SUNDAYS

are for -

• coming apart on the couch
• cooling ignoring that cruel taskmaster - the clock
• casual, lazy brunches
• crazy trips of the imagination into uncharted, adventurous waters
• chilling out with music, dance, books, movies, and other fun things
• crunchy savouries with masala chai
• calling long-distance to far-away family
• comatose indolence
• charging my flagging batteries
• coming alive in silence away from the maddening world
• connecting to my inner self
• calming full-stop in the busy sentences of my life.

certainly grateful for Sundays :)

BABIES

If I ask anyone if they have noticed babies, they would probably nod in agreement. However, if I ask them if they have noticed themselves while they were in the presence of babies, they might not be so sure. Babies have this almost magical effect on me. The moment I spot one, my face breaks into a smile and if I happen to be talking to the parents, I then ignore them completely and focus on the little one :) (the parents don’t seem to mind this :) ) Unknown to themselves, babies hold this little invisible string that invariably draws me closer to my inner child. In their tiny hand they hold an unseen chisel that instantly cuts away at the masks I wear until I face the little one unmasked and totally myself. Their pure innocence and unaltered genuineness reminds me of those precious qualities that seem to get lost in the adult race for survival. Theirs is a pure beingness that is almost equal to godliness. No wonder Christ said, ‘Unless you become like a small child, you shall not enter the kingdom of God’.

Little ones from the animal world have an almost similar effect. Kittens and puppies have brought tears to my eyes. Tiger cubs and baby elephants on TV make my heart glow with love. Even tiny saplings, little sprouts pushing up from the earth, all connect me to the tender, the vulnerable, the loving and compassionate in myself. Yes, thank God for babies, we can see His face in them so clearly.

DAWN CHORUS

Back in NZ, the dawn chorus was a big production by itself. Hundreds (or so it seemed) of birds woke up and sang to herald the dawn, trilling, warbling, tweeting, it was as if the dawn itself was so excited to arrive that it had found a voice and decided to announce its own coming. I would just lay in bed and listen and soak it all in, and as humans are wont to do wonder what it was that they were all saying to each other. It was the most uplifting experience.

Here in India, it is a muted affair, sparrows chattering busily in the tree outside with an occasional crow-call to add bass. However, since it is hard to hear and almost gets drowned in the morning noises of the city I have to focus in order to stay with the music. That in itself is a lesson in being present in the Now. So I am grateful for the dawn chorus (God bless their little hearts) wherever I am.

THE BEGINNING

Today is the Chinese New Year and I thought, what a propitious time to start a blog, that too one on a subject that is so close to my heart.

At the start, I must admit that this has been inspired by the TED talk by Neil Pasricha -  http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_pasricha_the_3_a_s_of_awesome.html  and by his website http://1000awesomethings.com/

 Actually the motivation was something deeper. On a particularly depressing day when all was going badly and I was kind of thrashing impotently in frustration, a small inner voice whispered, ‘count your blessings’. That made me stop in my track of spiraling gloom and cast my mind around and pick out the positives. They were like shards of light that I caught and held on to, one at a time, that pierced the darkness and which quickly blossomed into this light-filled bubble and which effortlessly lifted me out of the darkness.

So, on this blog I shall attempt to count my blessings, which as I quickly realized is countless, so I am hoping to keep counting as long as Blogger is standing and doesn’t fall over.

GOD

Since this is the beginning and since everything began with God and in the mind of God, it is but natural that I begin with God. Actually, the whole blog can be encapsulated into just this one entry. For, isn’t God in everything? So I shall start my gratitude journal with being grateful to God.

But I’m grateful for a little something extra…

Every time I think of God, a quiet peace descends, the tensions my body holds dissolves, my heartbeat slows down, my mind almost ceases its endless scurrying and my heart fills with so much joy that it brims over and spreads to fill my entire being with rapture… I willingly and wholly surrender to God’s loving  presence, wrapped in a bliss that cannot be described, wanting it to never end …