our goal of stable configuration. And there are as many means to achieve it as many stars in the sky. 

For some, the path is through playing music or listening to music. Some find their way in reading, writing, sporting, going out to nature, farming, helping someone and many other verbs.

But this is our way of achieving the stability. It is not our longing.

We crave to be heard, to be listened to. 

We write when we want to be heard, some sing to be heard, some have their simple presence which wants to be heard, to be acknowledged.

Our longing is to be noticed.

Whatever we do, even the simplest thing like lighting the lamp in the small temple at home is an action which depicts that we want to be heard, to be noticed, to be looked after.

We won't buy the latest iPhone if it didn't make people around us notice us. We won't go shop in the Zara fashion house if we won't be complimented on our brand choices.

The want of wanting to be noticed, to be heard is so sweet. 

A baby crying for a mother's attention is such an adorable moment.

A devotee singing praise to the Jagannatha to catch his attention is such a rich moment.

Believing in the fact that there's someone who's always going to look after you, irrespective of all the worldly happenings is such a heartfelt moment.

Just as the baby knows that his desperate cry is for his mother, just as a devotee knows his cry is for his nurturer, we too should know to whom are we calling on to.

If you want to go home, you won't go and knock at your neighbor's door.

Hence, if you long to drink water, you shouldn't get yourself a soft drink.

To be heard by the world, we first need to learn to listen to ourselves.