12 Days of Love

12 Days of Love

This year, I am attempting to try and create smiles on at least one random person for 12 days. And I plan to share my experience with you all. Sharing happy vibes and memories can only trigger more happiness and let it grow and spread. Join me in this little journey. If you want to join in through your own journey, sure give it a shot. If you try this or any other stories of how you made a random person smile, please share it here. Would love to hear about it.

Day 12: Power of Thoughts in Instilling Goodness

To wrap up the series, I want to write about something that has been and is very close to my heart. I am neither well read nor too critical on the science or spiritual depths of this, but it is a power that I have always believed in, seen blossoming results and something that I have been using to propel my life, my loved ones lives and even random souls. The power of manifesting vibes and generating goodness through the power of our own thoughts. Being honest, it is something that I have not been wishing on myself in the recent past. As the new year bodes, I make myself an astute commitment to focus on manifesting kindness and goodness to myself and to every soul that I am able to. I would love to share a little into this world of mine.

When you take a walk around a neighborhood park, you see a pristine baby with her timid eyes exploring the glaring blue skies. Surrounded by her is someone who gives a vibe that their life revolves around the happiness of this baby. Every gasping smile the baby takes, you can see this spread ten fold on this person around the baby. Moving past them, we wish the baby grows up into an angel with a lot of inner beauty. She receives all the love and care in this world and the soul that shines on her happiness is tearily proud with how life turns out. Hey, we are strangers to them, but try it out. And when we do, let’s strongly believe that what we wish for manifests. It adds good vibes to the aura around them, it adds goodness in our thoughts, makes us feel satisfied and the vibe to keep doing it more and more.

When we have a good time with our friends next time, we know we have made some thirst quenching memories. We know that we have created soothing moments for our hearts to ponder upon. Going back to our private zones, what if ponder our thoughts and instill more goodness into the already pleasant vibes? Oh this friend created a smile in me today, I wish he has a lovely week ahead of him and he cracks his upcoming interview that he has prepared so much for in the past couple of years. Oh this other friend seemed a little off today. I know she has been having a tough past few months. I know she doesn’t deserve to go through what she has been going through, but I wish deeply that she is hit by a magic healing eraser and finds peace that she has been craving for. I wish she receives love and only that from her surrounding rather than love with conditional commitments. I wish she feels better and happy. Oh this other friend missed out today, but I wish he is genuinely happy and finds a good time in the upcoming days. I know he has been prepping for a solo trip in the next month and I hope he finds what he is looking for in his journey. Try it out, and when you do, strongly believe that your thoughts have an invisible power to procreate and resonate goodness.

On a random day, when I am by myself, I find my thoughts hovering around for a breeding ecosystem. I think of kith and kin I miss be it by distance or miscommunications or by sheer life situations. I wish they are genuinely happy and having a peaceful life wherever they are. Their souls are content and have satisfying moments that keep them in good spirits. I think of the relationships that may have been strained or not blossomed yet. I wish they straighten themselves sooner than later and wish I take the efforts that involves in making them blossom. I think of some relationships of my loved ones with whom I do not have a bond, yet. And I wish them all the goodness in this world. I know they may have gone through some resilient times recently, they may have seen losses, they may have seen heartbreaks, gnawing health issues and so on. I know that there is nothing I can physically do to make them feel better, but I strongly believe from my gut that my thoughts have the power to make a difference. I wish their life sees a lot of peace. I wish them genuine goodness and success in every attempt they take in life. Try it out, and when you do, believe honestly that your wishes have the power to magically heal.

One of the coming days, I am reminded of the relationships that were, that are and that will be. The bonds and their closeness having gaps of what you wish were and what you wish would be. I wish and dream about how life would be when each one of the bonds we crave for align to perfect tenderness and love. I wish and dream having memories that we crave for. I wish and dream about the efforts that are needed to realize these. In the meantime, I wish every single soul that come into the picture has the best of health, peace and happiness in their lives. Try it ou, and when you do, believe a hundred percent that your wishes and dreams have the power to come to life.

When we think about our future and the world’s future in general, we set ourselves short and long term goals. Be in academically, career progression, personal relationships, realizing responsibilities, moral goals, leisure goals, making a difference, taking care of our loved ones and so on. We all have different in size and scale with our goals. Our vision for our lives could be very different. But there is one thing we have the power of. It’s to think and dream about what we want to achieve. Think instilling goodness. Manifesting the change we want to see, how we want to see and when we want to see. Try it out, and when we do, let’s believe that what we think will happen. Will manifest. But only and only if they are pure and contains goodness. Cos, hey, that is exactly what is missing in abundance in this current setting.

