[This post is late and should have gone online yesterday but I had a bad migraine and couldn't sit at the computer long enough to finish and post it. So it's two posts today. :) ]
There are a lot of days when I feel like I have nothing, I am nothing. Most days it's a passing phase, and some days it's lasts for a while but no matter which day, what makes me snap out of it are a list of beings. These beings make me smile and make life feel worth while.
Since my word for the year with 'G' is Gratitude, I figured I'd make a list of these beings so I can read it when I'm all down and out and snap out of it and smile sooner. :)
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="463" caption="Mom and Me years ago"]
[/caption]The first person I think I met in this world is my Mother and I'm glad I did. She is selfless, always offering her shoulder or advise when I'm ranty, and someone I still go running to when I'm hurt and upset. The days of scraped knees when she blew on the wound and made it feel better are long gone, but even today she makes me feel better with her magic. She has done so much for me over the years that, nothing I do will ever equate it, an infinite number of thank you's will not be enough. I have learned so much from this extraordinary woman and I have still so much to learn. She reminds me of one of my favourite songs,
"You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine,
You make me happy,
When skys are grey.
You'll never know dear.
How much I love you,
Please don't take my sunshine away."
When I grow up :D I'd like to be like my mother, if I can be even 50% the woman she is, I'd have achieved greatness I think.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="My MIL and Me at my wedding"]
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The saas-bahu serials on TV had me wishing from early in life that when I got married I get a good M-I-L. I must have prayed quite diligently coz I did get a great mother-in-law. She is so like my mother that when she's around I don't miss my own.
When Che and I got married we had a reception in Kovilpatti, a town near Madurai where Che hails from. The morning after the reception I tentatively stepped out of the room (while Che slept) wondering if I could sneak into the gift room and check stuff out until he woke up. Tip toeing my way across the floor I got to the room full of gifts without encountering anyone but as I stood at the door, my MIL looked up at me from inside where she was sitting in the middle of it all and said, "Ah, you're awake, can we now open the gifts?". An hour or so later when Che found us, we were sitting in the middle of gifts strewn around with silly grins on our faces. My MIL became my mother that day, how can she have not. That was one of my first impressions of her and even four years later, she continues to amaze me with all she understands and does.
I'm the lucky bum who didn't get one mother, I got two. It's a double whammy!
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="My Five"]
[/caption]I still remember the days when Che and I talked about getting a dog but every time talked, we put it off saying this wasn't the best time. Then one day in August 4 years ago, during a week of crazy torrential rains, Che found a puppy huddled near the dustbin outside our apartment, shivering. He picked it up and looked around for the mother, when he couldn't find her he brought the puppy home to dry her off and get some food in her. Fifteen minutes later he was looking at me with puppy eyes that said, please can we keep her. The rest like they say is history.
Cuckoo was followed within months by Sentimeter, and then a year later by Buddha. I didn't know when one dog became three and then five when William and Maximus joined us too. Today I have five dogs and I'm working hard at keeping that number from increasing. :D
These five fill my life with such joy, only people with dogs will know what it feels like. When I wake up in the morning I have 5 dogs vying for my attention, so happy to see me, thumping their tails with such vigour that sometimes I worry for the grandfather clock that loses or gains time every morning when they thump it. When I'm down in the dumps and no-one and nothing can make me feel better, these five can make the sun come out again. They know just what it would take to make me happy again.
Even when they do something wrong it's so difficult to be angry with them. Try it, try being angry with someone who looks at you with such unadulterated love while you are screaming your head off. My dogs are my life, there is nothing in the world I wouldn't give up for them. Nothing!
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Bro and Me years ago when I still could bully him"]
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Making this list, I wondered who else would be on it and one name kept popping up and that's my brother. The little kid I bullied, who bullied me in turn a few years later has grown into a man I'm proud of. Thoughtful, caring, soft-hearted, kind are just some words that describe him. His is the number on my speed dial coz I know he will always be there for me.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="All us Grandkids with Gran on her 90th (except 1)"]
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Then there are all my other brothers (coz using the word cousin wouldn't be fair to how they treat me). Each one of them going out of their way for me with never a complain. As kids when they were around I'd be exasperated but today when they are around my heart smiles.
All those rakhi's paid off, eh? :P
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="The Entire Family on Gran's 90th"]
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Then there's my family and friends, who are just such amazing people. Looking back at myself growing up I see just the prick I was [not that am not one now :D] and yet these people have loved me all the way. Could I even ask for more.
Last but not the least is that man I married who makes my blood boil so much some days that I want to scream and pull my hair out and yet he remembers the small things I like, eats bland khichdi everyday without a complain when I'm ill coz if he ate spicy food I'd be tempted. He does things that amaze me and leave me speechless when I least expect it.
We don't fight like cats and dogs, we fight like a mongoose and snake and yet without him I think life would be empty. Come on wouldn't the mongoose miss the snake, where's the fun for the mongoose if the snake's gone. :D
Gratitude is the right word, for I'm grateful, immensely grateful for the beings in my life. I must have done some pretty awesome stuff on my last life to have all these people in my life. No one gets this lucky, unless they deserve it. Knowing me I don't know about that, but I do know I'm damn lucky and very grateful.
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