I am resuming this blog after a few months of break. I am not sure if it was right or wrong. But it did happen. The break was not a planned exercise.  In that respect I need to express this confession for those few readers, who have been regularly following my blog and also have been offering their comments periodically as well as for the many who have been the casual followers of my blog.

Why is it that, what we do so naturally becomes not so easy anymore? This is a question worth pondering. I must admit I came upon such a feeling of separation few months ago between my thoughts and my ability to blog! It was not for lack of effort or trying on my part. Every time I sat down to write, after a few sentences I hit a mental block, like a brick wall that I could not break through!

It took me a while to figure this out. My mind has not been as much of a willing agent under my control as I believed it was! One might have all the desire to do something, but what happens if your mind is not in tune with the wishes in your heart? You may have a mere desire, but you cannot follow through with it. In all matters of life, when the mind and the heart are not in sink, you merely go through the motions. But, when it comes to writing and essays, where you are attempting to collect your thoughts – hopefully something coherent as seen by the readers – your mind and your heart have to be in sync with each other.

So, what happened? About nine months ago, I took leave off my full time work after 28 years at this company and 34 years over all in the industry. It was a “retirement”, but not so in my mind. I wanted to explore other options. I started a company for knowledge management. I took on assignments to teach and mentor research. I have been attempting to finish a manuscript for a book. All of these consumed my thinking and engaged my mind constantly.  I could not bring anything else relevant outside of these thoughts with coherence to put down. I hit a road block, the brick wall!

This road block has a meaning for all our efforts in any activity, in general. In many of the classes (and in several of our blogs earlier) I have discussed the topic of “non-attachment” – the ability to distance oneself from any activity and engage in its analysis as a neutral person. Such non-attachment is absolutely essential to look at all three connectors (Knowledge, Ignorance and Bias) with equal weightage.  It is a measure of objectivity in our observations and analysis of evidences, which precede the event or on the outcome – the experience. If I apply these guidelines in this situation, I come to the conclusion that one can be at ease to express one’s thoughts only when the body, mind and the intellect are in harmony. If there is a distraction, where the mind wishes to do something, but the intellect is engaged elsewhere, the end result is procrastination and a lack of direction. This has been the case, despite my best efforts for a forced engagement of the body to sit down and write or type on a key board. That was my ignorance for the past few months. My intellect lost focus on the objectives of any blog.

Recently I was reminded of the true objective of the blog by one of our readers: It is not only a self-driven objective to share what you know. Instead there is also an external objective (i.e) serve as a means for the readers to periodically engage their mind for their own reflection, analysis and introspection! With this understanding, I will strive to blog at least one essay a month in the future. Thank you for your understanding.