Noticing what surprises and disturbs me.....

"Noticing what surprises and disturbs me has been a very useful way to see invisible beliefs. If what you say surprises me, I must have been assuming something else was true. If what you say disturbs me, I must believe something contrary to you. My shock at your position exposes my own position. 

When I hear myself saying, “How could anyone believe something like that?” a light comes on for me to see my own beliefs. 

These moments are great gifts. 

If I can see my beliefs and assumptions, I can decide whether I still value them.

I hope you’ll begin a conversation, listening for what’s new. 
Listen as best you can for what’s different, for what surprises you. 

See if this practice helps you learn something new..." 

~Margaret Wheatley~

Regular, boring, mundane chores.....

"An act in totality is reward in itself.

When your act is total, there is no reward except itself.


Whether you are drinking tea or painting a great painting

or playing music...

if the act is total, it is your reward."

Osho


I have been noticing how I start something with great gusto...
but the interest wanes as soon as something
more "profound"
more "glamorous "
or that which will get me more "taalis" comes up...

Regular, boring, mundane chores...

at home or work are usually ignored
and/or dealt with half-heartedness
and many a times

even dropped off like an orphan :)

There is obviously a hierarchy in my mind of what is important and not important !

Creating workshop collaterals for clients becomes more important
than cleaning the wardrobe.
Making that all important presentation for Social Media obviously gets priority
vis-a vis the daily meditation practice,
Bills are almost always paid last minute...
with the slowest of internet speed, buffering my irritation...
as I forgot where the minutes flew by in the all engrossing chat in the WhatsApp group !


In my mind some tasks will help me shine ,
others are the not-so-important irritants which need to be dealt with

Yet,
I do wonder...

If you can't take on the simple tasks in totality as you can, how can you conquer the big things? 

Reject or Accept : Rumbling Bumbling Cutie pie!

In another plane, another reality

I would be a slim, elegant lady
Waxing eloquent on philosophies of life...

Draped in a crisp off-white, silk sari
Not a hair out of place..
Just filling the room with her grace!

Rather than a Rumbling Bumbling Cutie pie....

My tears would be quietly and surreptitiously dabbed
with a tissue paper, from my waterproof-kohl lined eyes.
No dark, ungainly smudges there...

and no wiping the running nose with hands, for sure!

My slightly curved smile would make it to the cover of Vogue.
My husky measured voice would cause many a-hearts-a flutter,
And not go berserk in the loud hysterical sobs
or guffaws which shake the furniture!

My arguments would be clever and well articulated,
And not tumble out of my mouth
In sometimes shrill,
     sometimes garbled mess, with a life of their own!

My demeanour would be poised,
my emotions draped well on my body,
     well modulated, cohesive and controlled!
Not messy, chaotic and argumentative
     like a lady haggling in Versova fish market!

Yet the person staring at me in the mirror is :

Thodi plump
Thodi defiant
Sometimes messy...or bitchy,
with a dollop of mean streak ...

With a fiercely possessive heart....

AND.....

a

Rumbling Bumbling Cutie pie!

“I knew there was something peculiar about you," she said.
"And I mean that as the highest compliment."
I'd always known I was strange.
I never dreamed I was peculiar.
~Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs~

Famous : Just being myself

Almost nearing the golden jubilee of existence....
still wonder sometimes at what does
being Famous or
being Successful mean....

These words by Naomi Shihab Nye resound in my heart with their authenticity.

Famous 

"The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,

which knew it would inherit the earth

before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds

watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom

is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,

more famous than the dress shoe,

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men

who smile while crossing streets,

sticky children in grocery lines,

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,

but because it never forgot what it could do."

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,

but because it never forgot what it could do.

Whats Appening in your life ?

Connections are simple..

Today, even more so!

With the click of a button, 
an emoji, 
or a like on a Facebook page,
you can “ chat” and get away with it!

I have made some awesome connections through Social Media : 
Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp groups - connections and reconnections...

Old school friends, crushes who can now be safely shifted to category of bff 's , long forgotten cousins, uncles and aunts with whom I don't recall sharing too many conversations in childhood, but share good morning messages now; 
and ofcourse the jolly old office colleagues from twenty five years back !

They are all there....
with their 
Forwards 
Opinions 
Selfies
and Gyaan !

From their professional updates 
to daily shares of moods 
or the check-ins at some airport, 
flying to some exotic locales and eating food with unpronounceable names 
and living up their 'perfect' lives with 'perfect pouts' to match !

Our social lives and our "conversations" are perhaps more frequent, pithy, photoshopped  
and regularly updated now...

Maybe not in person, but definitely on the facebook wall !

In this cacophony of coiffeured, polished  and filtered chats

I do miss the simplicity of  the Pre- Social Media era...

where you sat 

and chatted 

and talked 

and vented 

and laughed

and cried 

and expressed 

and 

where you were listened to, 

or scolded and reprimanded....

with all the compassion
care
bitchiness,
fears
insecurities
upsets
love
support …

Simple unplanned, rough-edged and free flowing conversations

Where there was time to listen and be heard and not be dismissed with a click, a swipe or a 'brb'

Where you could always pick up the phone and unblock the misunderstandings,

Where moments of silence, boredom and restlessness did not have to filled in with everyone checking their Insta updates!

Where hands held each other and not the smartphones...

  

Dignity for the departed

Am mad, mad 😡

A dear friend lost her dad to cancer around three years back.
Very painful, traumatic time for the family!
He was a lively soul-of-the-party ; a committed lawyer, who worked till his last breath and chose to die at home, with respect...

His wife returned from the USA spending time with her son to overcome the trauma , just a month back.

Now almost three years later, she hears from the church they want to remove his skull and bones from the grave, as they don't have space in the cemetery where he was buried and are revamping the whole place!!!

...."We just finished at the graveyard. The skull and main bones will now be washed and given to us in a box...” was my friend's message this morning....

Paucity of space is a reality, even for the dead....
but ...
Isn't there a more sensitive way to handle this?

The church wants the family to keep the remains in the house as shifting to alternate cemetery will take time, a couple of years or more...

Imagine keeping the bones and skull of a dead person in your house... and the emotional state of a 70 old widow who lives alone and is just about looking at....moving on...!!!

I would expect basic respect to the departed soul and to the human beings whose world are being rattled.

How does one bring more sensitivity n dignity in this world, even for the departed??

In gratitude....

Thank you 2017

for the happy, 
the sad, 
the mad , 
the bad ......

and the ALIVE 😘😘