Gratitude - March, 2021

Blessed Thankful & Grateful !

I am late in posting the gratitude post this month; with other commitments I could not complete the post; today I decided to complete it and post it… it’s a joy to relive and reflect on all the beautiful things life has to offer… with gratitude in my heart.. I am writing this post.

March began on a serious note following up with my academic work, visiting the libraries, collecting information, reviewing literature, making presentations, and submitting the plan of work.  Some times it’s physically tiring - moving around in the university and managing my home and work, at the same time this is a choice so am happy and thankful for doing it.

I am grateful to God for the opportunities I get to learn to deal with a variety of situations. I believe learning is a lifelong process – there are moments that we unlearn what we have learnt and at other times we interact and  meet persons and new situations,  and learn new things and that makes us knowledgeable and relevant too.

Being the season of lent both Dorothy and David have been practicing the norms of the church strictly- attending regular prayers, mass and even went on a journey of the 14 stations visiting 7 churches in the city. David was busy organizing 4 buses and identifying the churches and coordinating the days programme and Dorothy was busy with picking up appropriate hymns and prayers for the way of the cross, visiting the churches. While I could not join for this journey as I had a deadline for my presentation.

This month there were quite lot of birthday’s and I never miss opportunities connecting with them and praying for all of them. Sometimes celebrating a friend’s birthday in the city with other group of friends is not only a surprise but also enjoyable.. My nephew’s son Nathu too celebrated his 13^th Birthday this month, time just flies children grow up so fast am grateful to God for keeping me alive and be part of these celebrations.

I am impressed and inspired by one of my students who stopped by to thank me and it was such a sweet gesture, she wrote a hand written note  and brought a  chocolate to express her gratitude towards me and our centre. These are small joys of motivation that enables me to remain consistent and committed to the work entrusted to me.

I had my second session with the children at Asha Kiran Home – it’s a request programme and I am happy to give some time once a month to them. This month’s session was on how to regulate emotions and I simplified it for them as they were children and used the local language Telugu and a bit of English for the session. It was fun, interactive and added some games to keep it lively. I surprised myself with conducting some games and also to be able to help them identify common emotions we express in our daily life… a process has begun for learning to deal with their feelings and will be continued, grateful for the opportunity.

I am grateful for the good health; despite cold and cough, which was there for few days, these discomforts are very small compared to the kind of problems the students face. I took a couple of days break to deal with my body issues- rested well and relaxed, felt much better and continued my routine.

There is very little to complain in my life as I am blessed with caring persons around me at home – David and Dorothy are always helpful and go out of their way to reach out to me; specially when my work gets stressful they manage the kitchen and household chores and also serve me whenever I am tired.

There is a lady who comes twice a week to sell vegetables in our lane; and we started buying from her as she is travelling a long distance taking the train and walks down all the way into our lanes. She brings fresh vegetables and always cheerful- it’s a blessing for us to have someone at our door step to deliver vegetables, saving time, energy and efforts to get it from the market. Whenever I see her at my place – I feel motivated and inspired for the hard work and the heavy load she carries with a cheerful smile. We are grateful to her for bringing home the vegetables fresh and grown in her own small farm.

There is a rise in the COVID cases everyday in our state; the schools and colleges are closed. University has postponed the exams, students are coming and the centre is open, library and all the other departments are functioning; masks is compulsory and so is sanitizing hands and maintaining social distance.

The government of Telengana has issued circular to take responsibility in protecting oneself – everything is open and functional except for the educational institutions.  The circular also states not to have huge gatherings for festivals and other celebrations. The number of students coming for counseling has increased this month, there were serious issues of feelings of isolation, emptiness, insecurity social disconnect as most of the time they are struggling to deal with their own emotions and also with family problems that has aggravated - marital discords, abuse of all forms as an impact of COVID 19.

Sometimes its draining to listen specially to traumatic events that are relived and unconsciously affects us and thankfully I was aware of whats happening, accordingly I took small breaks and took adequate rest and relaxed did all those things I love, listening to old favorite songs, watched comedy and immersed myself in academic work.  I continued to be part of the tree lovers’ group and posted regularly at Parul’s blog on second and fourth Thursdays.

I am glad to write this post as it keeps me focused on all the positive aspects of life and energizes me. 

Thanks to vidyasury for all her posts on gratitude and mindfulness – I enjoy reading them and its always inspiring. For further reading login: https://vidyasury.com/2021/04/attract-abundance.html

Thanks for reading my post, I would love to hear from you!