It’s all in the curve

Day-87 Gratitude series
12.07.20

It’s all in the Curve

This particular pot holder stands effectively in my garden and I love the way the tiny flowers bloom to add colour to my garden and blossom to help me drown my dour mood.
The flowers are a delicate, pastel orange and they look at me in exasperation at my dour mood that has lasted for more than 48 hours.
They sensed it last morning too, and today were in no mood to pamper my silly idiosyncrasies. In fact, when I went near them, they all synchronised to turn away from me.

I would have felt bad but realised it would have no effect on them.
It was best I pull my act together, be the wonderful me,and woo them again.
The silliness of my position at being the lady and mistress of my fiefdom, and having to woo flowers before they fell off the plant to mud-earth?

Somewhere along the way, in wooing them, without realizing, I not only felt better but dissolved into laughter.

They responded by blooming abundantly while craning their spruced bodies and adding a little more colour to their orange.
From pale to vibrant.

Is this not true? That love helps us bloom? And when we return abundance with abundance, we can stop wilting and promote thriving?
I know this to be true.

We humans too are bundles of love with the energy of harmony.

Most of the time we are too scared to recognize it for fear of appearing vulnerable. But vulnerability and the ability to be
silly and child-like does make for better relationships than smartness.
Having ease with Vulnerability is the new sexy. Empowering.

Awareness is easy and fun. Refines us. Allows us to make choices based on intuition.

Grateful for the artisan who took a length of iron and curved a curvy pot-holder for me.
Grateful for all of life.
The throb, the pulse, the drift, the steady.
The erotic, the exotic, the sensual, the mundane.

“When you dance, whole universe dances.
All the realms spin around you in endless celebration
Your soul loses its grip
Your body sheds its fatigue
Hearing my hands clap and my drum beat
You begin to whirl”……Rumi.

Light & Love,
Dr Naznin
( Spiritual Life Coach-Psychotherapist)

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The Ring

Day-86 Gratitude series

10.07.20

 

The Ring

 

Anyone who has met me often knows that I love my rings.

Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds, Pearls.

And what else can I be grateful for? It is not for the gems, but my fingers which adorn them. Grateful for the many tasks I can complete with my fingers. This writing too.

 

Whilst abroad, a friend there, told me that as you have even-colored brown hands, gold looks better. Thankful again.

 

Most importantly, thankful for the artisan who painstakingly crafted this ring for me.

To my specifications, assuring my satisfaction. Grateful.

 

India has the best artisans in the world and we have treasures to behold. I wish to honour all of them with this ring.

And of course, I mainly am grateful for “me being me” to have ordered this ring for myself.

 

Why? Because I wished to. Simple is not it?

 

Life is simple if you choose to make it.

It gets complicated when “The Complex” is what you choose.

Experience tells me that most problems have simple solutions. It may require an intent to solve the issue and a different perspective.

And a willingness to choose alternatives

 

How mediocre would life be if we didn’t have a willingness to experience LIFE? A willingness to love. Totally. Passionately. Laughingly. Joyously??

What a waste of life that would be?

Why else would we be born if not to live a life of unbridled passion?

A life of incorrigible optimism

A life of unflinching FAITH.

This is the only way I know how to live.

This is the only way I choose.

 

“I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it, and above all become passionate about it.

Lukewarm is no good.” (Roald Dahl)

 

“After a while, you learn

That even sunshine burns if you get too much

So you plant your own garden

And decorate your own soul

Instead of waiting

For someone to bring you flowers” (Veronica S)

 

With Grace and Gratitude

Light & Love

©Dr Naznin

 

 

Mr Effy

 

Day-85 Gratitude series

08.07.20

 

Mr Effy

 

So what do I be grateful for today?

 

I read this, that Gratitude is not an attitude.

Gratitude is something that flows out of you when you are overwhelmed by what has been given to you.

It completely resonates with me and this also is the reason why I just overflow with love and gratefulness for all that I experience.

 

Life is truly a joy.

 

Today I say a happy thank you to Mr Effy.

My 4-year-old car.

 

I wish to tell it how much it is loved and how much we appreciate the wonderful way in which it continues to serve us. Taking us safely to over 80,000 kilometers and more.

Each day, day in and day out.

He has carried my children and me to innumerable places and has been witness to endless conversations, tears, giggles, and rapturous laughter.

Not to mention the unmentionables, the enticing secrets, and the whispered bitching.

Mr Effy has been witness to all and loyally kept my confidences. The tires too hold the road with ease and we glide around our city effortlessly on this little saloon as though it were a BMW or grander.

Thank you Mr Effy.

Life is a breeze with you.

 

Sharing 2 short poems.

“I often sit and wonder,

How it happened….Him and I.

We could have stayed as strangers,

As ships just passing by.

But something happened to us,

And it happened, Him and I.

History, once it’s written,

Can never be denied. (anon)

 

 

A time to talk.

“When a friend calls to me from the road

And slows his horse to a meaning walk,

I don’t stand still and look around

On all the hills I haven’t hoed,

And shout from where I am, What is it?

No, I take time to talk.

I park my car and thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,

Blade-end up and five feet tall,

And plod: I go up to the stone wall

For a friendly visit and talk. (anon)

 

Life is ours and Bliss is within.

Light & Love

@Dr Naznin

Does life bloom or do we?

Day-84 Gratitude series

06.07.20

 

Life blooms or do we?

 

Life has different hues and while light comprises all the colours of the VIBGYOR. Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red.

This photograph is of the same beauty, the same flower, at its different stages.

Its progress from bud to bloom is here for us all to see.

 

What about our personal blooms and transformations? Are we aware of what is going on within us? Do we allow change to occur? Are we scared of change?

Most people are.

But why, I wonder?

 

Is not, not-to-change extremely boring? Scary too?

 

What if we had to have the same vegetable to eat every day? Of course, that may not be a comparable analogy but nevertheless, it is wonderful to ask for change. It is the most enriching gift you can give yourself.

 

Caterpillar to butterfly, seed to tree, bud to bloom, naivety to maturity.

There could be pain and joy through each stage. So what?

 

One would like to be in the comfort of their zone.

And yet, how do you know that the comfort that you’ve built for yourself is better than the change that you’re too scared of embracing?

 

Everyone likes a happily-ever-after.

So did I

But over the years I have learned that some of the best poems do not rhyme, and many great stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, or end.

Some stories just are.

 

Life is about not knowing, embracing change, and taking each moment and making the best of it without knowing what’s going to happen next.

The mystery of not knowing can be addictive and lots of fun.

 

Buds to blooms. Grateful for this flower to have shown up in my life to brighten my day.

 

Rebirth by Alex Elle

“There will be moments when

You will bloom fully

And then…..wilt,

Only to bloom again.

If we can learn anything from flowers it is that resilience is born

Even when we feel like we are dying”

 

Freedom and fire,

Magic and miracles

Choice and choice

Life is indeed beautiful and so are we.

Immensely grateful for me being me.

Light & Love

©Dr Naznin

Frozen in time

Day-83 Gratitude series

04.07.20

 

Frozen in time

 

What does a clock mean to all of us?

Apart from the obvious telling us the time, what does it signify?

It does show us the same time twice a day and it is for us to decipher what hour of the day it is. We have different phases during the day.

Sunrise or sunset, dawn or dusk, or high-noon.

 

It is how we perceive time. If it goes dark during the day due to an eclipse, then the time and how it looks outside our window can get confusing once more. So it just is.

 

And what would it mean to be frozen in time?

Time neither freezes nor do we. All we can freeze is our memories.

 

If I reflect, the memories that are frozen in mind and heart are the ones that hold some significance for me.

 

The birth of my children

The confidences I shared with a close friend

My father singing me my wake-up song

My elder brother carrying me up the stairs

My younger one excelling at table-tennis

The look of love from one deeply cherished

The laughter and tumble I shared with another

My mom making me stir-fry noodles for my board exam.

 

These are the advantages of having a pocket watch that is frozen in time.

Immensely grateful.

 

And then I have other memories of being hurt from a loved one that could have left deep scars if I had let them. I chose to become whole again. As best I could. I am not sure I have succeeded.

I yet stubbornly choose LIFE. Choose gladness. Choose to study and learn. Choose to make friends. Choose trust. Choose love.

Certain memories deserve to be removed from the cold storage, thawed, and consciously put to fire and ash-ed.

And the sun rises once again and the lengthening shadows shorten to a no-shadow time and it is a time of total brilliance. Total light.

Life smiles again only because you choose to do so

and life responds to your fierce energy of life and joy.

 

“One step at a time.

You’re trying to get from A to D

But first, you must get through B and C

Don’t let a locked door stop you.

From getting to where you want to be.

There is lots you can do with a sledgehammer

Or perhaps you might find the key!

Look at the options.

Make a plan

Can you do it? Yes, you can !! “ (from the net)

 

Life is indeed beautiful and so are we.

Life is yours and Bliss is within

Light & Love

©Dr Naznin

Rumi

Day-82 Gratitude series

02.07.20

Rumi story

 

This is a painting on cloth which I had bought on one of my jaunts to Jaipur. These are the dancing dervishes and they remind me of Rumi.

Jalaluddin Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, an Islamic dervish, and a Sufi mystic. Born in 1207 AD, he belonged to a family of learned theologians.

He made use of everyday life’s circumstances to describe the spiritual world.

Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam, which emphasizes universal love, peace, acceptance of various spiritual paths, and a mystical union with the divine.

The whirl of a dervish, as depicted above, symbolizes their fervency to the Almighty.

 

I am grateful that I am able to appreciate the different theological and philosophical perspectives without bias and am deeply grateful.

 

It is also sensible to understand that a spiritual connection is a deeply internal mechanism and need not be a reason to be pugnacious..(reason to fight).

I am grateful for my upbringing which has allowed me to think uniquely.

The following are Rumi quotes that appeal to me.

 

The first one…

“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion”

 

How beautiful is this? We are actually moving all the time then why do we fix ourselves with fixed perceptions?

 

The second one…..

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.”

There is so much peace and soothe when you lie down on the grass, words are unnecessary.

 

The third one….

”Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form”

 

True, I have witnessed it. And the new form is right for us when it comes around.

So grateful.

 

The fourth one….

“The way you make love is the way God will be with you.” “Until your eyes constantly exhale love as effortlessly as your body yields its scent.”

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

 

This I find so beautiful. Undoubtedly the only way to love is wholeheartedly.

Without barriers.

And it is luckier to have loved and lost ( if it could be called losing) then never to have loved at all.

I am so grateful for all my loves.

 

Cheers to the mystic of Rumi.

Life is indeed beautiful and so are we.

Light & Love

©Dr Naznin

Daisy

 

Day-81 Gratitude series

30.06.20

 

Daisy.

 

I awoke from my sleep from the proverbial wrong side of the bed, grouchy as a grizzly bear, and as touchy as a porcupine.

My daughter took one look at my face and quickly disappeared to her room saying she had some important assignment to complete and my maid afraid of me descending on her, efficiently vamoosed.

 

I, having no one to shout at, went grudgingly to my kitchen and started the electric kettle to have my morning coffee. It’s a ritual that keeps me sane as I generally have late nights and the black, bitter Davidoff is my recovery dose for a good day.

 

Sometimes I know, I revel in my grumpy disposition, just for fun.

It offers me a wonderful escape from being my chirpy self and gives me at least half a day of happy snuggling with misery and wallowing in self-pity.

 

Oh, how I love these days too.

 

I have also secretly realized that this happens on those days when I get hooked onto a serial and wish to binge-watch the last 4-5 episodes where I am eager to know the outcome of the story. ( I am into Turkish serials at present with really dishy guys).

 

So much for my self-berating, I happened to glance towards my garden and what do I spy? This small little bud-bloom craning her neck to be noticed.

Oh, was she a sight for my sore self.

Pink and tiny and fraught to share her smile with me.

 

And believe you me, the moment I laid my glance on her, this darling Daisy ( I christened her there and then), bloomed from bud to flower, smiling and gay and her infectious gaiety absorbed my misery totally.

Grateful I was.

Delighted and relieved were my maid and daughter.

 

Oh, it is so much easier to believe in Miracles and Magic.

So when life is upside down and everything seems dour, I know I could turn it around because I have my blooming daisy.

 

“Nothing’s more hopeful than a daisy,

Petals flapping a happy hula dance,

Soaking up the day’s music,

Drunk on life’s romance” ( Taken from the internet)

 

Life is beautiful and so are we.

Light & Love

©Dr Naznin

My mom.

Day-80 Gratitude series
27.06.20
My Mom

Yay, I am on day 80. Yesterday, after I posted my article, an ardent reader reminded me on my personal chat that yesterday’s article was actually 79th and not 78th as I had marked and I am grateful to him for having done so, as I am to him, for reading my articles so diligently.
Thank you.

This painting reminds me of my mom. Sweet, Gentle and ever-loving. She was a pillar to our family and to her brothers and sisters and they value her immensely today. I lost her recently.

She followed my father six months after and it was a double blow. And yet, the love they shared was story-book material and I am ever so grateful to have been born to her. I feel that I was not as expressive to her when she was with me and I know that spiritually she shall sense my energy today.
She was on her feet right till the end, as she wished to be.
Immensely resilient in her mind, she gave us children strong ethics and values and taught us the value of education.

Her favourite lesson to me was, “ Be Kind”, “ There is always enough love to go around. Spread it.”
A contented soul if ever there was one.

“My mother’s tree was grown with love,
Her branches guided by the heavens above.
She shared her gifts of nourishing fruits,
Grew our wings and established our roots.
This was always a kind and loving tree
With an abundantly blossomed canopy.
I only hope when my turn is to come,
That I will have my mothers’ green thumb. (by Abigail)

Thank you for always, believing in me, ammi.
I know I made you proud. Grateful.
I love you with all my heart.
Life is mine and Bliss is within
Light & Love
©Dr Naznin

Bulbul and Myna

Day-78 Gratitude series

26.06.20

 

Bulbul-Myna

 

This is my 78th article and I am grateful I have reached here. This writing has brought joy to me and to countless others who have written to me and am truly humbled.

 

This is a collage I had made with a partner for a task we undertook to complete. We decided on this picture from the net and she made the blue part in Mumbai and photographed it.

I made the orange part here and photographed and then we collaged it.

It was a fun experience creating the flow and we managed a pretty decent job.

 

Flow works. Harmony works. And it is possible.

 

It is not very difficult if we have a keen eye and a clear intent to create a current within the flow to enhance the quality of our canvass.

The canvass of our life works in the same way.

 

Keep adding colours of beautiful people and memories, bit by bit, flower by flower, colour by colour., branch by branch, bird by bird.

Even those pieces which don’t seem to fit, we can crop them a little and fudge the borders to create a happy melange of colours thus creating an amazing life for ourselves.

It’s quite easy.

 

It’s ok to move people who may have been at the center of our canvas and shift them to the periphery. It’s ok to drop some off our globe completely.

And to have new ones enter. Some go straight to our centers, some slide in, some jump in, some hop on the bandwagon of merrymakers.

All are welcome. My heart is warm and I play with many colours.

 

I like dark shadows too.

They bring about the starkness of light.

 

It is life after all. And a beautiful one at that.

The vibrancy of splatter, the highs and lows, and the fierce bursts have many hidden stories to tell.

 

My memories fill my canvass. They mirror the depth of my eyes.

Light and shadow dance gaily.

Or do I just see it as such? I wonder.

 

Life is mine and Bliss is within.

Light & Love

©Dr Naznin

Laila & me & The Sun

 

Day-78 Gratitude series

Laila and me and the Sun

This is a dual picture. I had kept my mobile camera under the sun for a picture of the ongoing eclipse as an experiment and at the same time I happened to look out the window and I saw my Neem tree who I call Laila, quivering her leaves frantically.

Shaking in the wind.

At first, I thought it was fear. Then I realized that she was telling me something.

What is it that I hear?

Since always, we have heard that when an eclipse occurs, it is the time when we have to be careful. Doom awaits if you do or don’t do…this or that.

But what if it were not like this at all?

What if it were seen from a different perspective?

The sun is our source of all life, light, and energy.

Instead of assuming that the moon eclipses the mighty sun, what if we understood that the moon is a little fatigued and the sun is holding it in its engulf?

Cradling it and letting it pass with more energy?

What if we understood that when there is an alignment between the earth, the moon, and the sun, it is a time of peace, harmony, and rejoicing?

Why do we debate so much over bleak causes or outcomes?

Why does an outlook towards life have to be desolate and dark for it to be noticed?

Why do I consistently perceive differently about the same things?

When the last bits of sunlight pass through the moon and the faint corona around the sun is just becoming visible, it looks like a ring with glittering diamonds on it. And this fascinating diamond ring effect is my go-to during a solar eclipse.

The Neem tree through the rustle of her leaves and I shared the above talk.

I love the eclipses.

And even if we didn’t, they would yet occur.

And for their persistence, we, the Neem tree and I love the solar eclipse even more.

Laila is tall and elegant, even though her leaves are bitter.

I love the taste of this bitter water from her leaves as it keeps my immunity intact.

Does not a leaf give its life up for me to feed me her vitality? Does not each plant I consume?

Supremely grateful

Life is so full of beautiful, wonderful creatures. Big and small. On earth and in water. And on the heavens above.

The mysterious Cosmic.

“They kissed so long and tenderly

Wrapped in a sweet romance –

Before my eyes they twirled in

A graceful cosmic dance

The darkened skies then set a scene

A truly splendid thing

As from their heavenly union shone

A shimmering diamond ring” by Valerie Dohren

Light & Love

©Dr Naznin