Category: gratitude

The awakening of nature and renewal

WQ #14: April 5: EASTER/AWAKENING/RENEWAL/WHITE & PASTELS

A newly blooming Amaryllis in my home

Spring comes bringing with it

A fervent hope of renewal

We want nature to bloom

We hope that nature wears

Bright new colors to delight us

What we don’t think about

How to renew and remake ourselves

Why it’s necessary to rethink our priorities

If we want to survive and our home to prosper

We need to renew our relationship with

The nature that’s been sustaining us

For the last so many millenniums

With the blessing of Almighty

We all can renew our outlook and faith

We all can find happiness in the tiniest of joys

Every new day is a brand new opportunity

To start life afresh, to forget the failures of yesterday

And live today as the first day of the rest of our life!

💖💖💖

In response to; WQ #14: Awakening Our Hearts Is Beyond Our Power, hosted by Marsha

#Keepitalive

#WQ

#Gratitude

I was busy celebrating

Today is my granddaughter’s 4th birthday and we had a party at our place.

So naturally, it was a busy day. I have replied to the comments on my blog but haven’t had time to read your lovely posts yet. So I’ll address them tomorrow as it’s getting late today.

Another display of my daughter’s talent
Festive decorations made by my daughter
Happy Grandma

Thanks for understanding.

#Keepitalive

#Gratitude

A to Z Challenge- Questions- G

My posts in A to Z challenge this April will be on questions!

Does GIVING to others increases your own wealth?

Giving of your wealth or time

Sharing your love or kindness

Never depletes your resources

Rather it increases them many folds

It also gives peace of mind to you

And let’s us sleep better at night

Safe in the knowledge that we’ve

Done what we were ordered to do!

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#Keepitalive

#AtoZChallenge

#Charity

Blogging Insights 3.0# 6- No regrets!

Tanya hosts Blogging Insights challenge

Blogging Insights

TODAY’S QUESTIONS : 

Do you have any regrets regarding your blog and blogging? What would you like to have done differently when you launched your blog?

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Thanks to the help and guidance I got from a very dear friend, who was already blogging on WordPress, the start of my blogging journey was quite smooth. She helped me set up my theme and menus. With her expertise, I was able to have my site up and running in no time.

And here I must give the due credit to this lovely friend of mine, it was no other than Dr. Tanya herself! I entered into the blogging world because of her and for that I’ll always be very grateful.

My writing journey on my blog has been interesting. I made many mistakes like every novice and learned from them. There were many grammatical errors and spelling mistakes till I installed Grammarly. Before that, we had a built-in spell check in the classic editor of WP which they did away with.

Discovering the prompts helped me a lot in blogging. I also was guided by many people on WP regarding my mistakes. A huge thank you to them all.

I don’t have any regrets regarding my blogging journey! In fact I think it all worked out for the best.

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#Keepitalive

#BloggingInsights

Zooming in on negatives – Quadrille dVerse Monday # 173

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It’s very much in our nature

Zooming in on all that’s going awry

Everything that goes well is taken for granted

While the smallest misstep is highlighted

If we counted every blessing coming our way

We’d be more cognizant of things going right!

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Word count; 44

Written in response to: dVerse Quadrille- Zoom, hosted by De Jackson

#Keepitalive

#dVerse

March Marvel Symphony # 37

Ponderous Thought Prompt

From today and through the month of April, find any three aspects in nature, relate yourself to each of them, and publish something on that. It can be dark or bright, just have at it.

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Growth

Our family was blessed with our fifth grandchild, a baby girl in March.

As I see the little girl grow

Her awareness and instincts develop

The marvel and the miracle that life is

Leaves a deep sense of gratitude in my heart

In my thankfulness to the Almighty, I bow my head

In my gratitude I praise the One blessing us with blessings, countless

Rain;

A week or more of welcome rains that have delayed the onset of summer this year.

Cooling showers, keeping heat at bay

Stopping the temperatures rising too high

Welcoming rain, wind, thunder storms

Prolonging the spring by a few weeks more

Making do;( Adapting)

Again and again, the marvel of the flexibility of human nature makes me admire its tenacity more and more.

