Gratitude Quote

I told you about this great app called “Gratitude” in a previous post. It is a gratitude journal and affirmations diary.

Apart from the great look-feel, daily prompts and other features, another great thing about this app is the daily quotation.

Today’s quote is the one mentioned in the beginning. I share it today because it is especially apt today.

I had been feeling guilty and blaming myself for something not totally my fault. This quote made me realize that instead of beating myself up, I need to learn from my mistake and let go of the guilt.

I need to love, and forgive, myself first.

Illness. Frustration. Vicious Circle.

Today I’m thinking about frustration.

Recently, my father suffered a stroke, as a result of which he developed hemiparesis. Needless to say, this has been a trying time for all of us, but mostly for my parents. Papa, being a doctor himself, has always taken good care of his health, but still developed serious heart issues in the past, and now this. And mom, for so many reasons of her own, cannot cope with this state of his and loses her temper. A lot.

The good thing is that they have their family, good doctors, physiotherapy, 24×7 help. The bad part is they don’t realize the need for professional emotional/mental health support. Moreover, I’m not sure whether such kind of condition-specific psychological support is even available to us (in a small town in India).

In the meantime, being in the health-care field myself, I feel inadequate in this situation. How to help someone who doesn’t realize they need help?

In my last post, “Gratitude“, I talked about how I need to be more grateful in order to truly appreciate what I have. But more important to me now, is the conundrum of how to make my parents realize that they need more optimism, faith, and gratitude in their life. I asked them to read “The Magic”, but they find that troublesome.

What is the cure for  my father’s despondency and my mother’s frustration?

I’m sorry this post has turned into a diary page. But in keeping with my recent resolution, I’m going to end on a grateful note. I’m thankful to God that papa is alive, has full use of his right arm and leg, can eat by himself, is regaining power in the left side. I’m grateful that our family is together, cares for each other, and has the means to look after papa well.

Gratitude

So I recently realized that I’ve lost my zeal, the joy I felt for ordinary things like.. like. . I can’t even remember one instance of foolish joy I might have felt in the past.

And that’s why I downloaded this app, “Gratitude”. Of course I know the value of gratitude in our lives. “The Magic” by Rhonda Byrne is my favorite non-fiction book. Maybe I feel frustrated, angry, dissatisfied because I haven’t been practicing gratitude. At least that’s my current hypothesis.

“Gratitude” is exactly what you’re thinking, a gratitude and affirmations journal with daily prompts and a wonderful feel. For example, today’s reminder is, “what made you smile today?” Isn’t that sweet? Makes me think if all the wonderful things that happened today. My toddler son came to blow on my hand when I playfully acted as though it hurt when I touched a hot dish. I wore a lovely pair of earrings that usually never go with any of my outfits, but did go with my salwar suit today, and felt beautiful, especially when my son complimented me as well! (“Mumma, why are you wearing so pitty pitty ea-ings?)

But this is the thing now. Almost all my happy thoughts include my son. Yes, he’s the sunshine of my life (when he’s not throwing an impossible tantrum, which to be fair, don’t happen often), but I want to laugh at things other than the adorable antics of T. Maybe that’ll come as well. It has only been a week since I started writing this gratitude journal. Hopefully, soon enough, I’ll start finding joy in other things as well!

Think good thoughts for me, please!

Get the “Gratitude” app from the android play store here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.northstar.gratitude

And this is their website:

https://gratefulness.me/

Because the Floor is Too Cold!

India’s rough-and-tough mongrel breed of dog enjoying the sun on a chilly morning. I feel alternately dispirited and amazed.

Now This Is Arbitrary.

As happy as happy could be.

What a baffling phrase/idiom/cliche. Who knows how happy can Happy be? 

I know someone called ‘Happy’ who hates this expression with all his being. No wonder, with a name like that. School was hard on him; with everybody expecting him to be happy all the time. “Fell and hurt your knees? Don’t cry, even your name is Happy!”; “Sky is falling? But you are Happy!”. 

