The view through the 'Broken Glasses' !!

Hello and welcome to our shop she said,

A shop full of bright colours 

where even leather bags didn’t seem dead.

May I help you she offered,

and can I help you I said!

Exchanging our origins and discussing our life,

She told me about her sons beautiful Indian wife!

Years of trials shone through her face,

Her words reflected proudly of her strife!

Awed by the brilliance of the shop,

and feeling the energy around,

from one picture frame to another I would hop!

Until,

Her singular action made me stop!

Out she got her beautiful broken glasses,

and searched her iPhone impatiently with hectic passes,

to show me a glimpse of her grandchildren, 

against which, she asserted, nothing else surpasses!

“They are my sunshine”, she said

“and I want to make the world a better place for them”

Such an irony,

That she saw the world to be beautiful with a pair of broken glasses!
Perfection with the help of imperfection and a world full of chances!

“Smile and the world smiles with you!”
 Is her message to the world, she said 
But can we all keep that simple message in our head? 
I turned around and glimpsed at the pop of colour,
was it the surrounding brightness 
that made her a woman of valour?

Because in her simplicity she knew, 

that in this battle there are not just a few,
we all need to play our part,
Smile our smile to keep the world a due.

I didn’t buy anything that day,

coz she had really helped me in her own subtle way,
and I prayed silently, in my life
for this lesson to forever stay.

Note: All this was after a simple lunch at basel street. I love this shop, and I have visited it often. But I never knew it would get me such a beautiful life lesson! Ronit Matalon, unknown to me until today, you put a smile on my face! I love the multi million dollar view from those broken glasses of yours!

So everyone, did you decide to smile today? What is your view of the world today? 

The Toy story.

The Toy story!!

Sundays in Israel is a holiday for my kids and a working day for my husband. Since my kids go to the American school, they have an off on saturday and sunday. In the diamond bourse its a friday & saturday off! In keeping them busy I always have to device these crazy plans...!

On this sunday I asked Aarush what his "Life Story" was until today.! 

He got confused in the beginning, so I explained him that your life is about how you spend your time besides your compulsory choices (like school, shower etc.). After a moment of thought, he exploded. with talks about his toys loom bands, legos, beyblades, etc etc... and then he was stuck! he said I don't have words to express it! I told him why don't you put on a show of your life story with the help of your toys...? 

And see what idea he came up with!!

I was thinking more in the lines of an act, totally in awe of the subtle way he started gathering his toys, and asked Hridhaan to gather his! I was just looking at them in the beginning thinking where and how I should get involved!! 

My mind couldn't wait for this opportunity to dive in! 

Aren't our lives all about the thoughts we play with? All the times when we try to see why we are what we are, only if we were to see our toys (choices)?? we would understand!! Most of these toys were the ones they chose, the ones they cried for, begged for when I wasn't willing to give in to the demands!! Ya ok, ok! Some of them I thrust upon them, but very few of those are in the picture! sigh!

 Aarush was the architect here. 

He told Hridhaan to put his toys up and he put his toys at the bottom, and at the centre were the toys that were almost common to them! The most brutally fought over for toys!! 

They got the centre stage!! 

Just like the thoughts we fight for the most!! That is why he decided to put in the doctors bag with an ambulance at the centre too! I guess that was for me, coz he knew I was the most hurt when they fought!! I guess you can see their personality traits in their choices of toys too! Hridhaan really is the more mushy and sensitive one, and Aarush the more methodical one! 

How I wish I could align my entire life like this!!

 In one screenshot!

Obviously it was more chaotic earlier, but I helped them arrange it, and add things I thought they would like to or the ones they overlooked!! Obviously the choice was theirs!! 

Isn't that exactly what we parents got to do? Not choose the toys for them, but align them at right levels, help them group it, remind them if they are forgetting something!! 

BUT LET THEM CHOOSE!

Why were my boys attracted to different types of toys?

