Living A Life Of Gratitude: Gratitude Post

“What separates Privilege from Entitlement is GRATITUDE”

Brene Brown

I am delayed in writing this post, handling too many things trying my best to strike a balance J but I am determined to count my blessings as it helps me stay positive and focused. This exercise also makes me relive beautiful memories of the month, adding to my happiness and feeling good, motivating me to face every challenge that is to come. So here goes my gratitude list for this month;

The month began with an outing with friends, which we have been planning for quite sometime as lock down as kept us indoors and we were not meeting physically, and it was not working out, we kept postponing, I am grateful that we could make it on 2^nd of October, which was a public holiday. It was so much of fun to go out with family and friends, we were 10 of us and it was a day outing where we spent the whole day walking on the lawn, swimming in the pool, playing in the water, dancing in the rain and enjoying delicious lunch and evening snacks with tea.

We clicked pictures, sang songs and bonded so well that we decided that we will take these kind of breaks at least once in 4 months. I am thankful that at the end of the day, I felt energetic and had a good sleep, rested well as the next day was a Sunday.

This month was also my nephew’s birthday so we had spent some time in my brother’s house and it was nice that we prayed together and sang some hymns and shared our experiences of faith and how God has been faithful to us in an informal manner, cut the cake and enjoyed the dinner.

I am grateful to God for His mercy and Kindness – for myself and David completed 22 years of our married life on the 13^th October. I look back with gratitude to God for this journey, wherein we have laughed, cried, celebrated, stood by each other in our tough times, raised up our kids, seen death of loved ones, found friends, well wishers and I am glad that I progressed academically as well as moving into a career that I love and was passionate about; while David had a steady job and did what he loved.

I feel so blessed that we could help one another to learn and grow. We attended church service at our local parish and it was joy to have the whole community praying for us. We had a quiet celebration at home, am grateful for my sister in law Mary (David’s Sister) who came home and cut a cake for us and my sister in law Zarina (my brother;s wife) who prayed for us and blessed us, our daughter who stands by us in everything affirming and expressing love in small little ways.

Vizag city captured from electric train

I have been busy with my PhD work, consistently following the guide and the instructions given by the university, at the same time continuing my work at the counseling centre, meeting students, as the university is open full time, students and some time staff keep visiting our centre and I found a lot of issues related to abuse and violence in on rise, these sessions kept me tied up to the centre as I spent time in listening and also referring to other service organisations where the victims can find help for legal and other matters relating to safety and security of children.

This month I had the opportunity to visit my friend at Vizag for Dusherra vacation; she has been inviting our group of friends, as it was festival time. I needed a break and took this an opportunity, with another friend along with my daughter took time off for few days. We had a great time – as we went to Aarku valley (hill station in Andhra Pradesh) and stayed for a night and moved around the hills enjoying scenic beauty. It was a beautiful place full of trees, coffee plantations, coffee museum, lovely park to walk around and we tried the bamboo chicken which is very popular in this place.

Then we came back to the city and moved around visiting beautiful beaches, played in the water for some time and just walked around having tea snacks and came back after dinner to my friend’s place which is away from the city. I feel happy for all these experiences for they revive and rejuvenate our mind and body.

Haritha Resort garden

I am happy that I could visit my school wherein I spent 10 years of my life, completing my 10th class and it was such a great feeling. I met some of the sisters in the convent and glad to have interacted with them. I went around the school and took some selfies J especially near to the class room, recalling my high school teachers with gratitude, went around looking for the trees, the place where I used to have lunch with my classmates and also visited the church nearby. It was such a wonderful feeling to relive childhood memories….

Holy Family School, Trimulgherry, secunderabad

Holy Family school convent, secunderabad

This month was my mother’s birthday, 18 years ago she left the earth and I still miss her; there are so many memories which cannot be erased easily; I am grateful that she was part of my life and feel blessed to be her daughter; the kind of space and freedom I enjoyed is something that I value. She was always encouraging and motivating me, now when I look back I am overwhelmed with happiness and feel so grateful for all that she has done in my life.

This month I am happy to posting images of trees, in the tree lovers group, wherein every second Thursday and fourth Thursday, a group of bloggers keep spreading green in the virtual space. The fourth Thursday I had technical issues and was not able to link, nevertheless I posted it on my blog and FB. I feel good each time I capture trees in my cell phone, so that I can post in this group. I am happy to do this twice a month. Here’s the link: https://www.happinessandfood.com/thursdaytreelove.

Bheemli Beach, Vizag

I am grateful to God to see Maria Dorothy progress – as I see her busy with so many things that she is interested in; manages her own assignments. As mentioned in my previous post she is on internship with the World YWCA (Young Women Christian Association) for 3 months and this was the first month that kept her busy with webinars, discussions, online, whatsapp voice messages, chats and zoom meetings. I am happy that she has been working hard and managing her academics too- without giving up choir practice, youth group and involved in the local YWCA too.

Bamboo chicken:)

I am grateful to God for David who keeps himself busy either with his group members, or managing the Sunday clinic nearby; this month he also went for a health check up and visited the orthopedician to check his legs as he felt discomfort. The doctor suggested for a surgery. We are grateful to God for the doctors in our lives; that we can trust, for guidance and also for expert opinion. It’s a privilege to have the right kind of people surrounding us so that we can make a right decision.

on the way to Aarku valley :)

On the whole this month was a busy month and ended so fast; grateful that we are safe and have taken the second dose of vaccination too this month. November is already here and 10 days have gone and soon we will step into the last month of the year; and then we will welcome 2022. I pray that all of us are able to sail through this year and be able to survive not only corona but also so many natural disasters happening all around the world – daily news is filled with accidents, number rising in corona deaths and fears of new variations of corona in circulation, The fears, anxiety and insecurities people around us are experiencing. Gratitude is the only antidote that can keep us going and still give us the insight to be able to look at the worst situation in a positive way.