On a day filled with back-to-back meetings, picking and dropping kids, emails, phone calls, a late lunch at 5:00 if you can call it that; I felt around 6:00 pm, that I needed to catch my breath. And was I glad I did... What gloriously beautiful weather! I just had to step out in the balcony and was immediately transported to another world. I forgot who I was, what I was doing, what had been on my mind. All I could feel was gratitude.. I felt fortunate to be able to enjoy so many things in life, I felt grateful for the lovely, lush green neem trees right across where I live; I felt wonderful being surrounded by such beauty; the smoky clouds, the gently sashaying trees, the two gorgeous parrots perched on the branch right across where I was standing, the pleasantly humid weather. I felt thankful for being alive!
I often like to pretend that I don't like rain. Every time clouds start gathering together, conspiring to drench the city, I start fussing; wrinkling up my nose and looking up at the skies with disdain; announcing to the world that everything is going to come to a standstill if it rains. Deep down...well, deep down my heart is doing a happy dance at the first promise of a shower.
I associate rain with my childhood. It reminds me of my father. He would transform into someone else at the first drop of water from the sky. He loved taking long walks in the lane where we lived, getting soaked in the rain; where the sky was barely visible, for the trees embraced each other from both sides of the road. And I loved dancing in the rain, making garlands of the pretty pink flowers that my neighbour's creeper bore. That reminds me of my dear friend, my next door neighbour, Yasir. We loved tagging along his older sister in the rain, making paper boats if we could find paper; or sometimes floating our flip flops as boats if nothing else. What carefree times!
Today, as I stood gazing out, enjoying the calm that the weather brought, I spotted two little girls with backpacks, probably returning from tuition; making sure that they stepped IN the puddles instead of avoiding them. It brought a smile to my face; reminding me what it was like to be a little girl; one that I once was, one that I want to be again. I threw a small pebble in the puddle right under the balcony where I stood; watching the ripples, watching my life disappearing right there in front of my eyes, just the way the ripples disappeared, till the waters were calm again.
I heaved a sigh and turned back to go inside, reminding myself of what I had gained out of all the years that had gone by swiftly. My two beautiful children! As I stand here today, knowing I have lost and gained a lot in the last couple of years, remembering the ups and downs of life, reminiscencing; I feel blessed when I think of what has come out of it...motherhood...it has to be the best feeling in the world...so this one is to Papa, the curly-haired boy next door, my old and new friends and most of all, the two most wonderful creatures I have ever come across, my daughter and my son...
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