September 2025 Gratitude

“Beautiful things happen when one has a heart of gratitude.”

I am back once again to express my gratitude; we have stepped into a new month – October 2025. Nine months have rolled into eternity, only two months left for 2025. Here goes my gratitude list for this month: I am grateful for:

the new member in our extended family -Welcoming JoJo boy (Joash Dheer) in our families this month, congratulating my niece Nissi and Jayakar on the arrival of this little champ. May this cute little bundle fill our hearts with joy and laughter.

The entire Virgo’s in the family and among friends, who celebrate their birthdays this month, beginning from Diana, David’s niece followed by Dorothy and continuing with Arushi and a couple of friends too who celebrated their birthdays. I consider birthdays as something very special as it makes me feel not just happy but helps me focus on the giver of life.  I am glad we visited all the birthday babies on their birthdays.

Dorothy’s is always special for me, for its my birthday too  as a mother for the first time, to hold another life in you for nine months, with expectations and joy and finally to see the miracle, is something unforgettable in my life. This day brings to a lot of memories of all those special people who were part of my journey and who walked with me month after month nurturing, protecting and above all  being my strength – I am grateful for all of them.

On this day I am filled with gratitude for my little baby has turned into a beautiful women and is now independent, active as a National Board member for the YWCA , also a Choir leader for the 10.30a.m  mass in the parish,  Lecturer in a degree college – making us  proud parents.

This month I am grateful for having met my friends, over some snacks and a cup of tea, as it was a long time since we updated one another about our lives. Each of us were dealing with some challenges and when we talk about it- we feel heard and ventilated.  Friends are my safe space, a room therapy wherein I get to talk, as my profession demands that I keep listening to my student’s problems and reach out to them. Friends are the only people who do not judge and they provide you the support enabling us to become resilient.

I am grateful for my work as I had commitment for this month- 10^th September being the Suicide Prevention Day – its mandatory for us to focus on orienting all kinds of groups on suicide prevention. I did almost three different sessions – two with the Self help groups and one with our HIV beneficiaries. I also attended to some women who came to me after the session, to tell me how relatable my session was; they felt as if I was talking directly to them. I counseled almost 4 to 7 women out of which 3 of them felt suicidal due to domestic abuse and cheating by the partner. The rest were strong and were fighting for their own space in the family by taking charge of their lives. 

 

I am grateful as well as sad because I lost a young friend from the YWCA of Secunderabad – she was only 39 years old, Sharon Solomon- our general secretary. She was fighting hard with autoimmune disease, had a sudden and massive heart attack…

I am grateful to have met her, interacted with her, got to know her and was amazed to see the way she was fighting her battles. She was full of faith in the Lord, living one day at a time and did her very best till her last breath –a reminder for all of us that nothing is permanent, and death can happen to any of us; it’s important that we keep constantly enhancing the quality of our lives.  Despite the energy level being a bit low; and experiencing pain as though Sharon has carried some part of myself with her.. am grieving and will do so till my grief turns into gratitude.

This month my counseling  sessions  was in dealing relationship issues, every second student came up with either a break up; or  wanting to fix the relationship. My heart goes out to these kids who are so easily distracted from their goals, still in 20’s getting into relationship with no boundaries- risky behaviors, trying to fix their problems by smoking, alcohol and moving so fast from friendship to situation ship… and I get to listen to their expressions such as Ghosting (where as friends they get involved romantically and suddenly stop connecting and cuts of totally) Situationship – (where they are on and off the relationship but not ready to commit.) Then there are pink and beige flags which are warning signs and have the potential to become red flags.

The challenges I face is that they look for easy solutions and do not want to work and take some initiatives to come out of these problems, constantly looking for quick fixes… by quickly moving on from one relationship to another without even thinking about the consequences. I make sure that the counseling door is always open for them no matter what their choices are… for I believe that it’s important to give them the safe space and the time needed to help them. I am grateful for all the learnings, keeps me motivated to get up every single day thinking of them and reaching the centre.

I am grateful that I could motivate myself to join an online class to learn Hindustani vocal… I have taken a few classes and hope to continue to practice.) As a youngster I was passionate about singing so I registered in the Government college of Music and Dance. I was regular for two full years but couldn’t write my exam due to multiple issues I was dealing with. I thought now is the best time to learn whenever possible – it’s a feel good factor for me.

I am glad and grateful for I could join #Thursday Tree Love – organized by #Parul to spread the greenery in the virtual world. I could Post for both the second and the fourth Thursdays. It always nice to stay connected with the other bloggers who inspire… Parul is one such blogger who inspires me with her writings at https://happinessandfood.com ( you can check her blog).

I am grateful that our school gang met up in the last week – as we have not met for almost 3 months. So we just decided that we meet over for lunch. I had a great time enjoyed the food and we also danced with one another, clicked beautiful pictures and hugged and kissed each other good bye. This meeting was also an opportunity to bring two of our friends who have home bound looking after their spouses and were not able to come out… this meeting united us and together we offered to lift each other.

I am grateful this year to I went out with my daughter, my sister in law and her daughter to play dandiya.. luckily it was not raining so we could dance for a couple of hours and had fun, we stopped by a popular restaurant to taste biryani and then came back home happy.

I am grateful that this year our centre was invited for the Bathkumma festival (festival of flowers n Telangana state), in the campus, which was organized by the employees of the university, followed by lunch. I just made a courtesy visited and clicked some pictures – it was a busy day for me in the centre, so I had to get back for a meeting.

I am grateful that this year too Dorothy attended the National Board meeting at the YWCA National office, New Delhi. This is the 4^th year for her and I am glad that she went by herself and came back after the meeting, learning to travel alone and managing herself, grateful to God that she came back healthy and safe.

I am grateful to God and to my guides who helped me complete a Diploma in Nutrition and Health Education (DNHE) it was a one year course and was quite tough. I am happy that I could complete this course, as this course had a research project where the student is expected to do a research proposal, get it approved and then do the research on the any of the topic related to Nutrition.  My topic was Consumption of Fruits, Vegetables and Iron rich Food among the Adolescents in Malkajgiri, Hyderabad. My sample size was 100 and it was an interesting and time consuming work.

I am happy to visit the beauty parlor for a pedicure; hair color and face clean up.  I feel so much refreshed and rejuvenated after my visit to the beauty parlor. Dorothy got a hair color for me and its been lying in the cupboard as she is busy I decided to take help from one of the girls, and she was gentle with my hair and also trimmed my hair.

I watched “The summer I turned Pretty” with my daughter, and did found it engaging and interesting to find so many youngsters getting hooked to this web series, taking sides of the hero’s here Jeremiah and Conrad.. I saw some funny meme’s about this series on Instagram.  I also watched Aryan Khans Baadas of Bollywood...  with my daughter – to keep myself updated. I don’t like to watch too much violence on screen... Felt okay, but I found  a lot of youngsters are loving it..

I am grateful to God for my good health of mind and body, for the people in my life who are there to assist me and help me out; my service providers, the person who supplies milk, provisions, and everyone who are part of my life; my students who inspire and teach me, my Director who trusts me with the centre, always encouraging me, my colleague and some of the professors who are kind and always in touch to reach out to the students.

Thanks for reading my post; hope you had a great month!

May this floral festival bring harmony, good fortune, and everlasting happiness to all of you!

May you Be Happy & Be Blessed.