If there's one thing that always warms my heart, it is the kindness of strangers. The more I experience it, the more I am motivated to give without expectations, following the example of my own Mom and Grandma, who had made it a way of life.
Often, we find that when we expect something from those close to us and do not receive it, we become disappointed. This feeling supersedes all thought and sometimes, we forget to stop to think why they couldn't come through.
As my Mom was fond of saying - we receive the kindness of strangers to compensate for all that. You see, it is the balance of life. At the end of the day, everything tallies.
Today, my gratitude is for the kindness of strangers in my life. And I firmly believe that there are no real strangers - only friends I haven't met....YET.
Tea time
You know I wear a big red dot on my forehead - my "bindi". I ran out of them and went to buy some from the market. I walked into the usual store where the shopkeeper was busy cleaning and rearranging some shelves. I asked him for what I wanted and he nodded, said he'd get them in a moment and continued to do what he was doing. I didn't mind - I mean, it is a shop I usually enjoy browsing around. Lots of stuff like earrings, cosmetics and other trinkets. Now, just because I do not use cosmetics except moisturizer doesn't mean I don't enjoy looking - and I did.
When he was done with putting back some shelves, he came around the counter and urged me to sit in one of the stools. I said naah - and after he yelled at someone outside, we chatted. Turned out he ordered some masala tea for us. I grinned and tried to act coy, but he wouldn't hear of me not drinking the tea. And of course, he's a Gujarati and mentioned that it was special masala chai. So we both settled down to our super-hot cups of tea. We talked about politics, our current Prime Minister, state of the economy, pollution, hospitals ..... you name it - he had an opinion about it. After a very pleasant hour, I left with my stack of bindi sheets and a couple of earrings I fell in love with. Oxidized silver drop earrings - one with blue stones and the other, red. I smiled all the way home.
Daily outing
My physiotherapy session which is more like an outing with a friend. During that hour, I have a lovely time reminiscing, chattering, listening and sharing stories with her. While the up side is my recovery, I'll certainly miss her when the sessions are over. I am grateful for a fun doc (with gorgeous hair and a sense of humor) who oozes positivity and down to earth-ness.
Love
Four days ago, I started cleaning my kitchen. It took me half a day to just move some of the stuff into the living room. I was over-confident, assuming I could not only finish the deep cleaning but also get everything back in place. How ambitious! Of course I couldn't. In the course of cleaning, I thought, why not also give it a coat of paint? Sadly, I lost my stamina by the time it was 5 pm, but figured it was just fatigue - after all, I had been moving around almost the whole day, washing cleaning lifting stuff.
When I woke up the next morning, my body didn't belong to me. So, I have deferred the painting by a couple of months. I also realized how foolish I would be to start this project when my son's exams are around the corner. I am grateful for good sense showing up at the right moment. And? Blessed to have family that finds the whole thing super-hilarious. Right now half the kitchen is in the living room and the kitchen? Partially clean.
It has been a lovely two weeks with Vidur at home, as we go about our stuff. Presence makes such a huge difference. All the more precious because we're not quite sure what the future has in store in terms of location. I am grateful for these days.
Compassion
Last week, on February 20, thousands of bloggers participated in #1000Speak - and it was a treat to read a multitude of posts about compassion. I am still reading and you can too. Here's the consolidated list. http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=497564 Carry tissues, you might need it!
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The Gratitude Circle is hosted by me, Vidya Sury and Corinne Rodrigues
