I no longer write here or anywhere. There seems to be a lack of purpose or even interest. I do go through words and pictures some of my favorite people here share. And that is enough for now. Autumn has been in full swing in the United States and I have clicked away to my heart’s content. The mind and the heart seem to be in sync during autumn.

Ever so quietly now, the days are becoming shorter. No longer a minute erased here and there. Before long, it will be Joyce’s gloomy evenings- bitter, cold and dark. But till that time comes, we are celebrating autumn. We are filling up our senses and paying attention to the easily missable details that make life just that much more fulfilling. We are continuing to find ‘magnificence in the mundane’.

We hold on to the little things, that which are known and comforting. We also rush to check things off of our daily to-do list. But, once in a while we are allowed a moment here and a moment there, a bit of a stillness to take in what the heart already knows. The colors have popped and are here, however, only for a short while. The amber, and scarlet and the golden yellow are competing with each other, like every year. I wonder if they know that there’s no need for that, for the competition.

The heavier jackets are out and hats are a must. Mornings are busier as the school bus does not wait and routines have changed a lot. Yet, we pause when we can and breathe. Breathe the air that promises to be fresh and teases to be free of this virus that seems relentless. I sometimes wonder if we admire more the stillness of our lives or its mad chorus. Sometimes, we are at peace with our inner selves, and that perhaps, happens oh so rarely that we don’t even realize that we did hold such a moment inside of us, however briefly. But when it does, we do not feel the need to rush and this overwhelming need to be perfect or get everything done gets watered down. Even if for a minute, we do forget, the spinning world around us and revel in the calm within.

Do you wonder that you need to be constantly visible for others to think about you or remember you? Does it in some weird twisted way add more value to your worth? Is it even possible- to measure someone’s worth? Can we not just quietly escape and see who comes along with a hello. I always find those hellos so much more gratifying than the ones splashed across the social media. They are quiet and seek no impetus. I don’t know. Days come and go in mostly unspectacular manners, some perhaps more kind than others. Such rare days know how to unfold while others are just in a race with themselves. And yet in the middle of this madness and stillness lie our entirety. That’s the elegance of our lives.

During languorous autumn evenings, I often find myself seeking out the strength of what I perceive as the mundane, as the usual. And that brings me peace. I hope the mundane brings you peace too. Because in everything we do, places we go to, the present moments lead us gently back to moments in time, the details and the nuances of those revealing themselves slowly and telling us that that what is now, is good. It can be better, it will be better, but it may also be the other way. So, seek the now and celebrate that which is.

Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe. Stay kind.

It has been a while. I see I have around 9 drafts, all of which I had started with passion and a lot of ideas. And then somewhere in the humdrum of daily life, the ideas fizzled and I ran out of enough energy to revitalize those. A whole lot of nothingness and moments of significance, moments that put the whole act of living in perspective, filled up the space and time in between.

The pandemic has turned everything upside down and in all impossible directions and people probably have had enough of it. I for one, am tired. But when a few months ago, my home country of India got ravaged not only because of the virus but also because of an inept and corrupt administration, for the first time in the last 18 months I felt helpless. This is, however, neither the time nor the place to explain that feeling, but to see loss like I had never seen before, was surely overwhelming. A classmate from high school, who was pregnant with twins, succumbed to the virus leaving behind two extremely premature babies who will have to grow up without their mother. Their mother went to the land of no return without fulfilling her long cherished dream of becoming a mother. A friend lost her parents within a span of 4 days and a cousin bid adieu to her mother over the phone from across the seas. My very best friend is still recovering from the after effects after 4 months and a long hospital stay. These are just a handful of incidents that are by no means isolated or unique. Life is such, I must have read somewhere and perhaps have known, but had never experienced such hopelessness before and that took a toll on me. While there was so much to be thankful for and there still is, it did become a bit difficult this time to hold on to that good. As I read today in an article on EMS personnel in New York, ‘you cannot dip your paintbrush in the wonderful and cover up the tragic’.

But as life goes on, so must we. It is such a storyteller, won’t you agree? And to find the extraordinary in the ordinary rhythms of life is what we strive for, perhaps.

Thanks for stopping by. Stay safe. Stay kind.