Short trips-short meetings

After a brief trip of my aunt and uncle- I think of the impact of their trip on my life.

These trips are now a common feature in most of our lives-with friends and families living abroad-with hectic schedules.

Typically my interaction with the visitors boils down to a meal-and some snatched conversation over a shopping trip. Considering the short time span, how we chose to spend the few precious moments that we have with them becomes critical. The luxury of talking about riff-raff, then warming up to the main topic doesn’t exist. We need to get to the crux of the matter right away. The essence of a minimum of half a dozen months needs to be encapsulated in a few minutes. We need to bond and bond quickly. Else the answer to the question, “hey, how is you?” will be a cursory, “fine”.

The time to savour the flavour of the moment, the time to feel the comfort of silence is simply not there. What exists is the joy of being there, together in the moment-to quickly absorb all what’s happening around you in a matter of seconds.

Meeting a friend with whom you have been in touch with-several times a day-or a couple of times a week allows us to see the lighter side of life-as we share jokes, as well as matters which are irrelevant-which you need to let go of, but cant , and hence only need to be vented about! And instead of constantly looking at the larger picture which benefits ALL of us- we can actually voice our grouses, not looking for a solution-but just that they exist!

Bottom line is, in today’s day and age its not difficult to stay in touch with the people whom we chose to make a part of pour lives-email, facebook, twitter, chat, whathaveyou! And for those who are technologically challenged there is the old fashioned telephone-which allows us to hear the familiar voice-with all its inflections!

So lets stay in touch-show that we care-and

CONNECT ! CONNECT ! CONNECT!

it takes a long time to grow an old friend-so let's keep at it!

wisdom everyday

How do I count my blessings?

Its one thing to know that we have to be thankful for what we have –and another to actually feel it.

I think I feel lucky in bits and pieces. Unfortunately its more so when i see the differently abled-or the lesser privileged I begin to thank my stars-for the wonderful kids that I have, and my friends, my work, et al.

This feeling-I think, most of us get……….

The important thing is in remembering it day after day-in fair weather as well as rainy days.

When I wake up in the morning-it feels like a “good morning” and I look forward to the day. The day full of its ups and downs, a day packed with work and errands, with kids and cooking. Mundane things.

BUT in between all this we find time-not consciously, to feel good about ourselves, and we smile at a stranger, do a good deed, and feel content.

Meeting a long lost friend, and talking about where I am today, helps me to reflect on my current place in the world…….

That’s when I say –yes….things are great……and I look at all of life’s faces, some good, some bad, but all accepted. We need more moments of introspection to bring this realization into a part of our everyday being.

To be able to sleep in peace-looking forward to another daybreak, the pink of dawn turning into a full blown sunny day-with all its joys and sorrows.

its just another day for you and me in paradise.......

travails on train travels

To be able to accept a handicapped child-to love him, and to ensure that he has a full life is an extremely difficult mission for a parent.

And we……who have all limbs ands senses intact run after a life to maximize it.

I wonder……………

A friend sent me a thought- don’t count how many moments in your life-it’s about how much life in a moment.

All of us-who are doing so much…trying to do it all…… live it up-all these new age mantras…….

Lets first sit back and count our blessings…..and then a take a deep breath to absorb all that is around us and try to be happy where we are…….instead of trying to reach places----we need to BE-live in the moment.

What is contentment?

We say we need to scale a peak and then we stop-but what if we see another pinnacle waiting for us to reach?

Do we have the discipline to stop?

Should we stop?

Instead,

Should we try to go through each day by being good human beings-happy with what we have-and happy with where we are? I think we should be able to absorb happiness with an equal embrace as sadness-taking it all in our stride-as we now understand that life happens.

Socrates said:“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty”