The year is up for wraps

The year is up for wraps..

And I end the year with satisfaction of sticking to two things I initiated at the beginning of the year.
Daily journaling  and a 365 day project on instagram to photo-record my traipsing through the year.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BsDMrxzHAX5/
 records the completion

I also kept all the promises i made to myself at the beginning of the year :)
https://profoundinanities.blogspot.com/2018/01/

As i gazed mesmerimesed at the Kanchanjunga at Darjeeling , made  a few more promises for the year to come ...

Signing off for the year with the beautiful words of Songwriter Morgan Harper Nichols..

Seasons

S is here and love her spontaneous bursts of creativity.
Her impromtu etching and coloring of the " Seasons"for me ,brought home the cheer and joy of the changing seasons....

The shift of the seasons spring eternal hope to me and bring so much to look forward to. I have come to beleive in Shelley when he wrote  "If Winter comes, can spring be far behind"? .
This transience also tells me whats enduring ..
It is our ability to find joy ..
In the backdrop of all that changes , we always possess the ability to appeciate what's lovely and make peace with what's not. This sense of wonder and connection with all that is around , i think , makes us more empathetic and compassionate .

I have come to cherish the fire of summer and the swish of the monsoons and the gentle warmth and breeze of the interludes.
For I know seasons turn and the kind cloud will be back after a fiery sun ..

Walking Trail

A few years back , i read an article - a sharing of a woman going through an intense phase in her life and how her saturday morning ritual of walking a forested trail , kept her going . She looked forward to this exploration of some uncharted portion of the trail .

I have often wished for these getting aways by myself .... long treks on trails known and unknown .
Cheryl Stryaed and her "Wild" remain one of my favorite journeys ..

There is a tiny trail  that leads to a small hillock which i spy from my window each day / every .day. Finally i had plotted my walk to this trail on a balmy sunday morning ...

Just under 5 kms one -way  , and lush with vegetation both sides of the track , has  a curated park at the end  - one of town's picnic spots .

That sunday morning , had that trail almost to my-self .. Came away sun soaked and energied :)

Back to the Village ...

This hamlet on the banks of river nila holds a speacial place in my book of childhood memories .
Thirunellayi village , in Palakkad district  where my grandparents lived a big part of their lives. summer vacations meant train journeys , playing from dawn to dusk with cousins in and around  the sprawling house, afternoons on the swing , jaunts to the river bank,village festivals and sweets..

It stays as beautiful as i see it in my minds eye, though caught up somewhat  with the trappings of modentity and development...

The house got re-built recently  by an aunt who organised for the family to get -together .

The mind still yearned for the sights of the yore , i reckoned ...

The Deluge and thereafter

A saurday morning and a feeble sun is out ..

There could not have been a more welcome sight to a people rained down and deluged over the past 4 days ...

The Floods arrived and how.

Water levels breached, homes inundated, people displaced , rivers changing course in spate , dams not opened in decades set free.

The floods also opened gates of compassion as people got to-gether to support one-another to rise up from the what the floods had brought and  taken.

If nature could break free, so could mankind  from limited definitions of mine and theirs .

If only we remembered...
The lessons of the Flood ...

Independence and freedom

Independence day with a group of  young women , this year..
A group task for them to explore what independence and freedom meant to them through a poster .
Young hands and minds got to work creating ..
And they had quite to few things to say.

As each of them , presented their idea on freedonm , independenance and Living in Free India  , felt heartened to be a part of their sharing.Bold colours, vivid words , powerful ideas and  strong voices that spoke passionately .

Wished for each of them , exciting lives ahead where they tested boundaries, tasted freedom and exercised choice in every which way possible !

My Month !

Its July and My month !

A Birthday rendered special as my best peeps arrived !
The local and very special A plotted that P arrives while S made a planned arrival to join my lovely family around .

All said ( which always turns to be alot with this special band around ) and done( making the most of the limited time we get ) , happy time having people that "get "me ,  and root and cheer for me !
I am also rooting around  this time and days to come   for a very special V , who has a great affinity to Gems , fiercely and prayerfully to turn the bend , become whole , heal and shine !

As i cherish Love  of the very special ones in my life ...I am reminded of Philosopher Martin Heidegger's words , when he said..
“Why is love rich beyond all other possible human experiences and a sweet burden to those seized in its grasp? 
Because we become what we love and yet remain ourselves.”

And I say Thank You to the special people whom i have become and and for who i remain . 

Rock and Tumble...

One of the places , around town , I always wanted to visit was a water fall that went by the name "Pattathi Para"..Para in Malayalam is rock. Its the first word that intigued me. As i deepened my understanding of the language and the ethos of the place i call home now, I came to understand that the word meant - brahmin woman , more specifically a tamil speaking brahmin woman.
A female to the male "pattar"..

This lent a world of imagination in my head as to why a rock would be called so ?!

I imagined a free- sprited young woman . Learned , astute but curious and somewhat wild who would make sojourns to the rock to commune with nature and be herself. Far-away from the piercing dogmatic eyes that would have her conform , behave in a certain prim and proper way.
It was her place, a place she owned by the sheer connection she had forged with the land.So strong her connection that the rock got named after her , her presence eternal with the rock.

Come June and a long weekend , on a monsoonal afternoon , we set out to explore this place. The road was motorable upto a point and beyond that was a small trek through a path marked out only for a single file ascent by years of feet treading the path .