 Not because one was good, smart and intelligent but because they were different personalities! what made the picture more dramatic was their different personalities and the recognition of that. No one likes monotony! They may have needed an ambulance sometimes, but that was ok! The ambulance was meant to be there for exactly that!!

Obviously,

 when we placed everything I didn't realise, but as you know, my mind does these things to me, 

'The Big Book of Everything' seemed so significant!! 

And it was there closed right at the centre!! The power was right there among our choices! We had to just go jump hunt and grab it!!

Another thing and I think my son did it on purpose, is the adding the 'It's not easy being big!' book! It really isn't that easy to live under the burden of someone's expectations just because someone younger is watching you! But then is it easy being small? When you have to constantly try to be someone who is elder than you? So I decided to stop telling my son that he needs to understand because he is big!! Instead I tell him to behave with Hridhaan the way he would expect me to behave with him!! And I remind him of his times when he used to mess up my stuff, (drop it, break it and delete it), and I would get angry, but i would say its OK ultimately! He loves it! And I love him feeling loved!!

We all our fighting our own battles in search of our purpose, so instead of it being a chess board, let it be a playground, a park, where no matter who wins but everyone enjoys!!

There is a universe of plenty out there!!

Shout, scream, march, shatter, yell… do all it takes to get that toy you think u need! Do all that along with never forgetting to believe in your power and the power of the mother (the universe) of getting it to you!! Ok I already see you shouting at wanting to stop this drilling!

I loved this crazy idea we did that day… 

more also because I had never taken enough pictures of my kids with their toys! Haha!! 

Just to make up for that I took pictures of it from all sides! Laugh at me if you have to, but every mother understands this! 

 I moved to the top floor to take a top view of the project, and again! See if you can see it! 

Past all those choices, all our memories all the toys, lay that elevator (literally) that would take us to a different level of higher purpose! But Ya!! You have to pass through them, move them around, fall if you might have to… and when you’re at the edge… you have to take a big leap of faith..!!

“Or just decide to take the stairs!” ;-) I said to my mind!

We are, what we choose we are!!

Now let me get back to putting back those toys!! whew!! ;-/

What a day at the ZOO can do to you!!

Disclaimer: Before I start, I hereby declare that a lot of this may sound crazy to you, but thats just me!! And that's what my mind does to me!! No, don't pity me!! I love it!!
I'll keep it as funny as possible!!

So,

Sunny day + Saturday = Decision to go to the Zoo

Premal (My husband) was travelling to India, and so the entire responsibilty of entertaining the kids was on me!! Thankfully I love doing that!! It was a sunny day so we made up this bold decision to go to the zoo!! Not one of my all time favourite places but my boys love it... So yallah (means lets go in hebrew).... That day I found out that even my 6 year old son Aarush shared the same view as me!! "I don't like Zoo's" So he decided to stay at home with the nanny (and the Loom band). And my 3 year old and me set out!! 

Obviously I've changed a lot over the past 3 months (will tell you about that later. can't put two boring posts in one! ;-) And something told me that this trip was going to be different..! Hridhaan was super delighted to have the full attention from Mommy (no AARUSH plus no dad). All that elation shone on his face!! And surprisingly, I shared a similar feeling too!! Whose full attention did I have? I asked myself!! 

Waze helped us there, a lot of

loud singing and questions later we were there... They have a small safari before and Hridhaan enjoyed feeding the animals from the

car... Its so amazing to get so up close to the animals!! If you wait and watch you can actually feel their soul!! Those eyes seem to hold the truth of the entire 

universe!!

Zoo's always made me sad... seeing all the animals caged just so we couldn't go into the forest and see them! but this time when I entered the zoo, I got a feeling that the feeling of entrapment was mutual!! Just like all of us, having cages of personally determined limits, boundaries of believing that the forest is as big as the habitat the zoo gave to the animal! The food they get is the food they like... Our souls are trapped the same way in our bodies, and this so called world around us makes us believe in all that drama! We are the animals and the enlightened ones are looking upon us and pointing out (just like we point out at the gorilla) "OH Look!! Thats where we started" 

There were those few animals who showed moments of happiness when someone clapped for them or hooted at them, and those few who were there, present but understood their entrapment! I felt that. 

