A heart full of gratitude.

As quoted by John F Kennedy I believe, " As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." An act of gratitude is a two way gift both to the giver and the receiver.  Gratitude is believed to be  a powerful expression of love. A word of appreciation is more than a sentiment. 

I am indeed indebted  to the readers from all over the world, for taking time to read my blog. I am deeply grateful and thank all my readers from the bottom of my heart for your valued time taken to read my blog. I thank each and every one of my readers who were with me in my journey through my blog for the last two years and ten months. I would also like to thank all those who appreciated my writing with kind words, that did mean a lot to me. I also thank all those who randomly stumbled upon my blog. 

It is the little things in life that are important and mean a lot. I believe that we should give of ourselves  whatever we can each and every day because the benefits that we will reap are phenomenal. One of the easiest ways to give back to someone is by saying thank you, deep from the heart. I have a lot to be grateful for and a lot of people to whom I owe my appreciation and gratitude for being able to write and also for the inspiring words of appreciation. 

The boat of life on a lifetime journey.

Life can be compared to a boat that is on a journey in the sea.  The only way you can keep it afloat is to keep rowing, be it smooth or rough waters. When the tides of life  sometimes turn against you, you have to just go with the wind enjoying the journey. Many times you tend to go through life just like a boat only looking at where you were than looking at where you are and get stuck. In the boat of life, believe in yourself and keep afloat, or you may sink to the bottom. It is also good to remember that you cannot sink someone's end of the boat and manage yours afloat. As you keep moving through the waters of life, everything falls in its perspective depending on what's important to you and what is not. You cannot escape the tides and the waves. But even when you are lost, the waves guide you to another day of life.

As I stood on the beach watching the sunrise, I saw fishermen maneuvering their boat from the sand to the waters. It was very difficult for them to push the boat towards the sea along the sand. So they first lifted it with a rope tied to a pole and carried it on to the wet sand. I watched them in awe realizing how it related to life. When your boat of life is stuck in the sands of time, it needs effort to push it a little off into the waters. It was a great insight to life, that I learned observing them. In the wet sand they patiently waited for the waves to help them move the boat forward. As each wave came along and receded, they pushed it along and then finally two of them leaped into it as the boat just sailed into the waters with the help of the motor that propelled it.

I stood there watching the boats in the sea and realized how it linked to life. Even when you are stuck in the middle of adversity or you are in  a journey into something new, you need to wait patiently, to tide over to the shores. You have to steer your mind, heart, soul and spirit through any storms of life.

My passion for writing.

It is a unique gift, being able to write and express your thoughts. It is a passion for writing, with a communicating skill, a creative flair for the written word in any form. It is a love for words and writing that gives the ability to write, be it a poem, a story or an article on any topic. As a child I loved being able to express myself and pen down my thoughts, be it my emotions or my pains. May be my love for writing began with my feelings flowing freely onto my diary. It was nothing poetic or classy, but I loved it on the whole; the process of writing, the way it allowed me to express my feelings, emotions and my experiences.

At a later stage of life, I stopped writing at all, losing my expressive self somewhere. I find it fulfilling to write my thoughts, that brings out all my untold words and feelings. When I hold a pen to write, it gives me a sense of completeness, because of my passion for it. It is a love for the creative craftsmanship of writing. I love the feeling of making a character alive like a new born child, creating a new world. A piece of writing matters to the person living it,  with a story revealed in it.

It is generally believed that those who write are weird. If so I love to be one of those weird ones. I used to love narrating stories as a child and a teacher. But never in my wildest dreams believed that I would also be able to write one. It was as a  challenge hurled at me,  I tried writing a story. I owe my gratitude for my writing skills to my dad and the skill of writing a story to someone close to my heart, one of my four brats.

The pleasure of writing is like bringing out some memories that are always hidden somewhere in the remotest corner of the heart. It may be all those memories that begin in the mind and end up in your soul. Finally it is your feelings and emotions out there in the open to be analysed by the readers in their own way. It is a love for reading too that plays a great role in writing. Sometimes it is a beautiful photograph that makes you write a poem, a write up or a graphical story.

To put everything together it is also an escapade, a comfort, a joy, a friend or a passion. Writing and reading always holds a piece of my heart and soul; a big part of my life. 