Lush greenery all around, clouds pregnant with rain , we set out seeking . After a 20 minute ascent in a clearning was this beautiful sheet of water falling off a table like rock.
and so it was ..
A table of rock and not a huge boulder of my imagination , causing the water gushing from above to tumble like a sheet , collect in a basin below and flow down stream to meet the river...

Also had a reality bite when i learnt the sprightly woman in question actually had tumbled to death in the water-fall and hence the name.


May be she came trundling down often , sat on the rock , cooled off and went back to integrate to what life offered her.. may be she was a path breaker .. a vivid journey halted by a wee slip ...Who could tell ?

But she lives on in the lush , the rock and  the tumble of water , I told myself.

Kids and I had had an afternoon of exploration, walking a trail and soaking in the beauty of Pattathi para ...

Me Mom !

Wake up Sunday morning to a delightful surprise by the girls.
A carefully put- together hamper -gift by them to celebrate Mothers Day !

Kind of over whelmed to hear from the two most  important beings in my life ..As I became a mother, I accessed  vulnerability and strength  all at the same time. Kind of life altering .

I have re-lived my childhood, enhanced
 it even ...
I have grown up with them , all over again ..
I have also struggled , battled inadequencies , in my journey of being their MoM.

As i have bumbled my way , with no measuring yardstick , have learned to Be all I possibly can for them and for my self.

Thanks you , my dears , for choosing me to be your MoM.
It indeed is a privilege of a life time .

30 Prompts-30 Poems

The idea of brevity in writing has held immense appeal for me .. Less is always more , i firmly believe.. I think you can pack in as much power in a line of potent words , as you would in a rambling essay .

Was up for a writing challenge , this April..
Hosted by TTT- Terribly tiny tales - a platform that celebretes writers and their tiny tales.They called it the National Poetry Writing Month with the hashtag #NaPoWriMoTTT..
30 days.30 prompts.30poems .

I would eagerly await the days' prompt and let loose a brief volley of words and April apart from being Sunny, wanderlusty and restful also turned Poetic !

Day 17: Begin and end your poem with the same line

Find me..
In breezy,leafy parks,
waves at the beach,
tucked in a book shop,
in the stationery aisle of a supermarket..
sipping a cuppa by the window ,watching rain
In colour, in words, in light..
Please..
Find me ..

Joy of Journalling

Summer of 18 is here..
D and I kickstarted the summer vacation with a balcony mural project.
Something she does , every summer , is maintain a pictoral holiday journal..

She writes out her day and illustrates /sticks up pictures/ movie stubs/restrauant menus/ shopping cards that denote her day .

Its my delight to read and see her making each day of her summer vacation count and re-count !

The Love for journalling passed on :)

Wabi-Sabi

V , an avid roadee and a photgrapher shared a series of sunset pictures with me with the specific mandate that i write about them.

A stunning set of sunset pictures with wild branches silhoutted by the setting sun..

Brought to my mind , the japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi -“a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.” quoting wiki..

An idea that accepts and celebrates- transience ( nothing lasts ) and imperfection ( nothing is perfect ). At the same paradoxically all that IS , is eternal, timeless and perfect . Imposing ideals of perfection and permanence seems unnecessary and obtrusive. It hinders the gentle flow of all that is and can be...

As we accept , we become richer for the experiences unfolding- without having the pressure to seek the perfect moment. We spare ourselves from trying to find a  needle in the haystack - a draining goose-chase !

Love Life ..

February 14 !
A day that celebrates Love .. A force  that keeps this earth spinning on its axis and has it head over heels !!

As i have examined love over the years , i find am totally in love with the idea of love ! and what's not to love anything about love ..
A hopeless romantic that  I am , I do find that though I have lived for the excitement of falling
in love ,  over the years,have also built the nerve to being in love and sustaining the love . More so for myself !

I read somewhere that where love is thin ,faults are thick..

This capacity to love necessarily must include a were withall to embrace all that is not only good , but also the bad and ugly .. in the person /object of our attention and affection.

Love becomes a force when it is unconditional , an unlimited source of fuelling our desires and  affections !

Sou recently shared a book dedication which literally sang to me :

For XYZ.. who is neither the breath in my lungs nor the wind beneath my wings and does not complete me.
Here's to a pair of independently -breathing , fully-complete, wingless mortals who choose each other. Everyday . Always .

My kind of  Love..

Sylvia path says it for me ..
Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences!
and that sums up my Love Life !

50 years of Sitaram !

This beautiful couple celebrate their Golden Anniversary !

50 years with each other..
through thick and thin .. through joy and sorrow.. with discipline , fortitude and  grace ..

If one journeyed onward , blazing a trail for himself , the other journeyed silently supporting him ...

Happy 50th Amma , Appa and wish you many beautiful happy , healthy years ahead with each other !

Setting the tone !

New Year !
And I promise myself loads of writing , lots of reading, discovering more of myself , investing in myself and enjoying the ride through the contours of all that this year holds!
I also promise myself varied experiences, doing more and making more memories and moments to cherish.

A journal is in  place to record my journey , all the planning and doing , fumbling and fixing , rant and rave ,agony and ecstacy ...

A photo essay is afoot on instagram to capture my year ... the beautiful essence of each day as it pans out ...

Emily Dickinson wrote .. " Iam out with lanterns looking for myself "

I am eager to see what i find out !