On day 12, I had the opportunity of surprising a volunteer from Big Issue North, a homeless shelter service in Sheffield that cater to providing food, jobs and roof for as many homeless as they can accommodate. I picked a pack of canned foods, coffee, sugar, masks and cleaning supplies as I found these were the things that they run short off often. I have seen their volunteers through December around the Christmas markets and their vision was to provide everyone a home during the holidays and to help them get on their foot breaking out of their societal induced habits, basically giving them a lifeline. I wish and dream that every homeless soul they try to impact, finds goodness and spreads it around in this new year.

I wish you all a happy New year and thank you for reading through and being a part of my journey. I wish that I have a positive year and manifest my thoughts and able to do things and achieve my goals that satisfy my soul. In this year, I wish happiness and peace for every wonderful soul reading this. Think good and manifest goodness for yourself, your loved ones and to random souls. Cheers for a peaceful 2022.

Day 11: Goodness in Deeds

A deed epitomizes goodness when it makes the life of at least one other living soul even a tiny bit better. As portrayed in the famed sitcom Friends, the discussion of a selfless good deed reaches to the heart. Does a good deed even need to be selfless? There is goodness in its tiniest shape and form. It can involve a great self gratifying outcomes, but if a deed has even an iota of selflessness in its essence, that makes the world a better place.

Today’s experience was surprising a person who does a deed at his daily work that possesses a greater good in itself that we may often overlook. I had the opportunity to meet Adam,  a trash removal employee and make him feel happiness and gratified with the job that he does every single day. He is employed by a public agency and goes about his day in collecting trash from bins around different parts of the city. In today’s acrimony of the ongoing pandemic, to imagine the level of risk a simple non chalant trash can poses. Giving him a gift card, I wrote on his card how valuable his work is to the community and the environment. Wishing him and his family happy holidays, I left the place seeing him walk on to continue his job.

An analogy springs into mind. Being human is being vulnerable to emotions. We can’t be our glowing positive self across all times. We grow thorns on our stems as many petals we grow on our flowers. We endure moments where we laugh and smile and feel blissful. Moments where we wish if the time stops and let’s us to freeze in it. We also endure moments that we wish had not happened or those we could have handled it differently. We also put in umpteen number of thoughts into our hearts. Some wonderful positive ones and some that bring us pain.

Just like clearing out trash cans, what if we can process and let out negative energies garnered through the day and enrich and reverberate positive vibrations every night before we go to sleep. At our homes we clear out our own trash, so yes similarly it is possible that we clear our inner soul daily off negative vibes, but hey life isn’t that easy right. There are scars and scares that we find hard to remove or process from our inner introspections. Like Adam today, we do rely on external healers to get this done. Be it friends, relatives, siblings, a small child, a ruffing pet, a force of nature, spirits that guard us, these healers could be in any form. All we ought to do is trust and desire to heal ourselves and keep our hearts only with lovable positive memories.

What goes around, always comes around. Not in the same form always but it always comes around. It’s the trust that drives this belief. If we can play out part in being healers for our loved ones, for our partner, for less known acquaintances, for any random person, it always comes back to us at a time when we may need to be healed. Adam from today sis a healer through his job. He purifies the earth we step on, keeps the community clean and makes an impact in the everyday lives of several thousand people single handedly. When we come across people like Adam, the least we can do is take notice. Empathize. And acknowledge the vitality of their jobs. After all, a good deed goes a long way forward.

Day 10: Affable Blue Cross Dairies

Ruff, Purr, Wheek, Moo, squawk and many more are all one word languages. Languages that have just one meaning. Unconditional love. In a world where we humans are the smart species with six senses, we cannot think or match the nascent innocent love that our pets show to us. We roam around the world every day and return back to our pets whereas we are the world for them. All they know is wagging their tails and waiting for their owners/parents to return back every single day.

Working for a family owned Pet company myself and my favorite soul being the loveliest dog mother, pets have the softest corners in our hearts. We often feel we easily go overboard when it comes to pets and their needs whenever and wherever we have a chance. My favorite soul just says one simple yet powerful phrase - well, we humans have our mouths to ask what we need or express what we feel, but pets don’t yet we see every bit of love they have to offer us. So much so that several traumas in this world are needing the magic sprays of pets to heal. Be it PTSD, anxiety, stress, acute diabetes, physical and mental challenges, therapy pets are life savers for several human souls. Pets elevate or alleviate our feelings when we try to process joy or sorrows.

Today, me and favorite soul went together to visit Blue Cross Animal Rescue Sheffield. On talking to them prior, they had mentioned they are usually in need of food items for cats and small pets (like guinea pigs and rabbits) as they receive more donations for dogs in general. We bought several food items for dogs, cats, parrots and guinea pigs and also a bunch of healthy delicious treats.

