Tuned In To the Positive #Gratitude

Welcome to the June 2016 Gratitude Circle bloghop! This month seems to have gone by way too quickly. With my son home for the holidays, we’ve been running around trying to accomplish a lot of things. I guess being busy always makes it seem like time is racing by. But we also found the time to sit back and appreciate life, enjoy the moments.

While things have gone wrong and we’ve lost dear ones in the family, we have found the time to appreciate what we have – what is – rather than what isn’t. That made things a lot better. More proof that perspective and attitude make a huge difference.

My gratitude journal is bursting with notes this month and here are the highlights!

Gratitude for..

The gym

Grateful for a gym so close to my place to help me stay fit. Rains make it easy to be lazy and skip my walk. And I really cannot afford that with my current health status.

Work

I have a new assignment and I am thrilled about it. It keeps me offline more than usual and I am loving it. The digital detox is delicious!

Son

My son and I went and watched the movie Finding Dory and loved it. We never go to the cinema, but decided to indulge during this vacation, thanks to Jungle Book, Alice Through the Looking Glass and Finding Dory. We are also having fun trying a lot of recipes and spending time together watching comedy and laughing our guts out. Great for the soul!

New blog: Cooking with Mi

Thanks to all the stress and tension, I decided to divert my energy towards something productive and started a new blog: Cooking With Mi. Some of my happiest and most fun moments with my Mom have been in the kitchen. Hoping to share my kitchen through recipes, tips, stories, conversations – all with a generous dose of love and humor. I will be reposting the food recipes from this blog to Cooking with Mi. I am so excited!

Catching up

I’ve been spending time on the IISc campus where my son is doing his summer internship. I am catching up with all the things I had planned to do – visit the book shop, read, meet friends there – and am feeling wonderful. I am grateful to be able to carry my work wherever I go.

Rainbows and family

I saw a double rainbow with my family a couple of weeks ago – and oh, it was so beautiful. We loved it. I am grateful for time with family and my husband who makes it a point to spend time together even though he’s traveling a lot.

Friends and neighbors

Grateful for my friends who encourage me all the time and believe in me; a loving neighbor who brought over hot food the day we got back late and exhausted from the passport office where we’re battling with what ought to be a simple thing – the renewal of my son’s passport. What a nightmare – and it isn’t over yet. But other events have taught me to stay calm.

Life

A near death experience. We’ve had rainy weather the past few days. Two days ago – that’s Monday – the weather was particularly wet with lashing rains on and off. My son had to meet his project guide and since the weather was pleasant in the morning, I decided to take a walk with him till the gate, which is about 2 km away.

After waving him goodbye, I started walking back home. It is a nice route, with a picturesque temple, a school and a huge playground. I could stand and watch those kids up to their tricks for hours.

I walked along one side of the road until the ground ended and then switched to the other side, where the school began. The road is at a higher level so one can see right into the front yard of the school, with its inner walls painted with elephants and all sorts of things that children like.

There’s a tree by the gate that I like to touch and lay my palm on. I like to pretend it tells me stories, with its swaying branches whispering in the breeze. I laughed as I patted it and went on my way.

I got on with my routine at home and around 1, had to go out again for something.

Since it was raining outside, I called to confirm whether my stuff was ready and was told it would take another hour.

About the time I might have gone back to that area, the rains had become worse and my tree simply uprooted itself and fell across the road, totalling a car, injuring its driver and passenger, who was rushed to hospital. A man on a two-wheeler on his way to collect a payment delayed for several weeks died on the spot. It would be the same time my son might have strolled down that road on his way home, but as luck would have it, he got delayed in class, too.

When I went that way a few minutes later, I was shocked to see the mayhem and the policemen trying to control the crowd. Of course there were people trying to take pictures and to get a closer look.

What can I say? Third time in my life I narrowly missed saying the last goodbye and grateful to be alive.

We take so many things for granted until we are threatened about losing it. Oh, please tell your loved ones you love them. Right now! We don’t know what can happen the next minute. The media is full enough with unexpected tragedies.

Now – today’s activity!

I found these fun! Easy and immediate gratification. Check this out:

1/ Plastic bottle planter

See the photo – the steps are quite self-explanatory. Saw this here. Great way to use bottles!

2/ Cherry blossom art.

I found this here It looks great, doesn’t it? Imagine making it on handmade paper! I made the collage and added the “paper” effect. Isn’t it cool?

What are you grateful for, today?

Do join me for the June 2016 Gratitude Circle bloghop.