Aprreciate what works

Aprreciate what works

May 2023

Being grateful for all that silently works in our lives and ignoring what does not, will reverse  our default state of ignoring what works and resisting what does not, says Suma Varughese 

A couple of nights ago,  I was at my wit’s end,  having suffered through  three sleepless nights in a row. I  curate a close-knit writing group  called Zen Pens, where I asked for  prescriptions for a good night’s  sleep. Suggestions poured in. I  implemented a couple and actually  managed to catch a few winks. The  next day, I thanked the members  who had made those particular  suggestions and said that the sleep  had felt like deliverance. One  member then remarked that she  would never again take her night’s  sleep for granted, now that she  knew how precious it was to one  deprived of it. 

All of us enjoy hundreds of  blessings without giving a thought  to them, until we meet someone  who does not have it. Remember  that poignant tale of the boy who  cried because he had no shoes  until he met someone who had no feet? Every day, we meet someone  whose missing feet put our missing  shoes into perspective. Yesterday, I  heard of a friend having had her  intestines and liver operated on  for cancer and sent up a silent  prayer of gratitude that I only  had an allergic cold to complain  about, even if it deprived me  of sleep. In our country, we are  forcibly reminded of our blessings  each time we travel by road. At  traffic signals, what a mélange of  humanity we meet! Malnourished  women holding up tiny babies to  extract money from us; people  without limbs, with twisted torsos  or lips; and street children with  scanty clothes, bare bellies, and  running noses. Impossible not to  notice all that we have and ignore. Truly, we have been given in  abundance. Can you read this  article? How much luckier are  you than the millions of our  unlettered? Or our blind? Can you  walk? Can you talk? Can you sit?  

Can you breathe? Can you eat?  Can you sleep? All these are great  blessings. 

My uncle used to live in the same  building that we did. One day, his  whole family, with the exception  of his son, Suka, came down  with severe food poisoning after  attending a wedding the previous  night. Aunty was sent to one  hospital, and their daughter-in law and her daughter, to another.  Uncle alone was sufficiently stable  to stay home. And yet he was his  cheerful self. “God is with us,” he  asserted staunchly, “because Suku  did not go to the wedding and,  therefore, can look after all of us.”  In this mountain of woes, my uncle  was able to search for and find the  straw of good news. I was in awe! 

Suma Varughese is a thinker,  writer, and former Editor-in-Chief of Life Positive. She also  holds writer’s workshops. Write  to her at sumavarughese@hotmail.com. 

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