We had the opportunity to meet Sophie, Katie and Helen, three wonderful souls working at Blue Cross Sheffield. Sophie and Katie explained the story of their facility in brief. They had a lovely personal photo wall containing pets whose lives they have rescued through the organization. They mentioned this covered just a few handful due to space constraints. We were in awe looking at what an inspiring service they do to the animal community. Helen spoke to us about pet fostering and adoption and their process. Pet fostering is a deep passionate desire for us. It was wonderful to hear the steps they take to ensure the pets they rescue end up in safe fosters and adopters. They go all the way from home visits to providing food and healthcare to being assigned foster buddies to guide fosters in their endeavors. They smile soulfully when they say how they keep hearing updates and keep in touch with adopters way beyond the time of adoptions.

They loved the items we had bought. Handing them over to them, we wished each other happy holidays and clicked a few memories. Before heading out, we thanked them for the beautiful impactful service their job equates to.

Our love for pets keeps on growing and we are happily positive about going overboard when it comes to pets. As we often discuss and agree, pets deserve to be spoilt with care and attention as that’s the only fitting way. Organizations like Blue Cross have been creating an impact with the local community and globally saving and replenishing so many pets over the years. We admire and adhere to their vision. And someday, we hope to be part of their missions. 

Day 9: Spirit of Sports Always Enthralls A Positive Attitude

Spirit of sports holds a soft spot in my heart and life for several reasons. This statement would be true for a large set of us. Growing up, we get ourselves hooked to various sports. The mode and type of sport varies depending on what we have access to, which sport prevails as the ones in which our nation performs well, which sport matches our passion and pace of preference. The common denominator in any sport that we follow is its beautiful spirit that exists amidst the players and resonates to the audience. The fun, celebrations, pain, sweat and tears, confrontations and perseverance, all of these are emotions we get to see in any sport we love and all of these exhibits exuberating passion with the spirit of competition and hope.

The beautiful lesson that comes through with sport is the acceptance of winning and losing. I confide in its simple yet powerful phenomenon and this acceptance has given me a strong sense of calmness and content with a will to take on decisions in life with a positive attitude. Am sure others would resonate with this acceptance. Some decisions pan out in our favor. Some go against it. Sometimes the outcome of an event is completely unexpected. Facing these decisions, we can easily be glazed in a haze of uncertainties. Attitude of sportsmanship helps us gain confidence in the decisions we make and handle the outcomes of life decisions with grace and right attitude. Be it in selecting our career, decisions at our job, relationships, business, within our family and many more scenarios, this spirit pertains the power to take us a long way.

Today’s experience was an instance of the existence of this very spirit and how in its trivial nature can resonate to each and every one of us. Lydia and Ben are members of the Steelers Wheelchair Basketball Club. They are a middle aged couple and passionate sportspersons who have been playing the game competitively for over 5 years now. They were raising funds for their basketball club on a wintery cold day at the local Christmas Market. Speaking to them, I learned more about their club. They shared a brief history of their club which consistently gets their members represented in the world championships and holds a high degree of competitiveness. They shared how much exuberance and energy that is part of their members. They also said playing the sport makes them feel energetic and optimistic in life. Being specially challenged all their lives, they found each other through the club and are now leading their souls together. It’s a beautiful story indeed.

Inspired by their story, I made a small contribution to their fundraiser and also got them some Christmas confections and a Gift card. Both of them were two faces of smiles personifying the lovely attitude that to me relates to the spirit sport brings in. Wishing them happy holidays, I left resonating the spirit that got passed on from them.

In my short life thus far, sport has added a lot of meanings and memories. It gave me my idol to follow and get inspired. It gave me the urge to feel active. It gave me the pain of a loss and the attitude to not dwell on it. It gave me the inspiration to play and follow it as much as I could. It taught me what injuries could lead to. It taught me how to handle situations in life with emerging confidence and not bound to just the end outcomes. All in all, a lovely spirit that defines attitude in a positive way to lead our lives. Walking back, it brought back some of my beautiful memories with sport and the fact that the spirit of sport has no bounds for anyone.

Day 8: Persistence and Hope Drives Life - Bobby’s Night Out

Today’s experience grounded me to humility. The impact stories we come across sometimes can change the way we look at ourselves, our issues and how cleanly we lead our lives. Physically and mentally. Such experiences help us to reevaluate our life, what we focus on and why we focus on. We can take inspiration from persisting with our goals and also accept the gravity of our issues in its true essence. No two persons’ issues are the same and they don’t merit a like to like comparison under any circumstances. They do not have to be compared. All we need to show is compassion. The humility to understand from the view of the person standing opposite to us.