An ode to the woman

The woman  borne from,
Bosom of Mother Earth,
One of patience & courage,
Like a tree in fortitude,
A river within boundaries,
A flower in life,
With a twinkle in the eyes,
That never fades or dies,
A spirit and love one inspires,
A beauty shining inside out,
A smile like the radiant sun,

A tower of strength,

A mother who is an epitome of love,

A sister who cheers and shares,

A daughter who is caring,

A spouse who is a beacon of light and hope,

A grandmother who is a source of unconditional love,

 A genuinely caring entity,

Without any dominating rules,

 Who fights hard never to fall apart,

Even when she is torn inside,
And goes with grace in an eternal sleep,
Embraced in the heart of Nature.

The chess of life.

Life is indeed like a game of chess. You are either a king, queen, bishop, knight or a pawn and you have to fulfill the role that life rolls out to you. You are sometimes mere pawns in life, a unique one with a feature that none have, you may remain a pawn or get promoted to any other roles. But irony of life is that nothing comes free. Even when you strive hard and work, you remain a pawn of life.

Chess is a game rich in metaphors  for a man, a testing ground of life and a learning experience. It is like life that calls for different skills at different levels. A pawn is sometimes a metaphor to see the unusual talents or the diligent work of an otherwise ordinary person who becomes visible only when it ceases to be a pawn. The strategy of chess is a learning that weakness in you is not a real weakness unless you allow it to be attacked, what you perceive as a weakness may in reality be your greatest quality and strength.

You sometimes either just bumble through life, with no purpose or with a life of unceasing moves that are calculated or non calculated. Life like chess is not a complicated strategic move, it is the simplifying of the knots that you get into. The only difference is that in a game of chess you know all the rules and how to make moves whereas in life it is a power of the inevitable that you learn as life goes on. You cannot reverse any moves of life just like the game of chess. Life is always suffused with a randomness. Every move you make in life has to be tactical and everything can change just in one single move or action.

Giving up doesn't favor you in any way. Even when you are cornered it doesn't mean you can never win. It is the smallest thing  that always has the greatest impact in life. 

You are the architect of your own life.

"If you suffer it is because of you, if you feel blissful it is because of you. Nobody else is responsible – only you and you alone. You are your hell and your heaven too," is a quote that came as a thunderous lightening that hit me and made me think deeply about. It made me go on a spiral wave of thinking about how true it is and ask myself when I had started leaning on someone or started a blame game in life? It set me on an introspection spell of why I was so affected by that one quote hurled at me.

If I could withstand all the challenges of life alone, keep fighting a survival battle all alone then why was I getting affected with trivial things. It may be the fights of life that made me more vulnerable to hurts. The awareness of the self dwindles and understanding has a vital role. Though I am a person who thinks positively, it could be that certain things hurts the ego or the 'I' in me. I always try to turn all negatives into positives and keep myself happy. But am I not an average human being who apart from loving others, loves to be loved and feel loved? Is that a taboo for an optimistic and positive person? I have read that happy people do a lot of things, like expressing gratitude, being optimistic, being compassionate, nurturing loving relationships, committing time to the pursued goals, counting on little things that mean a lot, so on and so forth. Life is a chain of events. Some that happens inside me and some that happen around me.  I have to remember this continuously, because the struggle is long, and the journey is arduous. And understanding is the secret of transformation. 

Nobody is doing better than you because nobody can do better than you.  YOU are walking your own path.  It is quite natural that sometimes the reason we struggle with insecurity, is because of a lack of understanding.  Actually your response is your freedom and you are not dependent on anyone for that. So when something happens or is told to you, ponder over it, you may end up introspecting and finally feeling as if a big weight has been lifted off your chest. .Listen to your own inner voice and live in your own world finding happiness doing what you love to do, the little things that gives a lot of happiness. Keep your best wishes and your biggest goals close to your heart and dedicate time to them every day.  Why be scared to walk alone, and learn to enjoy it.  Never let anyone’s ignorance, drama, or negativity stop you from being the best you can be.  Keep doing what you know in your heart is right, for YOU.  Because when you are focused on your work towards fulfilling a dream and at peace within yourself, almost nothing can shake you.  Go forward with that confidence. Is it as easy as that? But it is not impossible either.

When you are content to simply be yourself, everyone worthwhile will respect you.  And even more importantly, you will respect yourself. Those who accept you are the ones true to you.  Those who don’t are your teachers.  If someone calls you something and it’s true, it’s not your problem.  If someone calls you something and it’s not true, it’s not your problem. Either way, whatever they call you is not your problem.  What other people call you is their problem…What you call yourself, and who you decide to become, is your problem. The greater part of your happiness or unhappiness depends upon your outlook, and not upon your situation.  Even if things aren't perfect right now, think of all the beauty still left around you.  A good reason to smile is always one thought away; choose to tap into it any time you like.