Ten Things to be Thankful !

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1. Glad to begin the New Year with prayer, attending mass, meeting near and dear ones good food and also watch an entertaining movie
2. Happy to have a cleared a lot of clothes of myself and my daughter to be given away to the needy. Thus cleared all the clutter
3. Grateful for the decision to replacing bakery items of biscuits, puffs and other readymade snacks with homemade snacks and  fruits
4. Took initiative to begin the health check up – two are over; another two will be by the end of this month.
5. Started homeopathy treatment for self and my daughter too to deal with hormonal issue – glad to have found a doctor so close to my residence, a discovery after living in the place for more than a decade, it was a pleasant surprise.
6. Glad to be part of Leaders Training for young adolescents, I enjoy learning, preparing the sessions, searching for appropriate ways of presenting to youth to make it meaningful and fun.
7. Also glad that my daughter is also attending this training; there is nothing like encouraging youngsters to be involved in meaningful activities.
8. It’s a blessings to find bloggers who encourage, motivate and push us to think and also improve; there are so many and I feel it’s a joy to read their posts;
9. Gifted 3 books to myself to read, for inspiration and motivation. To rediscover the joy of reading books once again in my life;
10. Glad to reconnect with Ten Things to be thankful more, its always a pleasure for me to list out things to be grateful for;

Be Blessed & Be Happy:)

 

2016 Word Of The Year!

This post is inspired from Laurel  Regan’s post on My 2016 word of the Year ! http://www.alphabetsalad.com/my-2016-word-of-the-year-linkup  

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While I was reflecting about what would be that one word for 2016.
There were so many words popping up my mind. The immediate one was Happiness, Health & Harmony, as I felt that this year I need to focus on getting fit, making changes in lifestyle,  impacting behaviour change that would alter my thinking pattern, making me assertive in my  choice of food,  gratitude and overall happiness and harmony in relationships.

Later as I dug deeper into myself, I found balance would be the appropriate word – because I felt that bringing in balance would help me to stay happy, healthy and in harmony. I tried clarifying with myself as to how do I interpret balance in my life; so I started thinking and found  I was looking at my life in compartments, separating every aspect of my life -  myself, family, friends, relationships, career, interests, finances, etc. The question that I asked was how do I remain healthy?

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After some more reflection I found another word, which I thought may be more appropriate for 2016- and that was Integration, meaning I integrate all the above mentioned areas in my life as a whole thus doing away with compartmentalization, and achieving balance by being flexible and realistic in my approach towards life. This did not satisfy me; so I mulled over for a long time and suddenly I heard the word that struck a chord – “EXPLORE”

 “Explore”. This year I prefer to explore everything in my life:

• Explore in taking time and efforts to deliberately eat healthy food; and bring changes in the kitchen, in order to sustain healthy habit for life for our family.
• Explore in finding ways and means to get fit, searching for creative ways to exercise, meditate, and pray to add quality to my life.
• Explore new ways to appreciate, thank and strengthen family bonds; and let go peacefully of all toxic relationships that disturbs and threatens family unity.
• Explore and find new ways to update, myself in knowledge and skills at my work place, and ensure that I am academically sound and relevant in understanding the issues young people are facing today.
• Explore and make some time to up scale  my blog; which I have not done for various reasons…. this year hopefully, I will attempt taking some baby steps to better my blog.
• Explore  new places which has been my desire, hopefully this year at least one trip we will make it together as a family.
• Explore options along with my daughter, who will complete her schooling this academic year to enable and help her to choose her career path.
• Explore to live with minimum needs; thus redefining space at home as well as my work place.
• Explore to be financially healthy and  share the surplus with less privileged.
• Explore to embrace new ways to learn, discover self, and practice greater self awareness with compassion and gratitude.

 Best Wishes to all of you !

  

Birthday of My Dad! & Wedding Anniversary of my Parents !

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My dad was a man of few words, did not really have great conversations with us.  But what I have observed him is that he was always smiling, trusted God in everything, and was a strong support to my mother and all of us.

