MY REFLECTIONS ON “DUST IF YOU MUST” by Rose Milligan

When my daughter sent me this Poem by Rose Milligan, I was prompted to reflect to see if there was something around “dusting” that resided in me – Was I dusting all the time and missing the fun around?  I went back in time to reflect. I found that it was not about “dusting”.  It was about being in the “here and now” that ensured that things around me were neat and tidy.

I grew up as a child keeping everything neat and tidy around me, be it my room, my cupboard, my study table, my bed, my clothes and my environment.  This is my inherent nature.  I felt that this is the way things were supposed to be and if everyone kept it that way the world would be a cleaner, better wholesome place to live in with everything in its proper place.

I went back to one  specific incident – I remember that when I was young (maybe 9 years) I visited my grandmother’s (Nani’s) home in Mangalore.  This was a big home with an even bigger yard with a lot of trees.  There was a bathroom (only used for bathing) with a big old style oven where you could burn logs to heat water which was stored in a big barn (a big brass pot) for all the family members to use for a bath.  Since I was awake early that day, I was given the duty to sweep the leaves in the yard and collect it to burn in the oven to heat the water.

After I had swept the yard and collected the leaves, I noticed that the barn was black with soot in most places and was shining in very few places – I felt that the barn had to be shining in all places.  I got our maid to lift it off the oven and I scrubbed it with the ash (I used to see the maid using it for the dishes) and the barn was shining all over.  That day the water heated in a shining barn.

My grandfather was the first one to go in for a bath and when he came out he praised my grandmother for paying attention to the old barn.   My grandmother got to know from the maid that I had done the scrubbing of the barn and that day she said to me “thank you – you will use your skills to keep everything shining around you”  I considered it a blessing from her as she was a woman of few words.

To this date I ensure that everything around me is in a neat and tidy state with least effort and that includes my “Mind”.   With that in place I am able to do all the things that Rose Milligan states in her poem and much more whilst still keeping things around me neat and tidy and I know that everyone on Planet Earth has the ability to do this and much more if they only live in the “moment” completing things as they need to be rather than postponing it for a later moment.

Reading the poem from my new perspective, I have put Rose Milligan’s words in brackets and my perspective in italics.  I hope that all of us read, understand, reflect and learn from what our great Poets, Masters and Leaders have said and done before us and use that as a platform to grow and expand.

DUST IF YOU MUST
Rose Milligan

Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better to also ensure
To paint a picture or write a letter,
Bake a cake or plant a seed,
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, (but there’s not much time)and remember there is only now
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
Music to hear and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must, (but) the world’s out there,
With sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, (but) and bear in mind,
Old age will come (and it’s not kind) as time goes by
And when you go – and go you must –
You, yourself, (will make more dust) will have left a Wholesome Earth

Thank you Rose Milligan for this great poem which prompted me to reflect and continue to live to make the world a wholesome place.

Love and Light

Blossom Furtado

5^th September 2013

mu�
eoXp��r addiction to prejudiced, closed-minded, dogmatic beliefs, in order to open our awareness to this novel synthesis of understanding Truth.

By probing deeply into our own consciousness, we transcend the limitations of the human brain, and of the physical-material realm. The spiritual realm is real. Seamless blending of science and spirituality will occur.

His journey was profound and his recovery magical.  There is a lot more that we human beings need to understand.  We are more than just the body.  If we realize this, we could together take our “World” to another dimension – a new consciousness of unconditional love which is a blend of head and heart or as we put it – a synergistic balance and harmony of the “Soul, Mind and Body”.

Albert Einstein said:  “A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be”

Blossom Furtado