And that answered my question!! I had the full attention of my conscious today!!

Every comment, every interaction of love anger or disgust among those around me was blaring... and for the first time I was OK with it! I wasn't judging them, something made them behave that way and it was ok! I loved myself even more... and I wanted to go deeper into this newfound joy of intuition and acceptance.... and then bang, I was brought back to reality!! 

What happened was this: We had reached the elephants and Hridhaan was up on the fence that gave him a tiny foothold! I had just stepped back to take a picture of him with all the elephant in the background still concentrating on the swirl of thoughts in mind. Meanwhile he leaned forward and tripped over the fence! Luckily there was a thorny bush there to help him falling over!! (OKAY, you can call me a bad mother if you want!!)

The thorns pricked him and in all those frantic moments of consoling healing and hugging, the thoughts still didn't leave my mind! Two thoughts specifically in particular... 

One... 

Its not good to lean too much over into other peoples territory even if you are in total awe of them!!

Second....

FOCUS ON YOUR NOW.... SO many times just to think about our future we forget to focus on the now!! The "now" which is changing you with every breath, the "now" which is liberating you with every realisation, the "now" which is like the second child in the family.... always creating chaos and drama to call for your attention coz they actually don't get it! Lets change that statement on our bodily theatre that says "Now Showing" to "Now focusing"!!

Hridhaan is really strong, he didn't cry inspire of the thorns that hurt him. I looked for why he didn't cry, and so I asked him... He simply said, "Mamma it was my mistake!" He always understood that when you make mistakes, you do get hurt and there's no point crying about it. He knew he had many animals to look at before rang the warning bell with word "HOME"!! I wish we could do that.... understand that when we make mistakes we do get hurt... and not spend so much precious time in the after-effects. He went home and told Aarush they were tiger marks, just by the way!! BOYSS!! 

And so finally bribing my conscious with a future date... I was just enjoying the sheer pleasure of being with my son in the now! We were at the leopard! we had to get under this cave to look at it from the glass. it was solo close and it was taking circles around a bush!! obviously it wanted to run!! Probably they should put in a treadmill there.. i thought to myself..! Just then, this maybe 7 year old girl said that it seems like he's doing a ramp walk in the fashion show. WOW!! I said in total amazement of the comment. Would we adults ever think of this kind of connection? and if we would... would we be able to say it out loud...! I am soo sure that many of us would have had the wackiest comment and absurdest ideas... but how many of us put words into it? Leopard print is actually in fashion now!!

STOP!!!

I said to my mind that was knocking again. And we rushed to the penguins. Obviously there was no snow there, it was israel remember! But ya there was ICE CREAM nearby!! Wow... this name was so aptly put, because every kid (including me) screams (I Scream) when they see it "Mammaaaaa , ice creammmm!!!" Obviously we had to celebrate for such a wonderful time together!! 

SO we bought ice creams, each to our liking, and cheers-ed!! 

Cheers to mutual training between me and my son, 

and

cheers to self acceptance of each other, cheers to making mistakes, cheers to the NOW!!

Last but not the least, eeeyyyuuuuu that sounds so cliche....

One more boring thought, We had to rush to get this rented car trolley back within the hour otherwise we would be charged another 25! So we zoomed in full speed, saying excuse me N number of times, ughhhh, and we made it!! I asked that guy to click a picture of us. When I looked at it.... TAXI... 

It seemed just fitting!! 

We were touring in this symbolism of entrapment in a TAXI.... 

The hell pay the money and get offfff!!!! 

The meter is runnninggggg..... 

P.S: Pardon the grammatical errors, and picture quality... I tried to focus on them in the beginning... but focusing on my thoughts is my thing you see!!