Happy New You

I wish you a Happy New You.
Happy?
What's that?
State of mind?
Flight of fancy?
A flippant thought?
A kiss?
A hug?
A new saree?
Hot tea?
or
absence of all?
Does happy exist in nothing?
Or does it need everything?
Is it even a thing?
Or, is it in all things?
Why do we attach Happy to New Year, Diwali and Xmas?

What do you think?

And how can you or I be new?

Have you planted a seed recently?
All of the plant's past incarnations live inside it--
roots, shoots, leaves, sepals, stamen and stigma.
A bit of sun, a drop of water, soft soil to caress and a gardener's love--
is enough.
Watch the tiny life furl out of the dried up seed, and you'll know
how to be new.

Be a newborn every day.
Be blown away by the miracle of a sunrise and the promise of a sunset.
Be ready to die every day, any day.
Dying begins at birth, said Anusha.
Every breath I take is taking me closer to the day I will breathe my last.
It could be today!

So, I let death become my constant companion.
Only then can I truly appreciate each breath I inhale.
For only then can I STOP wasting my precious, precious time on God's beautiful Earth
indulging in regrets and anger and what ifs.
Only then can I be a happy new me...
every day, every glorious day.

Jab jago tabhi savera 
Make this moment your first of many
new ones
and be the baby you are meant to be
gurgling with happiness
and spilling your joy
and spreading your love
inward and out.

It's not easy.
I know.
I was in the middle of typing this gyan (wise words!)
when the husband walked into the kitchen.
What's for dinner? he asked.
Leftover chana, I replied without looking up.
I don't like chana, he declared.
What? When did you decide that? 23 years of being married and today you tell me you don't like chana?
Out flew peace.
Anger danced with glee.

Yes, the new me is still petty.
The new me has an ego.
But the new me can see this.
The new me is a work in progress.
The new me is taking baby steps to find the true me.

*****

Wishing you all a Happy New You:) And here's your treat for surviving the onslaught of my emotional ramblings above-- a bunch of sunrises and sunsets captured on Jersey shore this Christmas.

It was a fabulous family holiday. Eleven of us (mature adults, new adults, a teenager, a pre-teen and a pre-pre-teen) gathered for a week. The only items on our agenda were food and tea and chats and walks. We ate and caught up and danced to silly item numbers and got tipsy and walked and collected shells on the beach and clicked photos -- lots of photos and videos, too:)

Life, when you look back, are these moments --shared with loved ones --strung on the tender thread of memories.

I'm reading Devdutt Pattnaik's Sita these days and one line has stayed with me ever since I read it:

When it was time for them to leave, Janaka blessed his daughters, "May you take happiness wherever you go."

Happy to see the sun split itself into mini suns and play with the sea...

Happy to sit and stare: crimson and gold and blue and mauve

 cross connection!

 Drama

and 

Serenity

are

two sides of the same coin.

like

Life and Death

and 

Happy and Sad

and

Peace and Anger

Can't define one without the other.

But what we choose 

to define us

is ENTIRELY up to us.

Will 2017 witness your serenity
 or will drama play out?

Your choice.

You choose.

Will you let the serene settle in silence?
Or
Will the drama of life draw you in--deeper into everything-- away from nothing;
 no-thing: where happiness lives.

Have a peaceful weekend.