I HAVE TREASURED WELL YOUR WISHES

 



“Don’t just count your blessings.

Be the blessing other people count on.”

– Anonymous

 

Early in the morning, today, a 14-year-old excitedly sent this message:

“Happy B’day Sir. Have an amazing year ahead…

Waiting to read your article about today.”

I smiled… This young girl was not alone. Half a dozen of my well-wishers had already wished me… Some on 22nd, and some on 23rd…

I replied to the 14-year-old:

“HaHa… Madam, you may have to wait for today’s sun to go down, so that you can see the old man turning 68 tomorrow, that is July 24. Thank you dear for your wishes… I will treasure them well.”

Well, now that this young well-wisher of mine says, that she is waiting to read my article on my b’day. She, like all others, wants me to have an ‘amazing’ year ahead…

Several times, I have used the Zen quote: “Wherever you go, you carry yourself.”

This means, that if I have not found the year that I am about to cross as an ‘amazing’ one –- that is, if I have not experienced the amazing grace and beauty in last twelve months –- I don’t think, I will find the year that I am about to walk into as an ‘amazing’ one… Yes, as that old wise-man advised the traveller (from the valley), when asked how would be life in the mountain –- “Just as the life you had lived in the valley”… Yes, my life in the mountain shall be as awful or as awesome as I had ‘declared’ my life in the valley to be…

Yes, Sir… the year that I am about to cross has been blessed with grace and beauty. I had learnt it quite early in life, to pause, observe, and celebrate the grace and beauty of life hidden in very ordinary things along my travel… I had been capturing this grace and beauty in my blogs for years…

This year, I have decided to bring these blogs in the form of ten beautifully-designed books. I have decided to baptize them as -– ‘FINDING EXTRAORDINARY IN THE ORDINARY’…

Yes, there are thousands of blogs, and a hundred books won’t be enough to pack them. But, then, I am putting them together in ten books randomly…

As I have been writing them -– randomly.

Scores of my well-wishers have encouraged me by subscribing to these books… Many of my well-wishers have come forward to sponsor the publication cost of these books… The random seeds I had sown over the years -– without any expectations -– have grown into huge investment… It is paying me –- when I turn 68 –- with compound interest…




The 14-year-old, my diehard well-wisher, is waiting to read my article on my ‘special day’…

Sweetheart, everything about life -– every moment, every wayside flower –- is special. Try to pause, observe, reflect, and celebrate these ordinary moments, these wild, wayside flowers…

That’s how the year ahead –- the life in the mountain -– can be amazing … extraordinary.

I have treasured well your wishes…

 






Love and gratitude…

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: SUDHA AHUJA/THE DAWN CLUB CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

Video: PBS News Hour


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