Summer 2011 with colour tree, Wanna come?

Its starting today..

A month of fun with tots and tweens under the sun..The colour tree summer camp.


I am excited..The anticipation of  taking root, shooting out  and flying high..This  time with a partner..


Heres' to creative,engaging,
collaborative,fun-filled, happy times!

Just Be..

Lovely summer morning.. I catch a moment with my self in my little patch of green.

There is a whiff in the air.. an uplifting fragrance .. there are a couple of jasmine flowers  abloom right behind me..

They were just being and being how!!
Can i just be? Without  the hundred things to think, do and say every moment.

I am tying this.. Just being ..its wonderful!

Waves of time

Iam home in chennai..

Its a beautiful morning. Sister and I walk up to the Tiruvanmiyur beach at sunrise hour.There is magic in the air.. the Sun..sand and the surf..

As i drench my feet in the  rushing waves  and admire the amazing efficiency with which they wipe the shore clean , I am energized.I think that these waves work just like time in wiping the past clean and handing  a clean slate every new minute,hour and day.

Why is it that we drag our past into every new moment in our life? Can we not just forget an event and just remember the lesson, if it happens to be unpleasant?

I also realise the immense power in living in the "NOW",free of the past and the future.When the past remains  in the past and present is free from the anxieties of future.. You are truly alive and free..!

Sleeping in a Storm..

I read Mitch Alboms' " Have a little faith" a while back..It  is a lovely book which begins with Mitch being asked by his 82 year old rabbi to write his eulogy.

Over a couple of years  and over many meetings with the dying rabbi and another Pastor , Mitch re-discovers faith.

One story which the rabbi narrates stayed on with me...Its about "sleeping in the Storm".

There is a guy who is seeking employment in a barn. His previous employer writes him a one line letter of reference which simply reads" He sleeps in a storm".The new employer in dire need for help, hires him nevertheless.

Soon , the employer wakes up to a stormy morning and runs around the barn trying to secure the crop and livestock. he finds that all his crop is tied up and dry , the cattle have been fed and are secure and everything that could go wrong is right.. and his hired help is asleep.

Then he understands ..The man sleeps in a storm..

when you take care of things that ought to be attended to without procrastination, you can indeed sleep in a storm.

This story lent me a new meaning to freedom. You can be free only  when you are responsible.You  experience  freedom   without that niggling worry only when  tend to your life as if there is no tomorrow..then and there.

You can truly sleep in a storm, Amen to that!

Indiyeah!

What a day! India are the winners of the Cricket world cup final..

For me this event, marks a time when belief in self is back in vogue! India to regain her glory needs her people to do this .. believe in themselves and stay true to their roots.. It is so easy to get swayed by stories of doom and gloom ...but , the minute we believe , we can, yes we can!

Go India Go!

Flash back to a time when we believed..the Story of our independence movement..

P has captured it so well in her social studies final exam paper..in this story board..The key events of the freedom movement and finally at the stroke of the midnight hour on 15th August 1947 we are a free nation.

I end this post with a video of D singing , Nanna Munna rahi hoon..The evergreen number of a young kids dream for the motherland and the promises he wants to keep for her..

Jai Hind!

Hungry Caterpillar and Spunky Snail

The second edition of the colour tree workshops drew to a close today..

The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle  follows the journey of a caterpillar from the time he is a tiny egg on a leaf.He is ravenous, as he breaks out of his egg, one fine Sunday morning.. eating up all that he can he can find.. He is doing fine till Friday...On Saturday, he gobbles up a whole of junk fund and gets ill with a stomach ache..gets better on Sunday , eating healthy stuff and slow he is not a little caterpillar any more.. He is big and fat and builds a house around himself.He Stays in his cocoon house for a couple of weeks, until he finally nibbles his way out of his house and he is beautiful butterfly!..

Then we went off one some wild trips with a spunky snail , who wants  to see the world! What can stop any one  from following their dreams? Not size! She hitches a ride with a friendly blue hump back whale and off they go!....past icebergs and volcanoes , storms and sharks..they run into trouble as the whale gets lost and beached..
Preview
Our spunky little friend to the rescue.. she gets help and the two friends are back on sea..!

An enduring tale about spunk,following dreams , thinking about of the box, small is big.. if you will, and  friendship through good and bad times..
Best friends forever.. Snail and the Whale...Go on guys!