Today's post is more of a personal journal entry than anything else. I had to share it because, well, life is like this. A blessing, and a perfect moment.
The night was pure
torture. I simply wanted to sink into the oblivion of sleep and kept doing so.
But the mosquitoes insisted on dragging me out of my heaven. Not just me, but
my daughter as well. My 19-months old daughter is a trooper but even she can take
only so far. So there we were scratching and slapping and tossing and turning,
well into the night. The both of us. And I was also trying to insist that she
go to sleep by patting and singing to her. I felt sure that she thought I was a
nutcase.
I had had one of
those melancholy conversations just before going to bed wherein one feels sorry
for oneself and all that is happening to her. I had managed to put myself in a
true blue funk. Life was an angry-sad sigh. Lying awake helped the funk along.
Despite the mosquitoes.
This morning I got
up drearily from my half sleep, and by sheer force of habit and a dogged will
that I not lose my discipline yet again, pushed myself out of bed to do my
asana and pranayama practice. My daughter had settled into an uneasy sleep and
I check on her from time to time. One hour, the breath worked its magic, and I
was ready to face the day.
Then one of my best
friends brings me coffee right where I am and we sit down to a good old chat. A
pleasant early morning breeze, two woodpeckers knocking away at a coconut tree,
and a cruising lone crow give us company as we chat about books and work and
indulge in some light gossip.
By and by, my
daughter's morning voice calls me, "amma-a"
and I get my morning hug and cuddle. She is content to look at the world from
my arms for the moment. I am content to have her there. And there is the sweet
promise of the morrow bringing her father back into town with it. "Appa vanthu", as my daughter said today
in anticipation of being with him.
Despite all that we
make of it, life persists in being a blessing. All it needs is this perfect
moment.
