Natasha Badhwar’s gratitude journal of 2015
Natasha is a film-maker, media trainer and fashion entrepreneur.She writes the popular column, “My Daughters’ Mum” in Mint Lounge and is co-owner of Ochre Sky. She tells us what she’s been most thankful for this year.
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Gratitude to all my distractions because they make me a better person. All work and no distraction makes Natasha very dull, indeed.
Gratitude to my yoga teacher for the mornings when we are up at 5am, waiting on our yoga mats and he doesn’t turn up.
Yoga is great, but an hour of being up in the morning with nothing to do is divine. And romantic. Unless we end up fighting, which is also great, because it is just like yoga. Mental yoga.
Gratitude to the petite puppies in my street for dancing around my knees, even though I only feed them leftovers and chicken bones.
Gratitude to guests who trigger me to clean up our home. Even more gratitude to the ones who don’t trigger me to clean up anything. They relax me.
Gratitude to friends who fill application forms for me, who call my mother when they know she needs a friend, not a daughter on the other side of the phone. Those who pick up our children from school when we can’t be there and build their faith in the adult world.
Gratitude to friends who wish themselves a happy birthday on my behalf, knowing that I thought of them all month, if not every day of the whole year.
Gratitude to those who chose not to work with me this year. It broke my heart but freed my soul.
Gratitude to those who called me to collaborate. Trust makes life worthwhile, it is all that matters.
Gratitude to those who listened to my stories. Those who read in silence and those who wrote their stories back to me.
Gratitude to my teachers. My class 7 geography teacher who made me fall in awe of the earth, my class 10 chemistry teacher for being ethereally beautiful as well as smart.
Gratitude to sullen, mean and inappropriate teachers for preparing me so well to face the real world.
Gratitude to my children for being the greatest teachers ever. They don’t punish me when I have been bad and they giggle and laugh and create the cacophony that makes the home warm.
Gratitude to my husband for making the best tea in the world. For obsessing about dishes and bedcovers and getting all the broken lights and leaks repaired.
Gratitude to my love who is also in love with so many others.
Gratitude to all my loves, who love me back because there’s always scope for some more love.
Gratitude to my brothers for being my best friends.
Gratitude to my parents for their patience. I love my 40s because I have finally begun to understand how I come from them, not just despite them.
Gratitude to my mother for being so kind, strong, vulnerable, available, beautiful, generous and loving.
Gratitude to my father for greeting me with, “Hello, sweet girl,” on the phone…Can you imagine!
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