Gratitude Post - June, 2023

“GRATITUDE SWEETENS EVEN THE SMALLEST MOMENTS”

This month was so quick and can’t believe we are in July – 15 days almost getting over. I am delayed in posting as there was so much to accomplish– busy sorting things out, personally, reliving all the wonderful moments with family and friends.

This month was a BBC Telugu Coverage of our Counseling centre and I am glad to have students who could come to our centre and talk about their experiences about our services. I am grateful to have these students who are generous and willing to come and talk about the benefits of counseling. Due to its publicity on u tube and print media  there were  too many calls and also students calling from other districts too and requesting for tele counseling – it was tough for me to handle – I did what ever possible from my end – some of them I could help and still others I referred and helped them with right contacts so they could find services in their local area.

This month was the birthday of my classmate, friend; so together as a group we celebrated. Last year she lost her elder sister and it was her 60^th birthday. We decided to make this day special for her and celebrate– she was so happy and lost for words… we were happy too as we had stories of our travels to share, while I spoke about our Israel visit and another fiend spoke about her Bali trip and she also picked small little mementos to carry back home to remind ourselves about our experiences of happy memories.

I continued to work on my presentation for PhD as I had submitted my thesis and I knew that I may be called any time and given a date for my presentation. So I prepared myself well, kept practicing and reworking on my power point, sent it to my guide to check for any discrepancies and suddenly one fine day I was called and give a date for presentation.

I am glad I could do my presentation on the 26^th of June, 2023 and complete my PhD. I am grateful to God for the strength of His words as I prayed and listened to the scripture messages. I could not believe myself for I was so happy that finally I accomplished what I was working for the last 4 year. Tears of gratitude flowed as I remembered my parents - my mom who was so fond of me, had she been alive she would have been so happy and my Dad would have been so proud too.

I am grateful for the foundation they laid in my life by sending me to school and enabling me to complete my college education. I smiled at the thought that wherever they are I am sure they are happy and smiling.

I am also grateful to my family – David and Dorothy who were always helpful, and David took up more work at home so that I could be free to work on the system. Dorothy was ever ready to look for language correction, in fact she was with me for data collection along with my colleague Dr Arvind who was also very helpful constantly giving me inputs and encouraging. I was getting tired while I kept writing chapters after chapter, without the encouragement and support of family and friends its not easy to complete.

I am happy for their presence in my life and sharing my journey – till the end as they sat down to listen to my presentation and even helped organise a meal for the group.

I would like to record my indebtedness and deep felt devotion to my research supervisor Dr P Venkat Ramana, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology Dr. B R Ambedkar Open University, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad for his never failing kindness and helpful nature, which enabled me to complete this work with confidence.  I appreciate his inexhaustible patience every time I contacted him and met him at the University.

I feel not only grateful but blessed in life for having such beautiful and lovely people surrounding my life – I owe a lot to my boss Prof. C Beena – who was not just kind to grant me permission but even encouraged me by giving her inputs and being generous with her time and providing me space to be able to complete.

I have plenty of people to thank and I have been listing out every person – beginning from my elder brother Selvaraj, who kept calling me regularly for updates on my thesis, My nephew and his family who constantly assured me of their prayers, my elder sister Bartholomew’s friend Sr Joshina who prayed every day, messaging me that she is praying for me- all my friends who kept asking me and encouraging me and some of them who reached out to me whenever I got stuck and helped me out. I am grateful for all of them – and eternally thankful to God for empowering me and enabling me.

I feel privileged and thankful for everything that happened in the last week of June – I was called and given a provisional certificate too – then I had my daughters best friends Jess & Sherl sending me lovely cards and flowers and video recording my expressions – it touched my heart and for my class mates and friends who visited home and celebrated me – all these are precious moments and I received it with gratitude in my heart.

I recently heard about a Japanese story – where the participants are trained for many years on a sacred mountain for self development and self discovery. The core philosophy of the training is where they are taught to learn the two magic words – the first one is UKETAMO – which in English means  “I accept” whenever there is a challenge in life one has to accept it with a open heart – enjoying the present moment by dropping all the expectations. The second word is “ARIGATO” which means “Thank you”. So glad to learn these two words.

I am grateful for all the calls, messages of my office colleagues, friends, others who work with me and extended families – for showering their wishes and blessings.  I offered thanksgiving mass at the church and celebrated myself with gratitude. 

Thanks for reading my post!

MAY YOU BE HAPPY AND BLESSED!

ARIGATO