Gratitude Post for 2025

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 !