Hello December: Today Is My Birthday!

Today, I have completed 55 years, and stepping into my 56th year,

can't believe, more than half a century has gone by. Like everybody else, I too have gone through many ups and downs in my life, many frustrations, many disappointments, seen many dreams come crashing down.........

Many good things too have happened, and looking back at my life,  I feel the downs were nothing compared to the good things that happened in my life.
I am grateful for everything, that seemed to be bad in my life, for I would not have become the person that I am now without the so called 'downs' in my life. Looking back, I can see how things had happened the way they had, and I have no regrets, for there were some reasons for things to happen the way they did. In fact, I could have handled them better if  only I had the maturity required at that time.
However,  the only way to achieve some maturity, is learn from our mistakes, yet make more mistakes, and then come around to understand how to deal with such situations. We are always learning something new every moment of our lives.
I remember getting very  irritated with my kids, during their growing years, for it was also my own growing years. With absolutely no training in parenting, life was difficult for all of us.
Again, I am really thankful, that my bad parenting skills did not turn them into bad children.

There are many things to be thankful in my life. 
Like, I am happy I was born to my parents, and despite the dis-functional family I belonged to, I have learnt from them and survived.
I have a very tolerant husband, and I am grateful, that despite my occasional nagging he has the patience to put up with me.

I find myself being more understanding of people who have a totally different view about certain things- my views and their views don't match at all.
I am grateful my children have chalked out their life in the way they wanted to, despite having a perpetually nagging, and worrying mother.

I am grateful for having Loki, our daughter's dog, with us, despite my initial hesitation.I am grateful we have two lovable dogs who are so loving- their unconditional love is so over powering, making me feel so bad that initially I did not like the idea of having two dogs in our house.

From 2005 I have been blogging, and blogging has given me so many friends, and some of them have become so close, that they always make it a point to come and stay with me, even if it is only for a day.

                      This is with Sandhya who is also a blogger and lives in Chennai

Just now I had a call from one of my blogger friend from Atlanta, her name is Anpu.
Anpu, Padmaja, Sandhya, Shanthi,  Rohini, Mytri, Sharon, Patricia, Joseph..... oh, so many of them- such good friends. I am really blessed to have them as my friends. Plus I have made so many friends through the Cloud Formation Society site, from the Light Stalking site. We have shared so much through our photographs in these virtual sites. I think I have managed to have so many friends because I have become more open to friendship.

 I have lived in very small houses/ flats, and also some good decent houses and flats, but I never thought I would be living in such a beautiful house as ours, which we had built with so much love and dedication. Every time I look around me, the beautiful garden, the lovely dogs, I can only say, "Thank you God"

This year,  I had the opportunity to visit 5 European countries too, and it was so good.

By hook or crook, I seem to have done well for myself, survived all the trials and tribulations, enjoyed all the good things, learnt a lot, made a whole lot of good friends, and intend to be more patient, more loving, and more caring as time goes by.

A Very Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Birthday: A Time For Reflection And Gratitude

Today is my day:  My Birthday!

I take this opportunity to acknowledge all the good people in my life, the roles they have played  in making me the person I am now.

 As always I am reminded of my parents who brought into this world. They are the most lovely people in the world. Both my father and my dear mother have done so many things for me, really going out of their way to make me feel happy and loved all the time, being proud  of even the very insignificant achievements in my life, always encouraging me, inspiring me, and guiding me to do even better.
I thank you dear parents for being with me all through my journey of life.

To you my dear father:  I am thankful for inheriting certain traits from you like, being very open, frank, to stand up and fight for whatever is right, the never to give up in any kind of situation, the ability to laugh at myself, to forget all the disappointments and only think of the positives in my life, to always have a natural smile. Father, I owe all these and many more qualities to you.
Although today you cannot hear me, you have become totally deaf, I still communicate with you in my mind and can surely feel your advice coming to me telepathically.

Your simplicity, your value for money, has really rubbed itself on me too. Thank you for making me understand at a  very young age in my life that " money does not grow on trees".

My dear mother:
I thank you for giving birth to me, and taking such good care of me, which I feel more and more now, that I wasn't really worthy of. I am still plagued by guilt in not being there for you when you most needed us. I know as a mother, such things never really bothered you, but still I feel I could have done better. Not a day passes when I don't think of you and talk with you in my mind. You may no longer be in this world, but you are always living in my mind. Now after years, I still remember how you used to feed me Rasam Sadam with potato curry in my early school days, I still remember, how tasty your sandwiches used to taste, how good your cheese pakodas used to be: how they really melted in my mouth.
I remember learning the trick of making Tomato Juice, which will also taste like sugarcane juice, one juice with two taste.  I am also thankful to God for making you come to our place in Bangalore just 10 days before you unexpectedly died. The last days spent with you was spent in so much happiness. Perhaps you loved me the most, that is why you felt like coming to our place and spending some quality time with us. Without knowing that it was going to be your last visit to our place, we somehow made you very happy doing the  things you wanted to do. I thank God everyday for those precious ten days you spent with us.
It is from you I learnt, how to cook, your magic touch, somehow has rubbed itself on me too, at least to some extent. I am mighty pleased when people tell me I look a lot like you, though in my teen years these very complements used to irritate me.
I have inherited your patience, your art of becoming friends with anybody, your art of mimicking people, your ability to choose sarees/ dresses well. I was so lost after I got married and didn't know whether, I was capable of choosing my own sarees and dresses without your help. But by and by I developed that talent, for being your daughter, how could I ever go wrong in my selections. I still thank you for that.
I thank you for inspiring me in so many ways, mainly in not letting anything come in the way to dampen my spirits when things don't work my way.

Mom I really, really love you and miss you very much.

You look pretty thoughtful and sad here. I often wonder what was going in your mind. you had so many worries, but still you kept on moving ahead in life with your positive attitude.

                                                    How lovely you look in this picture
How I wish I had one of those digital cameras : I would have clicked many many pictures of you.

I never fail to thank God for blessing me two lovely children. They are so matured, and I always listen to their advise. I thank them for pushing me into blogging. I know they would go to become very good parents when their time comes. Despite my struggles with the trial and error method in their upbringing, they have turned out to be pretty decent individuals.
I really am proud of their achievements, and although they live far away from me, they too are always in my thoughts.
I can't thank God enough for giving  me such a wonderful Son in law too.

                                                  

Cookie

Toffee

Bumbilli

I am forever grateful to the universe for blessing me with 4 dogs, (two dogs have already left this world).

Now we have one dog which is ours (Bumbilli) and one our daughter's dog Loki, cute and naughty as his name. This fellow taught me, how to adjust to a different home and yet be very happy and loving.

From all these adorable dogs I have learnt the meaning of patience, loyalty, and unconditional love.

Loki

Last but not least my dear, dear husband Ananth:  A big thanks  to him for always supporting me, inspiring me, and looking after all my needs.

He is best gift I have got in my life, and I thank God everyday for blessing me with such a good human being as my life partner.

I think there is a reason why all these lovely people have been and are still in my life, and I thank each and everyone for being there and making my life so meaningful and wonderful.

Finally, I thank all my friends for being there for me, advising me, encouraging me, and inspiring in ways they cannot even imagine.

I somehow felt that acknowledging all the good people and all the good things that they have brought into my life was the best way to make this 55th birthday of mine more meaningful.

It's My Birthday !

Cheers!