Count your smiles

Today i have no agenda. Just feel like writing so rambling is what its going to be.

Was thinking about this really bad movie i saw - you me aur hum. But more than the bad part i was thinking about the part of the movie i liked best - the concept of a book of possibilities. Its a really nice concept - to think in such detail about the positive possibilities of your life - sort of like a ready reckoner for the times when you are down. A not so gentle reminder of the dreams you have and the possibility that they might be fulfiled.But now that i think about it.. the bigger challenge can sometimes be knowing what those dreams are to begin with - to have it in you to actually document them. Because that becomes a sort of committment to yourself that you will try and achieve that.

As a small step, here goes a list of my happy things
1) Walking on wet grass on a warm summer night
2) Light early morning sun as a prelude to a hot day
3) Children running aimlessly in garden at 7 a.m
4) A good book, light music and a reading lamp
5) Couples out for their morning exercise together
6) Bru Cappuccinno Mocha as an alternative to office gunk
7) An unexpected shoulder in a time of need
8) A sudden thought from the gut that gives direction through a haze
9) Memories tucked away in little corners to make me smile
10) A glance at the picture on my mobile

Hum of the day
Count your smiles. It has a multiplier effect.

Method to Madness

“Here's to the guys who love us, the losers who lost us...and the lucky ones that get to meet us” – a quote I am pretty sure every woman I know as received at some point in her life. And I am sure there must be some male version of this floating around as well. End of the day we are all just trying to find something that gives us comfort - a thought, an action,that source of happiness. We spend hours belaboring the same issues… and yet the gravity of those issues never recedes nor does a solution really appear. We are just trying to organize something that cannot be organized.

A friend and I spent a couple of hours the other night discussing in great detail about our exact plans for the future. It was almost a step-by step flowchart of how each of our lives should pan out complete with near detailed decision trees of if- this-then-this-else-this. And hearing us you would think we know what we want. But if you have had these discussions you will relate to the fact that the next time one of us is down in the dumps, the same plans will be turned on their head.

I am not really sure why it is so difficult for us to just let go, to let life unfold itself. I am not saying not to take things in your hands, but more a situation of learning to take decisions when a decision box appears before you. For me, one reason is that I am a believer that although your destination may be pre-determined, your choices today will decide the journey. Hence, I try to plan- if this then this.

But there is a method to the madness. Sort of like a work assignment. You start of with a haphazard sense with just the goal in mind, you then get down to planning. Usually, the planning and execution blinds you so you start thinking of small details and forget that all important thing you began with – the big picture. That’s when you need someone to step in and remind you why you are doing what you are doing. You still continue to execute. Its just you are reminded of why you are doing it.

And that is where sometimes just a deep breath and a knock on the head from a friend helps. The trick is to make sure that the sources of reminders stay. The trick is opening up your mind and heart to people around and trusting that they mean well. To put yourself and everything you feel out there. Because if you don’t, ultimately, when you are lost, people will not know how to find you.

Hum of the day
To learn to depend and not think of it as dependence; to seek help and to consider the help a right; being taken for granted is a privilege. If only we remembered to see it that way.