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to meet Bobby who was stationed outside a McDonald’s on one of the busiest city streets. She was a middle aged woman who had just a hoodie and a thinsulate pair of gloves, sitting outside on a misty cold December day. Walking up to her, I wanted to start a conversation to hear her story and what she had to share. She explained her situation in a nutshell. Her mother passed away when she was 12 years old and ever since she has been living in shelter care. She said her father was never involved in her life much and he also passed away a few years back. She had struggled all through her life growing up. She said she recently moved to Sheffield as the previous town she was in was overflowing with homeless people in shelters. And she also lost her long part-time day job through the pandemic.

What she shared after this was very touching and moved my heart, raising several introspecting questions. Archer Project Sheffield was the organization she was hoping to get into and it was referred to her by one of her acquaintances. She has been receiving food and basic amenities from the Archer Project (which caters for improving lives of the homeless and ones in need). But she has not yet been admitted to stay in the organisation’s shelter. She said she was thankful for getting food from them and is planning to sleep on the streets until a spot opens up in the shelter. She also said someone has to see her sleeping on the streets for her to have a better chance of getting into the shelter. Not sure how true this statement was, but the situation crushes our heart when we shed some compassion to her story.

Asking her what she wanted right now, she said she would love to have a hat or a scarf to persist the howling winter chills. I picked up an ear muff and a woolen scarf as she wished for, also picked up some ready to eat meals, fruits and nuts and some beverages. I wrote a tiny note on a card suggesting that she keep continuing the fight and life will turn the corner. I wanted to tell her that everything would be okay someday and she will pay it forward when the day comes. She said she already tries to do that some days when she gets more food than what she needs, she passes it over. She was emotional and smiled and said she feels positive after a long time and she thinks her situation would improve. All she wanted for this Christmas was to get into the shelter and then build her life again from there.

Bobby’s story raised several thoughts to ponder myself on. It makes me appreciate the life that I have and how privileged and thankful we ought to be for what we have. Again, it doesn’t mean that the issues we have may not pain or may not have an impact like that of Bobby’s. Every life is unique and every situation is non repetitive like the imprint of a snowflake. All we could have is showing empathy. It can help us understand our own issues better, be there for our loved ones by listening to their issues and making them feel heard. Anything we aspire to achieve, persistence is the key stronghold that drives the process. It generates hope and vice-versa. However hard situations garner, we ought to keep up our hopes. Keep saying to ourselves that life will give us moments worth living for.Even the times we suffer hardships, we can have the power to harness life skills into us. As Bobby says, all she wants for now is a place to stay and she continues to persist with the hope that her life will be set straight soon. We can definitely take a leaf out of this and build our attitude towards Hope. Life is short and unpredictable. Let’s make people smile and feel good about themselves and everything around them.

Day 7: Being Different is a Super Power

The world is weirdly woven to function as a collective. A flock of sheep, a sloth of bears, a pack of wolves, a swarm of bees all tend to exist together as a group. Even with several million species existing on earth, this collective presence is a true phenomenon. Humans are not that different. Every human has their own fingerprint and no two of them can ever be the same. But humans also tend to follow the collective spectacle in the decisions made across spectrums. So much the society controls what we humans perceive as common behaviour.

The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the language we speak, the culture we promote, religion we practice, everything searches for a pattern and forms a line one behind the other. So much this intertwined scenario prevails that anything out of the ordinary, anything that is even noticeably vaguely different from the pattern gets special visibility and attraction. It also receives perplexed eyes, stigma and criticism amongst common behaviours.

Do we realize the absolute power of what being different propagates? It attracts instant attention amidst the existing world in every little aspect. With a trained mindset and imbibing a will to accept things the way they are could go a long way to aid people with difference and add power to it rather than curbing it. Each one of us are gifted with a difference of our own, some of us more distinctively than the others. Some of us identify our differences and make a decision on hiding them or working on them or wearing it up our sleeve. And more often than not, the decision is aligned in a way the difference is being garnered by the society.

Today, I got the opportunity to visit an Uber cool organization called Autism Plus who cater to autistic kids and families right from giving them education to finding jobs. The branch at Sheffield that I visited was developed in a very unique way. It was colorful to look at from the outside, had a beautiful interactive garden and from the little visibility of their inner classrooms and studios they looked really artistic and crafty.

Josh, an employee/care worker from Autism Plus met with me and explained how their setting works. The branch caters to over 120 autistic kids and their families. They hold physical art and learning classes for all ages regularly. He explained because of Covid they have had to limit in-person events and visitations. Which is why I was not able to go any further. But he mentioned that through the pandemic, they have been grateful to receive almost all the resources that they needed from volunteers and care workers and donors. Felt good to hear positive stories about sections of the society. I had picked up some art supplies, coloring books, shape putty’s, sponge arts and a few other vibrant crafty materials that Josh mentioned would be useful within. I left wishing Josh happy holidays and thanking him and everyone there for their noble service.

