closed for cleansing

Early last year I found myself having to take three different planes and spend more than twenty four hours in the air. It started as an exhilarating experience but after four stops and a cut across the GMT one can only wish that they will reach their destination and at least be allowed to sleep twenty four hours non-stop.

It was with this hope that I landed at Beijing International Airport only to learn I still had to endure another sixty minutes flying inland. This took the wind out of me and what worsened it is that I had to wait for at least two hours before my next flight.

Having my feet on the ground reminded me how tired I was and how much food and drink I had taken in the last twenty four hours of being airborne. I needed relief and off I went in search of convenience rooms.

After a 2 minute search and having made sure I had not mixed the symbols, I went into a convenience room, refreshed and relieved my tired body. On leaving the room I could not find the mechanism to flush. I could see the hand basin wherein I proceeded and washed my hands but the quandary was how then was I going to make sure my ‘business’ was sent to the repository so that the next user found it clean as I had !!

After a nerve wrecking two minutes and after confirming that no gadget was available as a flushing mechanism I decided to play villain and sneak out ( after all my hands were clean!). I surreptitiously opened the door, checked the passage, stepped out and closed the door (out of guilt).

As I tiptoed away I heard a gushing sound behind that door were I had just exited. Intrigued, I stole back and hey presto the repository was sparkling clean!!

It took me a few minutes to figure out what happened. There was no manual flushing mechanism but one had to exit the place and close the door for the flushing system to activate and thoroughly evacuate the repository. I then walked away with new found confidence that enabled me to even wave at the CCTV cameras blinking above me.

This set me thinking. So many a times we are not able to get full closure of matters that we want to walk away from because we still remain in the matter room. We still remain pondering on the emotional waste that we would have dumped without exiting the vacuum and the guilt   consumes us.

The airport experience taught me one thing. To walk away from all the past so as to attain a clean closure. To close the door on the strain and pain and walk into the corridor of fresh air. Then the clean break activates the cleansing system. At times we block the door of closure and prevent a full cleansing by constantly looking back at where we have come from and leaving a foot in the jamb.

Tomorrow, as the sun rises, I urge you to remove the foot from the door jamb and allow full closure for full cleansing. Let the sign on our emotional bunkers read CLOSED FOR CLEANSING.