“Happy as Happy can be?”, he’d ask me, “how does anybody know how happy I can be, or have the capacity of being?” 

I wonder how this expression came into being, and whether he suffered any ill-effects from all the curses my friend Happy has sent his way.

Unsophisticated and Happy

Sometimes I feel that critics, epicures, and experts of all kinds must lead such depressing lives. It’s their innate characteristic to look for perfection; but I suppose they hardly find it on a regular basis. And that must be such a constant let-down.

I, on the other hand, could never be accused of having discerning taste in anything, and feel much the happier for it. I’ve had seconds–and thirds–of food that others have called ‘passable’, I’ve enjoyed watching movies that others have labelled ‘a waste of time and money’, I’ve gladly worn hand-me-downs when others told me I looked ‘so last century’. And loved doing it all.

Experts must be such pessimists.

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One Thing I Like Less Than Most Things…

I learn nothing from my past mistakes. There must be a word for people like me. A specific derogatory term for people-who-learn-nothing-from-their-past-mistakes. Not ‘nincompoop’; I already know that one.

So there I was with a mouthful of cavities and root canals, sitting in a dentist’s chair bargaining with God–again–to please let me off this time and I’ll floss twice daily from now on, when the dentist tells me I have finally reaped the fruit of all my midnight snacks and will have to undergo a horrifically painful dental surgery after which my father will probably disown me. Well, he did not say that in so many words but I can catch subtle nuances, you know. I ask him, with an ingratiating grin, whether that surgery will involve taking out my sweet tooth, which is the root of the problem anyway, no pun intended? At least, I thought the grin was ingratiating, but you couldn’t tell that from the bland look he gave me.

While he’s performing that awfully disgusting surgery, I misquote–paraphrase?–Ogden Nash to myself (one thing I hate more than any other, is sitting in a dentist’s chair with my mouth wide open [….] against hope hopen), and wonder whether the tooth fairy leaves something for adults who have their teeth taken out mechanically (no, according to wiki, since the fairytale only works for baby teeth), and if she leaves half a dollar for adults who leave half a tooth under their pillow (see previous explanation).

Even after an hour of the-torture-that-is-both-physical-and-mental I’m not contrite; although I promise to myself that I’ll give up unhealthy tooth-decaying eatables. And the first thing I do when I get back home? I drink half a litre of an aerated, teeth-destroying drink. Like I said, nincompoop or  synonym thereof.
I don’t think the dentist took out my sweet tooth after all, because a day later I was having a sizzling chocolate brownie for dinner. Yes, I learn nothing from my past mistakes.

A note to my by now disgusted readers: I really don’t have that bad a sense of oral hygiene, and I still have all my real teeth. My experiences in the dentist’s surgery have been exaggerated–ranging from slightly to extremely–in this blog post. Well, except the part where the dentist gave me a bland look in answer to my beautiful, ingratiating smile.

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Overrated!

I’ve lost count of the things that have been labelled ‘overrated’ in recent times. Sleep is overrated, life is overrated, blogging, taste, friendship are overrated. So now I’m officially sick and tired of the system of overrating.

Of course sleeping is not ‘overrated’ (which means ‘not worth it’ or ‘ given more importance than it deserves’); ask an insomniac if you think otherwise. Life is not overrated, and if you think it is, it means you are emotionally imbalanced and should take steps to get over your current life situation. In fact, I’ll oppose everyone who calls anything overrated; it’s such a pessimistic attitude! I believe every emotion, relationship, experience, and thing, is worthwhile. It might have a different level of importance for different people, but by itself, it is probably more underrated than the other.

Have people lost interest and faith in everything that is good; in themselves, the world? That they coolly demean everything from energy bars to existence? Or is this phrase just a  mindless, meaningless fad, and will fade with passing seasons?

I fervently hope it’s the latter; because even if it implies that the masses are prone to mob behaviour, at least it also promises that sanity will return in future generations.

Life

Everything is a metaphor.