I feel I should write every detail of my grandmother’s vast garden.   We have a small cottage adjacent to the main building, it is surrounded by full of greens, long pathways, a big well, and flower garden protected with high walls on both sides.  She had a vast collection of flower plants like Parijatha, Rose, holy basil, fierce cracker, variety of jasmine, chrysanthemum white and yellow, red and off-white Hibiscus, etc…  There is one coconut tree, many clusters of plantain, Yam, and a few papaya trees.  The second part of the long pathway is full of the same flower plants, big mango and tamarind tree, the cluster of Papaya and Yam..etc. Her creeper garden is just too close to the cottage where we spend our afternoon playing board games with our grandmother.  She does not like us to wander out of the house with our friends in the afternoon, so she compulsorily makes us sit and play snake and ladder, board game, and some traditional board games, most of the time the game ends up with big chaos and we all leave for an afternoon nap.      Actually this cottage is used for storing wooden logs, cow dung patties, big vessels for cooking on special occasions like marriage, yearly homage to ancestors and fire sacrifices. 

Buddhist Prayer for Peace!

Courtesy - net

May all beings everywhere plagued with sufferings of body and mind quickly be freed from their illnesses!

 May those frightened cease to be afraid, and may those bound be free!  

May the powerless find power, and many people think of befriending one another!  

May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful  in the wilderness – the children, the aged and unprotected – be guarded by beneficial celestial, and may swiftly attain Buddhahood!!

Are you a nature lover? I am so excited about the idea of tiny living close to nature, these are environmentally friendly and custom type brings back the old style of living where our ancient sages were engaged in meditation and Yogic practices.  Does not that sound appealing?  Fortunately, I had most of my childhood days living with nature, my grandparents were true to nature’s fan, and they had a beautiful house in the village with vast open space.  We visit our village home during our summer holidays,  my grandmom is too good at gardening, she asks us to work in her garden, in return, she will give us treat like roasted peanuts, candies, fruit salad/garden fresh, etc… honestly, we have to work our butt out to enjoy the treat.  The work includes watering plants, clean the workspace, remove the unwanted shrubs, picking loads of fresh flowers, etc… She will make us work in two shifts in a day…one or two hours in the morning exclusively taking care of vegetable plants, rooted vegetables, plantain,  papaya, picking mangoes and tamarind from the ground, these works should be finished before bath.  Evening two hours are allotted to take care of creeper plants like long beans, ash guard, pumpkin and broad beans, and plucking loads of fresh flowers.    I and my sister will be ready with baskets by four in the evening and return home by six.   My grandmom will not move an inch from our side, I think she loved her plants better than us…Ha Ha Ha.   She cooks a delicious meal for us, she has to wait for another year to meet us again, though she won’t spell it out…we could sense that feeling from her eyes while saying good-byes.  My granddad assists me with English lessons and writing a documentary for the college magazine. We spend solid hours sitting in silence after dinner… Oh! My God, that’s if truth be told it is a torture for me, instead of that I would have preferred to work for her one more hour in the garden, they do not talk much… strictly follow the to-do list; in this way they made us practice the art of observing silence.   I think people lived over that period of time were following a healthy living style, I would say better than us, and they were mentally and physically in a very good state.  All those disciplines I have learned from them helped me a lot to love solitude and follow a disciplined life. While living with them we cannot freely move around or go out with friends or visit ponds, too many restrictions, we were children so they do worry about us a lot,   I have really enjoyed being with them.  They must be watching from heaven…Amen!  It was one of the most wonderful time living with your darlings! I will always cherish that moment.  

We all welcome changes in life, if you follow the same old practice, relaxation techniques, approach, etc… wouldn’t be dreary?  We all have the ability to accept changes in life, you may get surprised…Yes... The truth is that we are made up that way, so why to worry about changes? It is inevitable. A small initiative makes big changes in our life,    stop complaining about what you are lacking and appreciate how lucky you are to have, as I always say embrace loneliness, it is not hard as you think, initially, it may scare you, but in the end, you will feel it is really a blessing to be away from all the emotional drams, it will help reinvent yourself in the process and will take you closer to your ultimate objective.  I am pretty sure in this process you will attain long lost peace.  One thing we always have to make sure to   keep away from things and people who are consuming our good energy,  cultivate the habit of finding  positive  even the worst times, never stop reading, it will definitely improve your mindset,  listening to more truth-seeking lectures are bliss, it will  improve the perception, and  finally writing down your feelings and emotions, Awwwwwww! It is a great feeling.  Always remember to put all your efforts on things which make you happier.   Daily exercises keep you mentally and physically fit, sweat every day to boost your inner energy.  Be willing to learn from mistakes and never repeat the same. When things get tougher always remember that we had overcome our most difficult challenges, therefore we can face this too, if everything is easy life won’t be enjoyable isn’t it, things will be changed when you get up the next morning or be patient, time is the best healer, life is like a roller coaster there are two options either scream or enjoy the ride…I do both J