The ability inherent in all human beings

The capacity to adapt, to make do with

What we get instead of what we desire

Is the gift of nature that makes us all rich

A most valuable trait needed to survive

Something we don’t notice or appreciate enough!

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In response to Saturday Symphony # 37, hosted by Jude

#Keepitalive

#SaturdaySymphony

Brightness greets my day

California blooming like crazy after months of non-stop rains. Even deserts are covered with juicy bright flowers. The photo was made on Diamond Valley Lake in 2017
photo by Sergey Shmidt

Being cooped up inside all day, writing that was part of my job, gave me the desire to venture out in nature, to enjoy the sunny day, and think deep thoughts.

So I informed my boss that I had an errand to run and during my lunch break, I grabbed a sandwich from the deli across the street and headed towards the park near my office.

The sight of intense blue sky and golden flowers swaying in the spring breeze acted like a tonic on my tired brain and boosted my wilting mood, adding a zing to my step and a lightness to my step; this walk was just what I needed.

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In response to TLT, hosted by Sonya

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#TLT

The vivid colors of the spring

WQ #12: March 22: SPRING/VIVID

Photo from my garden ; Ernest Hemingway

The gloomy and gray winter finally left

Little green shoots made their presence felt

The profusion of spring flowers came as a gift

To cheer up our souls and to revive our spirit

Photo from my garden ; Luther Burbank

This year, both I and my husband took some initiative and went flower shopping in our nearest garden center. He brought roses in a variety of shades and colors while I got a couple of citrus trees and some creepers. The trees promise to bear fruit in a year or so and the creepers are growing nicely. The need is to maintain a balance between too much care and neglect. 🤩

Spring is that time of the year

That invites us to venture out

See the greenery sparkling in the sun

And flowers blooming in the garden

Come out, step out in the outdoors

Enjoy this exhibit from nature before it fades away!

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Green leaves making their presence felt
The April lily has decided to bloom in March
Nasturtium? No these are Daisies

In response to WQ# 12- Spring/ Vivid, hosted by Marsha

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#WQ

Drained my green tea cup

SoCS

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I had just drained my cup of green tea after my dinner.

Since my stomach surgery, the amount of food that I can eat or the fluid I can drink at one time is severely limited. So having a cup of green tea entails that I sip it slowly, as it cools down over a span of at least half an hour.

Medically and according to our religious teachings, eating slowly is a good thing. It gives a chance to our stomach to send the signal to the brain that it’s full. This process takes around 20 minutes so if we eat fast, we often eat beyond the point that we are full but since the signal arrives with a delay, we often eat more than we should. By getting this surgery and creating this self-imposed restriction on myself, I’ve limited my intake by almost 1/8 of what I’d normally eat. The result is quite satisfying. In the last almost 4 1/2 months I’ve lost 18 kilograms of fat, that’s about 39 pounds.

Now I do empty my plate but it’s usually a very small plate and I do it slowly. I’m achieving my objectives, albeit slowly.

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Your prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is «the last thing you emptied.» Think of the last thing you emptied or something you empty often and use it as your prompt any way you like. Have fun!

In response to Linda’s SoCS

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#SoCS

Happyness comes from within

In this week, I’d like you to spare one minute to watch this video and reflect on it. Give it a little more time if you struggle to understand or agree with it.

Here’s the video

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The world recently celebrated international day of happiness on 20th March.

We seek happiness and expect to find it

In people, events and achievements of ours

“This will make me happy or that will make me happy”, we say

But that sort of happiness is so transient, fleeting

It brings a temporary joy that evaporates like mist under the sun

Lasting feeling of joy come from contentment within ourselves

When our conscience is satisfied and we have achieved inner peace

Then every moment brings us joy for our souls are enriched

With the knowledge that we are doing the best we can

Regarding ourselves, and those around us, to the best of our abilities

That we are being mindful of everything around us

And we are giving back at least as much as we are receiving

True happiness comes from a heart that’s at peace with itself

Lasting joy is only possible if we are happy with whom we are

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Something about the spellings of Happyness- I loved the movie “In pursuit of Happyness” and used these spellings to pay tribute to this wonderful autobiography

I’m sharing a link to my post; Chasing happiness that I wrote when I started my blog in 2018

Written in response to; RXC Prompt #273, hosted by Reena

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#RXC