I would love to visit the place again when I get a chance to meet and interact with some of these special souls inside. Felt intrigued to think of the power they could harness from their special conditions. Yes, it comes with a lot of difficulties to handle, but there is a lot of hidden power that lies underneath. Kudos to organizations like Autism Plus that helps this process and guides them towards harnessing this power.

I am a firm believer in the concept of each one of us having our own difference in this world and each of our souls has a purpose to exist. It is a beautiful journey we impart with several bumps on the way to set, identify and fulfil this purpose. While we are tracing our paths, it is important to show compassion to our fellow souls. To accept for every one for who they are. And even more so, if we have the chance to note a fellow soul’s difference distinctively, if we see their special super power, rather than any kind of special treatment, gracefully accepting the difference with kindness and a smile could make this world a better place to live indeed.

Day 6: Petals of Love - A Personal Fervor

Softness of flowers is a beautiful craving to look, feel and behold. Long stemmed roses, rising out of thorns, springing into vibrant colors are a treat to the looking eye. Be it a bee or us humans. Budding lilies bossing around its elegance when it blossoms out. In my life, in the last few years, the perception of flowers has really grown into me. I do not remember growing up to a deep connection with flowers. It is definitely one of my acquired penchant. The ideal scenery that we have always drawn growing up imprints in our hearts the desire to live in such a utopian setting. A perfect hut with gauzed windows, a flowing gravel road paved through the front door, silhouette mountains at the back, acres of greenery with glowing sunflowers waving to the setting sun is all a dreamy setting we wish to live someday to take away all the chaos happening around the hustling world, to escape from the pace at which life and our thoughts inside run around.

Nascent flowers blooming have simple powers of healing. As in anything, it is the belief that generates and harnesses the power. When we match the tenderness of a flower’s petals with our softer thoughts, they generate this sense of calm and love that resonates with the hearts looking at them. When a baby soul is born, when our dear friend graduate’s, when we visit our relatives, when we receive guests, when we miss someone, when we wish for someone’s recovery, to celebrate friendship and every relationship up to reminisce about a past soul, flowers carry a deeper personal meaning throughout our lives. Personally, flowers are a crucial part of building the journey with my favorite soul. So ya, flowers are very close to our souls and bear a lot of near and dear meaning to our feelings.

Today, I wanted to surprise someone who always helps me to surprise my dear ones. Lockwoods Interflora in Sheffield is the first local flower shop I visited in my first visit to the UK. Mark is the proud owner of a generational flower shop that has strived to generate positive vibes and memories to everyone in the community for over 45 years. I packed a set of festive goodies, a cozy blanket, a set of crackers and a Christmas card. Speaking to Mark, he explained about their business, introduced his 2 employees who have stayed with the shop from the days his father ran the shop. He also shared how they made a digital pivot during Covid and carried out spreading joys of petals making home deliveries. Handing him the bag of goodies, he shared his happiness. There was a lovely smile from all the 3 of them in the shop amidst their busy beautiful knitting of colorful bouquets ahead of the holidays.

It is about time we slow down, it is about time we take time to catch a breath in this fast paced world, comprehend the tenderness in nature and nurture our hearts with love spending enough time to make what we work for worth working for in life. A smile a day heals you away. Smile around and make someone smile whenever you get a chance.

Day 5: Little Drops Make an Ocean

Being new in a town and having the time roam around, gives me a chance to try out some of the local vibes of the place. It’s always exciting to know and experience the local vibes of any new place we visit. Having the chance to travel around, live a laid back life where the time stops to enjoy the vibes is the concept of life that most of us visualize but find it hard to realize.

Brand recognition and promoted familiarity has lead to several conglomerates in the world. Be it fast food chains like McDonald’s or Starbucks, clothing chains like the Nike and H&Ms, soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi, we can pretty much find them every nook and corner of the world now. 

However handsome we dress up to our niche parties, however sophisticated our suits stitched for work, we cannot wait everyday to come home to change to our cozy pajamas and eat our go-to comfort home food. It’s the comfort our heart and soul craves. It’s what we grow up to and we always know it’s woven with care and the meal cooked with love.

Today, I had the pleasure of surprising a proud local business called Sarni’s Cafe in Sheffield, UK. The cafe caught my eye with their simple chalkboard message that highlighted they were one of the few local businesses that are still left and they are proudly serving the community with their heads held high. Sarni’s has been open since 1998 and owned by a proud family. They serve hot and cold sandwiches, delicious brunch and breakfast with thirst quenching drinks.

