Adapting to change and changing to adapt

Change is good, but adapting to change is also hard. Last week I felt a little more overwhelmed than usual and wrote a post – I may look okay but I am not really okay. I felt a bit better afterwards and decided the best way to get over it is to keep myself busy.

Life goes on

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, no matter what, it is the fact that life does go on. Even as I tried to look at all the silver linings, I’ve been cooking, cleaning, eating, exercising, sleeping, reading books, and binge-watching shows. And feeling grateful for my family who is always supportive and tackles me with their unique sense of humor.

Lockdown

In the meantime, we had another total lockdown for a little over a week. The numbers are steadily high, though, and we’re staying home. Crazy situation – don’t know when it will all settle down. I am guessing we are going to live with this situation at least till the end of the year until it is considered safe to resume what we used to call “normal” life.

How are you adapting to change?

And oh! son’s college has asked the students to vacate their rooms. So, we ended up doing some virtual running around and calling in some favors to get that done. Really challenging to get these things done. I am grateful we had someone willing to help. This year-end has been crazy for all students and especially for son’s batch – as they’re finishing their five-year course. They were all looking forward to fun times, graduating in style and so on. Sigh. As I said, adapting to change can be tough.

Learning

When I feel low, I find that learning something always helps. So, I thought I’ll enroll in a couple of courses on Udemy, thanks to some credits I received as a Google Local Guide. As I freaked out about which courses to take after narrowing it down to three, I decided to ask my sister for advice. She just gifted me two of them and told me to shut up and get the third. Gratitude for the gift I received from Vanita, who always has my back and sometimes reads my mind. That’s a bit scary but I am grateful for it.

Friends

My special gratitude this month goes to all my friends – friends whom I’ve known for decades, who are still in touch thanks to technology. I am fortunately to be able to video chat with them, which is the next best thing to meeting. Although, nothing can beat being able to sit together, share coffee and conversations and hugs and smiles and look at each other’s expressions and perhaps wipe each other’s tears when things get emotional. Well with a history going back decades what to expect? Some moments do come up in conversation. So grateful for this.

Also, grateful that most of my friends are too lazy to type and prefer to send audio messages. So much nicer to hear their voices than reading words.

Work front

The work front is slowly looking up. I started editing a new manuscript and I am grateful for the work. I hope that on this note more work comes in because I could really use the money.

Writing

Besides blogging, I’ve also resumed writing on Medium. But it is good exercise writing there because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it is that nothing ever goes waste. And whether or not there’s a deadline, we constantly need to exercise those creative muscles just to sustain the habit.

Sweet seventeen

Ah, by the way, this blog turned 17 years this month. On 9 July to be precise, when I wrote my first post on blogger dot com when Google acquired the platform. Since then, it has been a long and wonderful journey of learning, meeting extraordinary people who have become friends, and personal and professional growth. From a random journal of thoughts this blog has grown into a more structured and focused space on the web with the goal to make you smile. I like to think I am well on my way to achieving that. What do you think?

I remember, when I was approached for my first ever sponsored post over fifteen years ago, I had to decline as it wasn’t suitable for this blog. But it opened up the possibility that I might actually be able to earn something from blogging.

I found my motivation by pledging to donate any money earned through this blog to charity. And while I have not become rich, I am happy to think that I’ve made some decent contributions to the welfare homes in my city and elsewhere. This has been a lean year so far for me but I am glad I can still make a difference in lives. You know what they say – every drop matters.

I am grateful for all the lovely emails and messages I get from people all over the world, thanking me for my words or wanting to talk. These wonderful conversations make it all worth it. It is such a privilege to connect in this way and just endorses my belief that there are no strangers; only friends we haven’t met . . . yet.

Chop, chop

On the lighter side, I was playing with a pair of scissors and decided, on a whim, to cut my hair. This time I cut off a few inches more than I intended to because—you know—the crunch of the scissors on the hair is exciting. I am happy, though. Definitely lighter and somehow liberating, you know? I even posted a pic on Facebook.

So that’s that. Looking forward to an interesting August.

“As the water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it, so a wise woman adapts herself to circumstances.” Confucius

How did July go for you?

Welcome to the July 2020 Gratitude Circle blog hop ♥

Do join me with your own posts. I am grateful to everyone who is part of my gratitude circle.

As always, please note:

To join the Gratitude Circle blog hop, you can write about anything that made you feel good. It is not mandatory to write about your personal life. Or list personal things you are grateful for. You have the freedom to share anything that made you feel good. A happy event. Something you saw. An experience. A place. Something that brought you happiness. A lovely book you read that filled you with joy. Anything. I repeat, it need not be personal at all.

• Write your posts.
• Add the badge.
• Remember to link to my post to validate your entry to the linky.
• Add your post link to the linky below.
• Comment and say hello here.
• Mingle and engage