Winning - what is it to me?

http://conclave.intoday.in/
Is it money
Is it things
Is it people
Is it bling?
A sense of satisfaction
A sense of achievement
Of having used one's potential
Of having purpose
Is winning one of these? Or a bundle of all of these, rolled up nice and tight?

Is it your child growing up healthy, happy and complete vs the hapless child at daily risk of abuse, whose parents think it vital to add up to their assets at the risk of their innocent ward's safety?

Is it giving up a little of one,s own extra or is it grabbing hold of everything one can and never know when it's enough?

Is it making one's life an oasis of contentment or is it spreading one's bliss all around?

Is it fulfilling every whim and fancy or is it charting out clear goals and getting to them one by one?

Is it all of these? Or a happy mix of all the above?

                         Winning to me is simply living each day in a manner such that when I grow old and totter about my home, (doing what I can with what energy I then have) I am at peace with how I have lived. Filled with satisfaction that I have lived every new experience I had, faced every challenge, cherished every dear relationship, nurtured every worthy friendship.
In life's last minutes I'm not scared. I am sure that my offspring will be able to traverse life's path easily and with balance and hold me in their hearts when I am gone, as a mother that thought of them before every single breath I took.

In the neighbourhood- Part three

Links to Part 1 and Part 2.             In the neighbourhood-Part 1              In the neighbourhood-Part 2

So :) Here is part three. In case anyone's wondering, yes I did drop off two t shirts to the little fella. G refused to come with me, being the bashful sort a surprising trait to have for my offspring. I set off with my bike feeling a bit awkward. We had been looking at them from two floors above and now here I was reducing that distance all of a sudden.
                               Skirting around a narrow mud lane, riding over rubble and weeds when I reached the tenement it took me a few minutes to figure out this was the same place. It all looked smaller and shabbier up close.
Handing over the plastic bag to Bustu's mum and having her flash me a smile I turned to Bustu for some signs of recognition. The lack of distance had affected him. He only looked at me woodenly. By now the whole experience became too overpowering to handle and I dashed back home. By the way all through G and her dad had stood in the balcony watching and grinning.
                               Much older now Bustu seems to have learnt the ways of the people around him. One can often see him snatching at things held by other babies younger than him. Another development is that he's seen almost fully clothed nowadays. The two t-shirts have disappeared without trace.
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One sunset a few years back- Henley Beach Adelaide
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The park in our suburb same as the million parks all over India is infested by all kinds of people every morning. Tall, short, fat, thin, crooked, straight, serious, chatty- there's a specimen of each kind- walking. Some sport flat hawaianas, some heeled footwear and some sports shoes.
          Each has his or her unique walking style. A few sporty ones jog, a few walk straight as ramrods, some shake their arms with such gusto (their doctors must have asked them to shake their arms as they walk) that one wonders they don't get shoulder aches. A few hop along, a few hobble along and there are many with their faces set in determination and they look like they are out to win a war or something.
                 There are groups of women chatting away merrily, groups of men and single men whose sole interest is the women that are walking and a huge number has that abominable gadget-the mobile phone, flattened against the side of their head the whole time.
Everyday I watch, absorb and enjoy the milling masses that throng the park and return home refreshed with these sights and a drink of tender coconut.

I love my exhale

The un-thought of portion of the breath; exhale. To the aware the most important, the best part of breathing.

When we are asked to breathe our focus is usually on the inhale.

Now let’s do something. 

Inhale and exhale. 

No doubt you are doing this all the time. 

This time, do it with your entire mind on the in-breath and on the out-breath. 

Take your awareness upwards towards the crown of your head as you breathe in and as you breathe out, let the awareness travel down to the feet. 

Do this a few times, let’s say five.

Were you able to feel the sense of relief, the sense of everything-stress,strain,thought,burden, drop off as we release our breath?

If not do another five rounds with your mind traveling up and down your body with the breath.

Once you have figured out your exhale and what it does for you, make it your best friend and run back to it every now and then, all through the day. Same as you would go to your confidante and unburden your heart, allow your exhale to relieve you of all your burdens- real and imagined.

Right in the middle of a crisis, external or internal fall back on the out-breath and see how you are lifted out of the crisis and dropped into a place of peace and grounded-ness.

April blogging challenge

It is time to inject fresh life into my blog. This has been in my mind for a while now and so I just could not pass up this opportunity. I have signed up for the Blogging from A to Z April challenge. April is going to see me write on themes, alphabetically every day of the week except Sunday :)