Last night I
went to bed remembering some unpleasant things from the past and I ended up overthinking,
like I usually do! Ta-da! It didn’t do much for my sleep of course,but I got off the bed in the morning looking all chirpy for the world to see. Sonny boy has his mid term exams
happening after-all and today was English. I was to go for an early morning run,come back
and wake him up for school. I did no such thing. Actually, I got off bed,all grumpy, just
in time to wake him up and then decided to go see him off to school.And yes,
before leaving home, I talked myself into going for a 5k after dropping him off
.
So I managed to go run my 5k pretty
late by my standards. The sun was out in it’s full glory . I ran in a biodiversity
park in the neighborhood and 500 m through my run,I found my mood changing for
the better. I found myself feeling lucky that I had such a nice trail in the neighborhood to run in , I felt blessed for the shaded parts of the trail , I actually
started feeling pretty joyous. Just 30 mins later ,I was no longer the
grumpy woman who had woken up 2 hrs back, cursing herself and feeling stupidly upset
. When the endorphins had done their job , I was the me I like once again.
On way to
work,I chatted up with the cab driver . I was curious since he appeared much
older than the usual lot of cab drivers and was extremely well behaved. A truly
gentleman driver. He told me he was
relatively new with Uber( had joined after retiring from his regular driver's job in some company) and works for longest possible hours everyday so as to
earn the maximum he can. He has no place to call home in Delhi. He belonged to
Sonepat and while in Delhi,the car is where he sleeps in, like a nomad!!! He
visits his family back home once a week.
At one point,I looked up from my
newspaper to find him saying some prayers as he drove.He must have some big
responsibilities back home. I was really moved and counted my blessings once
more for my own cushy life. I marveled
at this gentleman and realised his life struggles had to be much harder than
mine!
At work, I could
sustain the peace I felt and my good mood. I managed to be in good humor with
all kinds of patients- even the ones who try your patience !! My job ensures I
get all kinds of them-the illiterates,the not so literates,the outright
downtrodden,the really lower middle class and then the ones who are moderately
well off.There was even a mentally retarded 20 something patient today.He’s
been doing the rounds of my out patient department in the last week.I cannot
understand a word he says,but his smile is disarming. My guess is he lives in one of the slums nearby and is used to going through his days almost like the stray dogs we find in the streets.Today, I realised he had
come to my room just to try and talk and establish some contact. Maybe not many offer him a seat and
humor him every day. But today , I did! And yes, that’s when I counted my
blessings once more !! I realised I have no struggles in life compared to this
young man.
Later in the
day,one father who was getting his young son treated in the department,told me
his son looked dapper in the clothes I had given him.I didn’t remember the kid
by name or even by face ,but I keep giving my son’s old clothes to these kids
now and then and he must have got some too. I pretended like I remembered of
course.The father then requested me if I would see his daughter too, out of
turn,because he had taken his day off and lost his wages for the day in the
process. Also,two visits to the private dentist meant half his monthly salary. So
he couldn’t afford to take her to the private dentist in the evening.Well, counting my
own blessings yet again, I conceded and did the needful for his daughter in the
afternoon.He was so thankful and his 9 year old daughter so cooperative a
patient, that I felt happier than usual attending to this patient. Of course, this father’s life struggles are way harder than mine!
Today was
just another day for me in paradise really…I just wanted to ramble here to remind myself once again not
to be silly like last night. I know I am going to sleep better tonight. I just
remembered something I read recently ---“That is how life happens. It mostly
takes care of itself; it really isn’t as big a monster as we make it out to be
in our minds.”
Amen!