I  have found that waking up at the same time every day gives a sense of enthusiasm.  If it is before the sun rise, it is perfect.  Keeping a fixed time for meditation on a regular basis helps me mindful, calm and creative.   Drinking more water improves physical as well as mental health, it helps the skin glow and removes dryness, it de-stress and removes dehydration, believe me it prevents aging too J Winking!. Writing is my passion; I wake up with a fresh idea to write, most of the time I get marooned with numerous ideas, finally end up in writing whatever comes to my mind at that moment.     I always pre-plan the activities of the day, if it gets disorderly I feel very frustrated.  I love to cook my favorite meals on holidays.  My Dad introduced me long walks in the morning, it makes me feel top of the world.  There was a time, I used to drive hours to visit the library and get a handful of books,  I love reading fiction, fairy tales, creative writing,  self-help books, history, classic tales,  and the list goes endless….but no thriller or suspense.   I always make sure to get good sleep; I can stay hungry but not without proper sleep.  I always want to make myself update with financial status and personal documents on a regular basis.  I think it is very important for all to thoroughly understand their financial status so that you will get an idea of how much you can allocate for contributions and charity…..Living for giving is a wonderful feeling,  cannot express in words.  All that earned is not ours, it is a blessing from Almighty so I make sure we three are spending as much as we could for charity purposes.  It will definitely create a sense of gratitude and it is essential in all walks of life.   Once in a while declutter kitchen items and clothing helps to create more empty space, it will give us an opportunity to get things you really love to have in your home at the same time it will help to satisfy the requirements of people in need.  Every day will teach you some lesson; eventually, good ones keep you happy and bad ones help you grow stronger.    It is my earnest opinion, never be afraid of solitude, if you embrace it, it will help you to grow mentally, give a chance to know what’s inspiring you the most, you will build up your own beliefs, and learn new skills.

I am not perfect, I have made many bad decisions and wrong choices like everyone does, after all, we are humans with flaws, and I terribly feel sorry for them.   I say stupid things sometimes, I do laugh at things which I am not supposed to do, but I make sure to perform my tasks with sincerity.  I rarely go silent, because I am the only one give some background music in my home, otherwise my home goes utter silence, and no one likes that.    If I am silent means I am tired of arguments and on the self-healing process, luckily my people respect that.  I am a very simple person, I do not stuff my days with lots of activities, I stay limited hours inside the home, I am a nature’s person, I feel extremely happy being with nature, rather than stuffing myself in the company of a human.   I genuinely wish to change some of my habits.   I want to do less talking, but often I fail to do so.  I am a crazy fan of Junk foods, hmmm…. I don’t stick with any diet plans, I don’t know whether I will succeed in this task, worrying is part of my gene…Ha Ha Ha…honestly, worries are like waves in the ocean, and does it stop for anyone? Hence, I am giving least importance to it, no one is sure about what may come next, therefore ‘Toss your worries, and live in like last moment’, this is how I handle myself.  Believe me, it is a great way to escape from anxieties.

I have been repeatedly saying that ‘Do not fuss over things which are not under your control’ so, I think I should state about the things which are under control… right.  In my opinion, I feel we all have perfect control over our efforts, how and where and when to execute, I can’t guarantee the outcome, it depends on the person and frame of mind, we have a set of personal beliefs and not sure whether we follow all or not or possibly will, we have set of priorities and it depends on your age, we all have different priorities in each phase of life, it keeps changing and never be the same.  We have a set of ideas about how to be presentable, that too keep changing on a different phase of life,  we all are enriched with the virtues like kindness, compassion, care, love, bliss, and we exactly know when to bring out those feelings and emotions, I think it is constant, your virtues comes out and grows with your age, we also, know how to take things personally, we have general ideas about how to lead our life and what would be the ultimate object of life, we all know how to converse with people of a different mindset and what to converse, we have control over all those petite things like what to eat and what should not? Whom should we go out and when? Last but not least we all know which makes us happy and which does not... so hurry up....chase your happiness!