This is December post, as we are ending the year
this month I felt its fitting to combined with the whole years blessings.
It is only with Gratitude Life Becomes Rich
I
am overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessings that came my way every day of 2025.
The year began with a travel to Ooty for a South East Region Meet of the YWCA
and it was a pleasant journey with the members; little did I know that it would
be the last trip of our General Secretary Sharon Solomon. The journey of her
life lasted only till September, 2025 which came as a shock to the organization
and all of us associated with her. The year was filled with new experiences staying
in touch with my school friends, college mates and colleagues who have been
part of my career for more than 4 decades.
I
am grateful - for Dorothy as she found the job as a Lecturer to teach
psychology for Bhavan’s Vivekananda Degree College. The Lord has been kind for there
were so many for the same job, but she was chosen. This is not only a privilege
but makes me happy as her mother that she has become competent to prepare her
lessons, handle the laboratory as well as adjust to the new academic environment,
it’s a joy to see children find their own career path and keep evolving finding
their purpose in life.
I
am grateful for the places I visited in the city along with Dorothy –enjoyed
the toy train ride at the annual Industrial Exhibition with my sister-in-law
and her daughter, picked up a few of the
fancy items for myself and felt like a child going around, window shopping,
enjoying the ice cream, which brought memories of my mother who used to buy the
egg bondas followed by kulfiJ take us to
these places of fun and entertainment.
I
am grateful for this year for few of the
guest lectures on Mental health, Psychological counseling, Prevention of sexual
harassment at work place, Stress and Well Being. Dealing with Study Stress,
Suicide Prevention& Domestic Violence and some need based programmes that
kept me busy in preparation and meeting a lot of new set of people every time
for these sessions.
I
am happy to have got certified in Master’s of Philosophy – which I desired to study,
another important course, that offered certified in YOGA and a Diploma in
Health Education and Nutrition which was a tough course. But I am grateful for
the right people in my life; especially friends working in the area of
Nutrition who helped me do the project research which is mandatory for the
Diploma course.
I
am blessed with surprises this year – my trip to Mahabaleshwar came in as a
surprise, it was one of the beautiful places I visited along with my daughter
and my friends. This place was always on my bucket list – as most of the time I
have been to south, I wanted a different experience and so moved towards
Maharashtra – it was lot of fun, staying in PanchaGini was relaxing, swimming
in the pool, going for horse ride, boating was a great experience.
The
surprises for this year was a sling bag, women’s day we were gifted with casserole,
and there were so many return gifts from different people with a cute little
thank you note, there was flask, a
beautiful table décor and fancy bowl, there were perfumes, friendship bands,
beautiful cards, plenty of snacks, chocolates with different taste and brands,
cakes, savories.. this year I got to taste Dosa, a variety of it during meeting some of my old friends, and
colleague for short breaks, over a hot cup of coffee – discussing work,
projects and some times sharing about our lives in general, staying in touch
motivated and energized me.
I
loved the international trip with my daughter to our neighboring country – Sri
Lanka which was an unforgettable experience; this place was so beautiful
surrounded by the Indian Ocean and the natural resources were mesmerizing. The journey was simply awesome as we went
around the place and I loved the way people are so kind, simple, peaceful and
respectful. Their economy is down and one can see how difficult life is for a
common man – and they were busy building the economy and tourism is one of the
things they are promoting – enjoyed their cultural performances which was part
of the tour, the herbal gardens and the cinnamon island and their beautiful
hills and gardens is all worth visiting.
I
feel blessed with so many of my students visiting the centre and those who have
visited before making courtesy calls. I had some of them expressing gratitude
by small gestures – there were plenty of the things I have received which make
me overwhelmed. I had a parent of the student getting me some mangoes to say
thanks to me – another parent brought some pappads and pickle just to say
thanks for her son is doing much better as he was suffering from anxiety,
I
am also grateful for movies I watched with Dorothy – some of them in the
theatres, like Sitare Zameen Par which was beautiful, and still others on Net
flicks, Amazon prime – enjoyed watching a tamil film Tourist Family, I entertained
myself by watching some old 70’s movies of
Jaya Bachan, Chupke Chupke, Zindagi Na mile Dobara, Dil Chahata Hai,
Parineeta and also a funny web series called 90s A Middle Class Biopic and some
English web series like ‘The summer I turned Pretty” The House of David, The Chosen,
Ruth and Boaz and Nobody wants this….I also enjoyed watching some comedy shows of
hindi, telugu and tamil.
Gratitude
to all my loved ones and friends, for we could meet for the important days, celebrated
60th birthdays, 75 years Jubilee in service of God, christening – arrival of a
child in the family, thanksgiving prayers, weddings, memorial services of some
of my friends- house blessings, celebrating academic achievements such as
completion of the PhD of some of my students, receiving gift hampers for
important festivals.
The
last month of December was also exciting – as Christmas is my favorite festival
and being my birthday month – I am blessed to receive so much as I appreciate
the thoughtfulness of my daughter, who will take the initiative and extra
effort to ensure I enjoy my day.
She
took me for a haircut and changed my hairstyle J,
made a lovely card for me, I always love handmade cards, a friend took me out for a day outing and got
me beautiful dresses for my birthday, while I took opportunity to pay forward
what I received. Still my colleagues surprised me with a lot of chocolates, inspiring
reflections from the bible, a beautiful year planner book, so many dresses that
I don’t have to purchase for a whole a year and also picking up something’s
that I needed for the kitchen – I call them my utility gifts J
My
gratitude to my boss for her generosity in ensuring that I take breaks and don’t
get burn out dealing with difficult
issues in the campus, regularly checking on me, mentoring and guiding and even
inviting me home and at other times visiting me at the centre despite her busy
schedule.
Thanks
to my girl friends specially Aparna J
who is my twin sister / call her my soul mate who make my life easy by shopping
for me on my birthday, getting it tailored and reaching me, so I can wear it
whenever I want to. Thanks to Arushi who baked a delicious cake for me, this
was perfect for the occasion, Nishita sang a song for me on my birthday and all
my friends spoke some of the good qualities they found in me; I was glad to
hear them and the best was Dorothy appreciating me about the kind of mother I
am to her and what she likes about me which made my heart melt for the first
time she has prepared to talk about me; and I felt proud of being her mother.
The
end of the month had lots of activities – I was glad to take help from the
urban clap and get some cleaning done, and felt good as they repaired our TV
too, cleaned up the Gas stove, fans and
also cleaned up the drain pipes too. I am grateful for all these services which
makes my life easy.
I
am grateful for the family support, for every service provider and the domestic
help that I get so that I am able to go out and work peacefully, without having
to worry about maintenance of the house and the kitchen.
I
am thankful for every person who came into my life as joy, as lessons and as
experiences that empower me in my journey of holistic development and growth.
I
am grateful to my body, mind and spirit that support me and houses my soul,
preventing me from sickness or ill health.
As
I bid good bye to 2025 I am filled with joy and hope that 2026 will bring us to
peace and prosperity, as we stepped into
the year today – I wish all of you who are reading this post a very
Happy Christmas and Healthy and Happy New Year 2026.
Be
Blessed & Be Happy !