The vibe of the cafe was glazed with holiday flair, decorated and lit up. The crowd that were inside looked like regulars and knew the waiters pretty well as I found with their casual conversations. The cafe was being served by 4 ladies who were flaunting their colorful Chrismassy sweaters. I had packed a bag of goodies with luxury confectioneries, fruit cakes, a crackers assortment and a cozy throw.

I told one of the ladies what I was up to and initiated a conversation. She immediately called the other three and accepted the bag. They spoke about how COVID had affected them through the last 2 years and they seemed very happy to be serving their long standing customers again. They were happy to pose for a group picture and also noted down my blog’s details to look it up. Looking at their reverberating smile, I left the place wishing them a happy holidays.

With everything going on in this world, with the pandemic, with all the divisions in the society, with bigger sharky conglomerates engulfing smaller competition, the essence of a local place lies in its local businesses. They are like our comfort zone and they serve the community with love. The least we can do is to look at them with a smile and appreciate for what they do and how they do. Little drops makes an ocean indeed.

Day 4: Cherishing Little Things in Life

With my little exposure in this giant world, I am leaning towards a quintessential realization that the art of finding the beauty in little things could be the difference between feeling content and enjoying the entangled journey of life. Personally, I find it a very arduous ordeal to achieve. It is ever evolving and takes a lot of effort and unlearning to appreciate little things in life. 

We have always been glorified by big achievements and deeds that it is very hard to practice this art. Don’t get me wrong, big achievements is something to take pride in, define our goals long term, a pathway to walk towards drawing meaningful lines in our life. But, them being long term goals, it becomes crucial to find ways to feel gratitude in our every day life. Finding ways to admire precious little things we get to see in a wonted atmosphere. Finding ways to smile at simple things and moments, taking a step back, sipping a cup of coffee and watch the beauty of life that unfolds in front of our eyes, every single day.

A stroll on a trail with your partner, a peek at the sunrise when we break open the drapes, sliding our ears listening to the birds humming, smiling when we meet a random person on our way, writing random cute post-it notes  to our loved ones, being kind to waiters who serve our food, holding doors for the people who are going to pass behind you, smiling at our mailmen and more. Just a few minor things that come to mind that has made my day just a little bit better. What are the ones you could think off?

Words of affirmation has the power to heal wounds magically. Sometimes, the words may not need to relate to the source of our wounds. They could be random, unexpected and coming from a random stranger. But it does the job nevertheless. 

Today, I wanted to surprise and bring a smile to a waiter at a restaurant. Waiters bring us our food fresh and hot, handle all types of customers from pleasant ones to rude ones but try their best to serve all with a smile. I picked a couple of candy bars, jars of festive scented candles, a Christmas card and a gift card that is preloaded to be used in any shop around. I packed them all into a box and wrote a thank you note in the card for the waiter’s service and wishing happy holidays.

Ariana was the waiter who I met today. Did not get a chance to speak a lot with her or to get to know her story. The little I could notice, she always carried a smile at every table she catered for. It was a bustling Friday night and the restaurant was super crowded. Once I paid the check, I held her for a minute. Told her what I was up to, handed over the box of goodies, told her smile was so refreshing. She seem moved by the gesture and said that she was going to take it inside and share the goodies with her co-waiters who also worked very hard. She was happy to pose for a picture and I left the scene seeing her smile.

Life is short. And utterly unpredictable. What do we achieve in holding grudges, being foul mouthed, causing bitterness or being unforgiving both on ourselves and on others? Speaking to myself and others, there is going to be several scenarios in life where we may not be proud of our actions, for being angry, for holding grudges, for the way we handle situations. And we may beat ourselves on it, but hey, as my favorite soul often says, it is important to forgive ourselves and everyone. Least we could do is learn from every experience and not repeat it trying to be a better version in this short life.

Let’s try and enjoy the little things in life. Try and get ahead of the rat race. Stay motivated to treat everyone and importantly ourselves with kindness. Let’s take care of savoring our precious little moments. Slowing down the short life to make it feel much longer and etching heart full memories along the way.

Day 3: Alex in Wonderland

Today’s experience was a sweet, swift and breezy ride. Literally and figuratively. Travel is an important facet throughout our lives. For many of us, school bus rides are often the first platform to exposure and social interactions. It is where we make our very first friends - the only bond that’s not directly related and doesn’t expect anything but fun and fortitude. We also distinctly remember the travel we took as a family when we were kids. They define our very essence of our family memories as we grow up. With the hustle and bustle our parents endure in their endeavors to provide for us the best life from their eyes, it is during these travel vacations we see their urge to focus on creating happy memories with us. As we grow up, we have travels that are dreamy and etched in our hearts. It could be solo travels that bring in introspection, could be travel with our friends that become unerasable, it could be travel where we meet a special someone or travel where someone becomes a “special someone”. And the most common of it all would mostly be the travel we take on our day to day lives, be it through our college life, work commute, grocery runs and visits to meet friends and relatives.

