New Leaf

Our quest for happiness is all consuming. In the process, we find ourselves doing things that are contrary to human experience. We try to shut out all things sad and unhappy and end up doing funny or weird things. Society would have us believe that sadness is unnatural and loss has no place in our lives when it is actually all around us. New age spiritual gurus, friends and well wishers exhort us to move on and not let anything get between us and our smiles. But, experts say that some degree of sadness actually aids imagination and creativity. The sudden loss of a loved person shipwrecks lives, and we are left to gasp in the choppy waters of grief and yet people expect us to come up smiling. So we try to cushion ourselves with whatever we can find, because sadness disintegrates and then decays us. Sadness is like compost which coaxes the new leaf to come out. In moderate doses, it makes us rich with experiences and gets us ready for a new life, on the long road ahead.

Birth Anniversary and a Rare Celestial Event

Today we mark Akshay's fourteenth birth anniversary. Today is Ugadi, our new year day, and Navroz the Iranian new year day too. A time for new beginnings and new resolutions. Memories are what keep us afloat and take us forward. Yesterday some parts of the world witnessed a total solar eclipse, along with a new moon and spring equinox. It was a day of rare celestial events that created a shift in our vibrations and energised the web of life. We are in an eclipse portal now with another total lunar eclipse coming in two week's time. A time for reflection and reconnection.

Inspiration from the mundane

January went past without a post. It was too hectic.It needs a lot calm and quiet to post regularly and it is easy to feel uninspired when the season is changing...but art never fails to inspire and lift the spirit. Here are a few priceless inspirations from everyday objects. I would have certainly shared this with Akshay.

Nail clipper dogs

Fork fingers meeting ...ET at lunch!

Way to go Spoon Man!

Bringing Peace

Today is Akshay's third anniversary and Akshay's mother is in Germany today to train as a peace worker as part of AOL and IAHV's peace building initiative in war zones. She says this is all Akshay's plan to keep his mum happy on this day, so that she has no time to be sad. Post the training she will work in conflict zones and help rehabilitate war victims.

Guidance from an angel!

Up Above, From Somewhere There

As we get closer to Akshay's third anniversary we scan the starry night skies for that bright spark of energy that was a part of our lives for ten years. Perhaps he too gazes through a looking glass at the Earth below from up above, somewhere there. How far does the shine of our city lights reach? How does the Earth look from up above? Quite stunning, especially at night as these pictures show. This is the aerial view from a high rise building of Bahrain

Now let's go a little higher and see how things look through some satellite pictures taken from the Internet. That tiny island there is Bahrain and that of course is India at night.

Throwback to happier times

Someone has said only a pillow knows how much we cry. The flood of memories peaks when we settle down to rest our weary selves.

The Akshay and Archy throw cushion, to hug tight every night, to soak up the tears, to calm and comfort, to fall asleep on, to remind us of happier times

Keeping it Alive

When we lose a very dear person, there is a huge black hole in our lives that's forever hurting. Love is Forever by Casey Rislov is a wonderful book that helps children make sense of death and I stumbled upon it by chance in this incredibly intelligent woman Maria Popova's blog. There is this owl family wherein Grandfather Owl engages the little Owls in many wonderful activities. When he passes away, the Owl children are inconsolable but they come up with a wonderful yet strikingly simple idea to convey their love to Grandpa who is up above, there somewhere. They fly a heart shaped kite to show how much they love their Grandpa and how much they miss him.

These endearing illustrations by Rachel Balsaits make our pain a little less.