When I doesn’t exist

I was still procrastinating to prepare dinner, which I always do an hour before GK comes back at home from his work. Lying on my stomach I was so engrossed in reading something online that I lost the count of time. That day he came home early than usual.

“Hey! Why didn’t you call me before leaving from there? You must be hungry.” I was startled with his before time arrival, “Let me quickly make something for you.” I rose from the couch hastily. 

“Relax.” He said, urging me to sit back, “I will prepare dinner tonight.”

“I didn’t do anything today. There was no work at home. You have just arrived, give me only half an hour.” I insisted.

“Even my day was relatively less demanding today. I am not fatigued. You should sit and continue to do whatever you were doing and I will cook for both of us.” 

I always marveled why some relationships stand unruffled during highs and lows in life while some of them fall apart even in the most ordinary circumstances. My still new, four month old relationship has made me realize about something good. I have noticed that ‘I’ doesn’t exist between us. That day he could have simply said that he was tired and rested thereafter. Who doesn’t like to laze around! But he chose to work instead. We cooked together that night. That often happens here along with many other such things. And there is no expectation between us either. It could be the initial phase of our relationship, but the beauty of it today is that there is no ‘I’ between us but ‘we’ or ‘you’. Life becomes much easier when one knows that other person is there to take care of them, and then one doesn't feel the need to ponder about oneself. 

Image: Google

I published a story a year ago from our old Hindu Texts about Selflessness (you can read it here), which concluded:

We can become totally selfish, thinking about our good, our comfort, ourselves, ignoring the other person. And in long run remain dissatisfied, unattended and isolated. Or we can care about others and get love and care in return. The one who works selflessly never walks alone.

I is for When 'I' doesn't exist on April 11.