Reach Out!!

The count Down to the New Year has already begun. With various sales promotions, new releases, Grand Openings. It sure does seem like indeed the entire world is waiting for the next grand year!!

The crowd at the malls baffles me, somewhere few days back I had heard about the recession, the downward economy etc., but what I see is people scurrying to their cars with carts full of shopping items and loads of presents being packed,. Do I believe my eyes or the facts about economy? Somewhere deep down each one of us has been truly affected by this economy -the question lies in how much have the so called ‘Bad Times’ changed each of us from within? Do we really empathize when we donate a dollar to the St.Jude’s Children’s hospital or any other charity of such sort or has that too become a second nature to us?

The good old fables teach us the moral lessons of treating our neighbors like ourselves, but with countries waging wars against each other, natural calamities befalling on some nations or political unrest; does the layman like you and me truly worry about the future of those victims? Sadly No, we hear the news, regret for some time, thank God that we and our family members are safe and carry on with our day to day life. Not that we need to raise a hue and cry every time a calamity occurs but the least we can do is stand for a cause!! Had Susan G Komen wallowed herself in self pity blaming her stars for causing breast cancer the fight breast cancer movement would never have seen the light of the day.

It is not what you stand up for but how far you can take it to support mankind that counts. The cause could be as small as stopping food wastage which could start right from home and spread across the community; just like the 11Alive’s annual ‘Canathon’ which collects cans from people across the state and donates it to the needy ones.

There is no better time than now to start something, the holiday season is here, a season to share, care and make new commitments. So why not make a commitment to ourselves to stand up for a cause and to reach out to those who truly need?

Get Hands-On….

A usual afternoon on weekdays, as I sat in front of a pile of washed clothes fresh from dryer waiting for me to fold them and keep them back in their place. I have always wondered if anyone has ever thought of any inventions to just fold clothes and stack them automatically, just as the washer washes the clothes and the dryer dries them automatically, what a relief it would be if such an invention was made!!

As I began folding clothes, I felt as though I was surrounded by a sense of calm and relaxation, I had been jittery before this, planning things one after the other and rushing through the day. However, as my hands were engaged in the process I soon made a sense of tasks I needed to accomplish and could sort them out mentally and felt a sense of relief.

Isn’t it a paradox that the automated machines which have eased our life and given us so much spare time on our hands have also added to the stress levels. How? By giving us more time to run errands, answer phone calls and thus trying to fit in more than we can in a single day!!

Way back some thirty forty years ago, during the times of our parents, things were pretty simple. They didn’t have the luxury of automated machines but they did have a simplified stress free life. Whether it was washing clothes or chaffing the grains or cooking, they always had their hands involved and minds engaged. Despite all the physical labor they did they weren’t burnt out like us.

A hands- on experience (literally speaking) always has the power to put the mind in a relaxed state.

Don’t believe me? Try it out for yourself!!!, the next time you are a demanding situation or going through a stressful period get your hands into something you like, say, gardening , knitting or cooking and you shall see for yourself the solution to your problem.

I found mine; Hope you can find yours too….

Greener Me!!

It all started one morning when my better half suggested we needed a new shower curtain. Get them from the nearby dollar store was his suggestion , it’s both economical and practical that you get such stuff from the dollar store or the 49/99 ones, use them for some time & dispose them off and then get a new one. Sounds so easy!! However that was not what I wanted, why settle in for something cheap now and then keep changing it time and again. More than that what really mattered was the fact that not only are you spending repeatedly on the same stuff but more than that you are ‘Polluting’ the environment with all the waste stuff.

Many of you would think how does that matter, when so many people are already doing it, why not me? Now put the question other way round, when so many are already doing it why can’t I be a harbinger of change? We can’t keep pushing responsibilities on others, the environmental concerns which we now face is the result of this attitude.