Being in the world that is increasingly becoming devoid of its environment because of predominantly human misuse, Public transport is a big part of a potential extender if not a solution. For ones that are not in a position to buy/own a private vehicle, for ones that are environmentally conscious, for the ones that want to escape the hustle for finding a parking spot, public transportation is a boon that has been established by the system we have garnered. Today, I wanted to surprise one of the servants of the public, a bus driver who works to satisfy our needs to commute. 

I picked up some sumptuous Victoria’s confectionery baskets, Ferrero Rochers, Lindt balls and christmas themed figurine truffles, Pringles, Shortbreads, Saltine crackers, a miniature live orchid potter and some pine cones. I also picked up a card and wrote in a Thank You note for all their service through the years. I left for the bus station near the city center, hopped on the first bus that came through. I purchased some tickets for the next stop which was 5 minutes away. Alex was the driver, who gave me the ticket and started driving. Conversing with him, he mentioned that he has been a driver in the city for over 15 years now. He has a happy family and a proud dad of 2 beautiful girls. When the next stop arrived, I gave him the pack of goodies with the card. He was hesitant to receive it and requested that I give it to someone else. I told him he deserves this and a lot more gratitude than what he often receives. After a bit of hesitation, he accepted the package and also said that he would take some of these and he would give away some of these to someone else that wouldn’t be able to purchase these. That showed how sensitive he was and how he expressed that he loves to pay it forward. I wished him and his family happy holidays and stepped out to be on my way back.

We often do not think a whole lot about who is behind the steering wheel of a bus or levers of a train. And it will never be possible to establish a relationship or initiate a conversation with our public transport drivers as we do not have the luxury of time or the nuances of circumstances that present us with that opportunity. The drivers of public transports have the life of every passenger in their hands. A moment of distraction or a mistake could affect tens of hundreds of passengers that they are responsible for. For the potentially high pressure situations that they may encounter, they deserve to be appreciated for who they are and the service they do. Yes, they get paid, but money isn’t the essence of every aspect in life? A little gratitude, a little appreciation, a little happy flair and a small bag of goodies, I hope made one such soul smile. I hope it made a soul feel their work is valued. I hope it could make a soul talk about an instance of empathy and gratitude that occured in their work day sharing it with his family.

I want to end with a little analogy. Like drivers to public transport, our mind and soul are to our journey in life. We come across several relationships and experiences in our life we journey with. We study, find work, find love, travel with parents, relatives, friendships and special relationships. We go through several issues we deal with, see achievements, disappointments, desires and thoughts. Amidst all this, we deserve some appreciation for our own inner-selves. We deserve to give ourselves some empathy and treat ourselves well. We always try to do our best and if we make mistakes, it's only natural and completely acceptable. We don’t need to have the urge to answer to anyone. We just have to forgive ourselves and be and become the best version of ourselves evolving through our life.

Day 2: Chronicles of Sid, Albie and Rudy

The intricacies of love and affection is a phenomenon that always amazes me. We all experience moments in our lives where we do what we do, think what we think and feel what we feel for our loved ones. Be it with our parents, siblings, friends, kith and kin or with our pets. It often tends to be a failure if we start a search mission on why we feel this connection and why our hearts melt for another soul. Today’s experience was a realization of one such special bond.

Today, we set out to collect some ready-packed food items that has long expiry dates and that could be consumed by parts without having to warm or cook further. We wanted to get healthy, high calorie and high quality food which could help curb hunger. We wanted to surprise a dear one in need, without a roof to live under and who is trying to get through one good meal a day. We picked up a set of protein bars, oreo cookies, cake bites, peanuts, almonds, shortbread, crackers, long-life milk and a bottle of water. We also planned on buying some freshly made dinner after meeting this person and getting to know what they like.

After packing the ready made foods, we went to the city center and strolled around to find 2 men sitting on the floor with large backpacks on their sides and flutes in their hands. They were playing tunes to the bypassers to collect some change to make their supper and get through their day. And there were also two beautiful souls that were with them. They also had 2 happy dogs with them who they were taking care of. Our eyes lit up, for our love of pets, we found an instant connection.

