What are the gifts you have received in life?
The answers were varied and many from being born as a woman, family, health, education, occupation, independence, and freedom that we have now as compared to previous generations, friends, children, support systems, and our individualities. An answer that needs to be highlighted is the challenges faced in life. When we face challenges, it brings out our inner strength and teaches us many lessons, making these challenges a gift to us. The respect given to us in our family, society, and workplace, is such a big gift, have we thought about it?
The conversation then moved on to the unrecognized gifts that nature gives us, the sun, air, water, soil, rivers and mountains, trees and animals, and whatnot! If you take a minute to think about it, what goes behind a cup of piping hot coffee or tea or milk that you drink in the morning? This was explained beautifully by some of our women. People tend to cows, feed and milk them. Some people grow food for the cows. The milk is processed, packaged, and brought to our doorstep by others. Coffee or tea is grown, harvested, processed, and brought to stores, from where you or someone in your family buys it. At home, you or someone else boil the milk and make the drink. When there are so many involved in one seemingly tiny task, what are we as human beings giving back to this world and the people in it?
On contemplating further, we realized that being born as a human itself is a gift that we must value beyond any other. We could have been any number of other living beings on earth, a tree, an animal, a bird, or an insect. In difficult times when we feel broken or unlucky, we should think about what we have, especially the gifts that we take for granted.
What makes you happy?
Have we thought about it? Have we noticed that children are happy without any reason? What does that tell us? Our core nature is happiness. Happiness is within and not outside. If we wait for an external factor to make us happy, then we are limiting our happiness. We have polluted our minds with thoughts and unwanted emotions and masked our core nature. This requires tremendous effort from each of us to achieve but we must work on this to fulfill our life on earth.
The parting note on this celebration is to be happy, count your blessings, and do good to others as much as you can in this life.