Just some days back we celebrated mother’s day with a lot of joy and pride. The retailers were keener on gifting all the mothers, with various catalogues, mailers & vouchers the mail boxes were stuffed. The amount of paper wasted in all this effort was phenomenal, why instead of wasting so many resources, the companies could have very well reduced price on their merchandises; they would have had greater profit margins.

We address ‘Nature’ as Mother Nature and is this what we do with her? Dump all the waste in the landfills, mess up with the oceans and constantly endanger the flora and fauna? How long will we keep doing this? Somewhere we will have to pay a price of our negligence, be it in the form of earthquakes or the floods or the tsunamis. Year after year we celebrate Earth day on April 24^th, discuss how to reduce the pollution, sign up treaties at various summits, but eventually end up doing nothing on personal front. Till each one of us realizes our responsibilities towards making our planet greener no amount of treaties are good enough.

Most importantly we have to realize that we need to conserve our earth not only for ourselves but for our future generations, as the Native American proverb goes – “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”.

It’s high time we all turn Green…..

Something for mother's day

The word mother as per the dictionary means – a woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth. Now just close your eyes & try to think of Mother & it conjures up infinite images of the lady who was with us from the time we decided to arrive in this world, rather from the time she decided that it was time for us to come, the lady whose infinite patience brought us to where we are today, the lady whose warmth got us out of life’s troubled days!!And the list is endless…

Come to think of it - there was a time in our life when our Mom was the only person we cared for in the entire world, her approval meant so much, Unlike face book status she didn’t have to display whether she liked our actions or not, just a look in her eyes was enough to read her mind.

Way back in the 70s & 80s mom was like the computer these days – Versatile! Someone who could entertain, do the laundry , cook , teach , at times contribute to the family’s finances & despite all this had NO expectations from anybody but her kids. Mothers took a genuine pride in being good bakers or cooks in the limits of their households & not being recognized elsewhere.

Slowly times changed, the 90s got in the era of working ladies & with the onset of 21^st century, I guess you all know what has happened!! more & more women started entering the workforce , competing with the opposite sex, proving their worth ; this not only made them versatile but also omnipresent, a mom was everywhere from the board meeting to PTAs, from the home to soccer field to ballet, this generation of moms is seriously the generation of ‘super moms’ .In her endeavor of being the super mom she is not alone, the technology has got better, with the emergence of social networking sites, today’s mom can share parenting tips, recipes classes and much more, which probably the moms way back must have missed out on!!

However there is always the other side of the coin, moms then had ample time with their kids with no distractions like Face book, twitter, chat etc. They were more content with the information passed down to them from generations rather than referring to child rearing books , they didn’t need a ‘Tiger mom’ to advise them on harnessing their child’s potential. Best of all they all relied on something which we all miss today is the ‘motherly intuition’& with that single quality they sent us out in the rat race.

Today being a mother myself, I wonder how I will be remembered by my daughter, as a mother who was mostly on her laptop logged in face book or twitter and paid attention only when it was required or as someone who really taught her to be independent and capable of making her own decisions. I guess only time can tell that.

Till then as Abraham Lincoln said – “All that I am ,or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother”

Happy Mother’s day!!!

Thoughts on beauty

Visiting a beauty salon or a parlor can a real feel good factor. It achieves the mid way between how you actually look& how you feel you should look. A good make up can really boost your self esteem in addition to make you look beautiful, though it has effects of lightening your wallet.

One thing that has always fascinated me about all the beauty products is the way they generate the demand, for instance who would have thought of anti-aging serum? Was it a necessity?? Absolutely no, but the underlying assumption of this beauty industry is to make it appear as a necessity rather than a luxury. Why, as there is no lady who would not like to look a little more beautiful, Looking pretty is a necessity!! The innate desire of every women not just today, but from the age of Cleopatra!!.

& this desire doesn’t satiate itself once, you don’t want to look beautiful just once & be done with it, but keep looking nice over a period of time & that’s how the beauty industry mints money.

The age old adage still stands true – ‘A thing of beauty is joy for ever’.