There is an old Shiva temple on a quiet road I cross often.
An ancient structure.
Partially ruined.
Still alive.
When I first saw it, it felt ordinary.
But after passing by it again and again over time, something changed.
Now it no longer feels ordinary.
It feels like a witness.
Near the temple are traces of another world:
Ruins.
A well.
A pond.
Fragments of what may once have been a complete ecosystem.
Perhaps generations lived and disappeared around this same place.
Time consumed almost everything.
But the temple still functions.
Someone still rings the bell.
Someone still folds their hands before leaving.
Someone still offers water to Shiva.
And recently I began thinking:
How many people has this temple seen come and go?
One day I too will disappear.
And perhaps another person will stand there years from now and feel something they cannot fully explain.
That thought feels strangely peaceful.
For many years, I carried fear around money.
Not just financial difficulty.
Fear itself.
The kind that quietly enters a person’s life and changes how they think, decide, sleep, and imagine the future.
And after a while, I unknowingly began associating money with pressure, noise, and inner disturbance.
But recently something shifted.
I began seeing money differently.
Not as status.
Not as performance.
But as capacity.
Capacity to support family.
To protect health.
To preserve meaningful spaces.
To create thoughtful work.
To live without constant panic.
Wealth, not for display —
but for steadiness.
Perhaps this is why thoughtful people cannot afford to remain financially weak forever.
Because when rooted and reflective people lose economic strength, preservation slowly moves into louder hands.
Silence slowly disappears.
And slowly, even sacred things begin performing for attention.
So now I no longer want to create work merely for visibility.
I want to create value.
If someone spends a few minutes with my work, I want them to leave slightly clearer, calmer, or more grounded than before.
Even by one degree.
Maybe that itself is value.
And maybe real wealth grows quietly from sustained value, created patiently over time.
For now, that feels like enough:
to observe carefully,
to write honestly,
to earn with integrity,
and to protect what still carries silence.
—
ansiandyou®
A quiet place for attentive living.