We walked up towards them and started a conversation. The four legged souls answered to Rudy and Albie. Albie was the beautiful mother to Rudy and one of the two men has been bringing up both the dogs amidst his life struggles. His name was Sid. There is always a divine indescribable energy when we interact with pets. Their life is so pure. All they know is to wag their happy tails and be a supporter of their owner. Lifting the spirits of their owner and every bypasser it interacts with. We asked them if they would accept the things we were going to give them. They smiled and were very vocal in showing their approval. Right when we offered them to buy dinner, another heartful bypasser bought them dinners. 

Then came the most unconditional moment of our day. When we asked them what else they would need now that they had dinner for the night, their immediate response was that they wanted some dog food for their four legged stars and also a coat for the dogs to keep them warm from the cold. How beautiful is this? They did not have a roof, no way we could understand their struggles on a daily basis. But the moment they had a chance to ask for something, the first thing they want is food for their four legged friends. Isn’t this as unconditional as any pure form of love?

We walked to a nearby store and bought all we could find dog foods and treats for Rudy and Albie. We couldn’t find coats for them nearby. We collected the goodies and went back to hand them over. Sid was waiting for us with just Rudy. When we asked him where Albie was, he said she had gone to their next location where he was going to head next. We walked with him to the parking garage entrance nearby where Albie was waiting. We gave our little bag of love to Sid, Albie and Rudy. Here we came across a woman who was acquainted to Sid (We couldn’t confirm who this was). She looked in a hurry and not in a great fervor. Sid had a big smile looking at the bag and was so happy to see there was food for his dogs in there more than what it had for him.

There was one other thing that we found common from yesterday’s incident. Sid also addicted to Tobacco and even asked us to purchase some if possible. We said we were not interested in doing that. Just to imagine what Tobacco and any form of addiction does to people who struggle to get their daily life sustained. The sad truth is that Tobacco could be the only solace to carry them through hunger, anger, depression and purpose to live, and at the same time, Tobacco is also the reason that stops them from getting their life back on track. Is there no recourse to this? We could only hope and pray that life turns around and presents opportunities to pick themselves up and shine through the obstacles. We may never have a say to their everyday issues. But the least we could do today was bring out a smile in Sid, understand and appreciate his love for Albie and Rudy. We hope we gave him a good day to remember by and he continues to smile and feed his favorite souls with food and love.

Also, you might have noticed the reference to “we” above. Today, I was accompanied by my most favorite soul in this little journey. She is the one who inspires me to be happy, keeps me motivated, inspires me and has the kindest heart. Doing this together made today extra special. We thank you for reading through and being a part of our journey.

Life is short. The issues we face are never the same magnitude or same parallel as to the issues that could be faced by others. Moments like today, instantly has the power to get us grounded, feel compassion and have the urge to try and be happy in life, without any regrets. And shower unconditional love to our loved ones. And to be happy and cherish with every little boon we are presented with.

Day 1:

Life is not a bed of roses for everyone. The thorns that prick us may not even be visible to certain people. It’s all relative. If we do not have a roof, then that is our primary yearning. If we have a roof, bringing in the bucks to make a living could be the yearning. If we have a good satisfying job, finding a partner we love could be the yearning. If we have a loving caring partner to spend our life with, having a child could be the yearning. If we have a solid loving family, desire to travel could be the yearning. If we have and done it all, finding a purpose to live could be the yearning. It’s all relative. 

Most of us who read this, would not have felt how it would be to not have a roof over our heads. However, we come across people every other day when we walk around. I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know a bit about the daily life of one such individual today. I used to wonder what their needs and necessities were on a daily basis. When I walked across the street in the city center, this person asked me “Have you got some extra change?”. I went close up to him and asked him how he was feeling today. Then I asked him if the things I had purchased would be useful to him. I had a winter jacket, a pair of gloves, a hat, a pair of woolen socks and some confectioneries. I handed him over the bag. I looked at his eyes and face closely. I could see his smile peek through the moment he saw what was inside the bag. He started talking about his daily experience. He said that it gets really cold in the evenings and at nights. He said he has not had a home for over 8 years now. He said he lives at a shelter nearby several nights but they tend to get full and crowded. He said they struggle to fit people in and to find beds for everyone who lives there. He had jobs every now and then but he finds it hard to give up on his addiction issues which has made him not sustain at his jobs. He said he spends the days near the city center asking for change and food from bypassers. He said he hardly makes enough change to get one proper meal a day. He confessed that he could have 2 good meals but he ends up spending his hard earned change to buy smokes.

I wished him well and gave him a pat on his shoulders. I saw his smile continue to stay right after seeing what was inside his bag until I left the place. I could see he loved the talk as much as the stuff he received. And that concludes my experience on Day 1 of my little journey.

Make yourself smile. Make our partner smile. Make our loved ones smile. Make our friends smile. Make our parents smile. Make our relatives smile. Make a random person smile. Spread love.