As a child, I could easily complain to my dad about my brothers.  I waited for the Mondays, because that was the weekly off, wherein he could go marketing and come back home with plenty of eatables and seasonal fruits. Watching him from a distance, I would run as a child, to sit on his cycle, as he pushed it smilingly bringing me home.
Evening hours he was ready with a book that he used for family prayer, which will begin with the rosary, followed by the litany and praying for the souls.

He taught me to trust in the Divine Providence, and his favourite verse from the scripture was always: (Romans 8:28 we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.) and many more such verses, which was ready with him and used to quote to us in Tamil.

He was a great companion to my mother, helped and supported her whenever she required help – he was good at making egg sandwiches, which I learnt, and was good at mixing drinks, he never took alcohol and I always wondered how he could get the information.  I remember him giving me cherry brandy for indigestion, and also some brandy with milk when anyone in the family had cold.

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Every Monday in the evening hours, he would go to visit his elder brother at Gunrock, sometimes I used to accompany him, and watch both the brothers sit and chat, while my uncle used to sit with the cigar, my dad used to pour him a drink and eat snacks with him.

My dad was very generous and accommodative, he accommodated his brother’s family and supported them too, and along with them we also had our grandmothers, my mother’s mom, her sister and my dad’s mom in our family. Never did I see him complain about taking so much responsibility; he even gave away the house to his brother and continued to work even after retirement.

Today I am happy and proud to have had him as my DAD ! 

I acknowledge with gratitude and pray for his soul!

Happy Birthday Dad!

May his soul rest in peace!

Today is  wedding anniversary  of my parents !

Today is also my parents wedding anniversary; and it was a pleasure for us to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. They were not a perfect couple but stood by one another at all times in their lives.

My mom did everything in the family to keep us all together; without any helper she managed the kitchen, cooked, cleaned, washed and also took all of us to church.  My dad provided for the family by working hard day and night and ensured that we never went hungry to bed. My mother took initiative in enrolling us in the school and also took us everywhere for all the celebrations, films, festivals and also for pilgrimages.

Together they made our home a beautiful place – a place where we prayed together, shared our meals together, celebrated birthdays, festivals, welcomed relatives and friends and created memories that are unforgettable.  We have also experienced misunderstandings, fights, sickness, death and reconciliation and were encouraged to forgive and accept one another.

Together they celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary as a couple and managed to keep us together despite all differences and prayed for the family.

Today I recall and remember with gratitude my parents who are no more in this world. But they live in my heart and my life. I continue to follow all the positive qualities they had in enabling and empowering me to trust God at all times; to work hard, to be independent and be generous with whatever I have in terms of talents and capacities..

Wishing my mom and dad a happy wedding anniversary and may their soul rest in peace…

The Greatest Gift our parents gave us was EACH OTHER”

with love and gratitude !!

In Memory of Mario Emmanuel

Today its 5 years since Emmanuel had gone from our lives, leave a vacuum a place that can never be filled by anyone else. Today we as a family attended the mass, and prayed for our son, and then I went to work for few hours; David and Dorothy told me to come directly to the cemetery in the afternoon, so that we can pay homage to our child, light candles and put some flowers with love and gratitude.

Visiting the cemetery is not a joyful experience at all, and for me it’s very depressing as it reminds me of my child who is no more; despite all this I agreed to join them. Today there was also death of an elderly person in our parish; so David rushed for the funeral, leaving us at home.

I believe that Death is an important reminder for me; as it helps me make choices that are life giving and also keeps me grounded that one day I too must leave this earth and what I have done with my life will matter the most.

Today as I feel sad on one side about my son; I am also happy that Emmanuel has now become an experience of faith, hope and courage. Emmanuel will continue to be part of our smiles, kind deeds, whenever we show love, care, concern at each other… he will live in our memory constantly reminding us that earth is not a permanent place for any one… and it’s the small little deeds in  life that matters the most.

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”