“IF YOU WANT TO FIND HAPPINESS; FIND GRATITUDE”
Steve Maraboli
31 days of August 2022 is gone and we are already in the 9th month of the year completing 252 days today. Another 113 days left for 2022 to be over and we move into another brand new year. I feel blessed that we have not only survived the COVID 19 pandemic and the other new variants but have moved on in every aspect of our lives – this year, with David retiring from work, my daughter completing her graduation, and I submitting my thesis for approval and we are sill continuing doing our bit and finding happiness and fulfillment in everything we do. I am happy and grateful to bid good bye to August. Here is my gratitude list.
This
month a lot of things happened, but I am highlighting some, beginning with
gratitude for a long time friend who has always been helpful and challenging me
to achieve more and pushing me when I get comfortable and settle in a comfort
zone. Thanking God for the gift of aparna as she celebrated her birthday in the
beginning of the month, it was nice to acknowledge and appreciate her and also
share a meal enjoying the company.
I
am happy to visit a doctor couple who have committed for community development
and have been working tirelessly responding to various issues in the community,
Dr Prakash has been a colleague and we worked together in the previous
organisation, and now he has started various initiatives like open house,
wherein he allows any one who is looking for a place to rest, rejuvenate and
move on… the house accommodates strangers who take time to rest, cook their own
food, read books (he has collected over 1000’ and more books from the
community) and move on or even come back and volunteer in his programmes, his
wife Dr Kameshwari has worked in the rural areas on women's health addressing
menstrual hygiene, hysterectomy, nutrition thus saving lives of so many women
and they have been recognized and even
received prestigious awards. It was a day well spent and I was glad to meet
them and through them also meet some more persons who are involved in community
work. I feel grateful to God for all these experiences in life.
I
am happy for a reunion meeting of my school mates – there were different
batches, of the 70’s and 80’s who gathered together on independence day this
month – our batch from 1977 were 10 of us and it was such a pleasure to meet
each other after 45 years of our lives … and we had lots of fun visiting our
class rooms and sharing our funny moments, imitating and expressing our
gratitude for the teachers. We were all given mementos along with heavy snacks
and we were given time to talk about ourselves… its was heart warming to listen
to one another, our success, failures, wounds, struggle, challenges and our
current status… I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the school as I spoke
about my experience of this school and how it was empowered me to work in the
area of mental health, my gratitude to all the teachers who were kind, generous
and worked hard in helping and enabling us in laying the foundation of
education to us… this was a overwhelming experience and we decided that its
time to pay back to school in whatever way possible… I am grateful for these
moments which are memories now and I feel blessed and happy.
I
am grateful for the constant support of friends who create opportunity to meet,
which I enjoy with the kind of work I do – I constantly need breaks, meetings,
going out, watching movies and just spending time so that I am always refreshed
to function at optimum level. These are not just privileges but small joys of
life that keeps us not only happy but active and healthy too. I am happy for
these moments and feel blessed and connected.
This month I am glad to attend a webinar on Depression and Suicide Prevention Awareness programme an initiative by Indian Psychiatric Society- Public Education & Awareness Sub committee, Dr Mahesh R Gowda was the resource person and he spoke extensively on the above about the awareness on Depression and how one can prevent suicide.
Grateful
to YWCA of Secunderabad for the opportunity- I took a session on Mental Health
with reference to suicide prevention for the Government school teachers; there
were 30 to 35 teachers from two different schools from the same area and the
response was very good. I was so happy to interact with them as they reminded
me of my teachers. I acknowledge the contribution of my teachers to my growth
process as I spoke to them and they could relate to the examples given and they
thanked me and suggested that they would be glad to have quarterly sessions as
a refresher programme.
I
am delighted to connect with an old friend who worked with me in my previous
organisation, we were good friends and after we parted from the organisation,
we got busy with our lives, she is a God mother to my daughter Dorothy, she
moved to Canada and settled there with her family, she messaged me on whats app
that she would be coming to Hyderabad and would love to connect. I was happy as
it was more than a decade since we met. Grateful that we could meet, chatting
about everything updating one another and also enjoying great meal.. it was fun
and feel good factor catching up with a good old friend, feel blessed to have
these relationships that makes life beautiful.
I
am also grateful for the invite for a small function in the house and it was
and an expression of gratitude and since it was close just a 1 km from my
place. I did not mind going out and it was so refreshing in the evening hours
enjoying light dinner and connecting with a different group of women was an
experience by itself. I was impressed and inspired by these women, wherein most
of them working both at home and at different places. I felt happy and thankful
to be there for a while....
Then
there are so many small little things, like the neighbor constantly sharing
some snacks, a helpful colleague who goes out of the way to get the job done,
the papers that I had published, in fact this month there were two publications
and my guide is very happy. I even completed the third draft of my thesis.
The
kind people I meet in ordinary situations of life – the mechanic who repaired
and serviced my bike, simple people who serve us and help us maintain our
routine – the person who supplies milk at door step, the grocery person who
delivers at the door step, the driver who picks up garbage every day from our
homes, the part time student who delivers newspaper daily and there are so many
who are helpful and generous too. Above
all I am grateful for being alive, breathing, with all the basic necessities of
life, a family to support, work that brings meaning and friends to cheer.
I
am Happy, Grateful and Blessed !
Thank
you for reading my post J I would love to hear from you,
Be Blessed & Be Happy!
No comments:
Post a Comment