This morning, I started writing about marriage. A bit later, I deviated and picked a different topic on parenting from my drafts.
Last week, I had soaked enough in self-reflection. So, I was determined it will not be another article about an experience that involves only me and the lessons learned.
How about the fear of ageing? Oh, wait. That would be me again.
My left brain stops to warn me: You have not much time left to keep switching contexts.
It is Sunday, and I got time only until my son wakes up and my daughter goes into her painting class. That will be precisely 18 minutes of uninterrupted time, I calculate.
Of course, not counting the interference from the TV or my husband. Not including the occasional chores about trying his new coffee or cutting an apple without a peeler.
How about a story on “embracing the difficult changes in life?” the reluctant mind keeps popping up new ideas. Or maybe, subconsciously presenting my current situation.
Alright, just 8 more minutes left, my watch reminded me.
Would the readers like it? My right brain prompted.
What better way to find than ask them?! I wondered.
My dear lovely readers, this post is about finding what you love to read from me. Even better, linking a story from me, you enjoyed the best.
“The Sun Tarot card is the Major Arcana card of positivity, optimism, freedom and fun.
You will find that people are drawn to the happy vibes and positive energy you are giving out.
You will bring light and joy to everyone and everything you come into contact with.”
Aww… I wanted to hug the sun so tight! What a sweet message!
To those medium minds, that didn’t ring a bell:
A few days back, I wrote a post about how I found my passion. In that article, I had mentioned:
Writing to touch peoples’ lives with love, kindness, hope, and laughter will enable me to live a fulfilled life.
And I can do it forever with nothing but intense joy and love.
You see what I mean?
It felt like, the sun had been following me through the last few nights, waiting for me to pick the card today, to appear in front of me and re-affirm the truth.
What a wonderful way to start the day! The excitement didn’t last long.
The feeling of Elation was short lived when my memories drifted to the fresh memories from this morning. [Yeah the one I had before I picked up the tarot card.]
I had just delivered another baby boy. It was a home birth. The tired mommy mind was clueless about surviving with a newborn in addition to the high energy toddler and a little woman who just turned 8.
I froze in my dream when my husband shook me up to inform: “It is 6.15am. Final wake up call.”
When I got up, I felt like new. Just knowing that there was no baby in the house was enough to add spring to my steps for the rest of my days.
So far, So good.
Until I picked the card, and scrolled further down to find this.
Love & Relationships: The Sun is one of the main pregnancy indicators in the Tarot deck.
Oh wait, WTH?! Is this some kind of a cosmos joke?!
You are kidding the freak out of me, I said to the sun face in the card staring at me precisely!
I got up from the couch, headed to the gym, and finished my workout.
Something got into my eyes and I found an eyelash stuck in the wall of my eyelids.
I picked it gently and held it on my fist. With my eyes closed, I whispered: “I don’t ever want to be pregnant again! Ever!” and blew my lungs out.
When I opened my eyes, the lash was found nowhere.
It was my daughter’s 6th birthday party. My husband and I made the party arrangements all week. When we finished decorating the party hall in the unicorn theme, it was already 11 pm.
The following morning, I woke up and surprised myself by making my signature sandwiches to all the 30+ guests in addition to my husband’s southwest chipotle salad and Domino’s pizza. It was a brunch event.
The celebration began, and guests were coming in one by one. I was busy shaking hands, hugging, catching up, and conversing from where we last left.
Can you guess what mommies make best in addition to babies? Mommy jokes 😉
I was so in the moment having a ball when my husband interrupted to talk to me in private.
He said in a rather casual tone: “Hey, looks like everyone is having a great time. Can you please continue to entertain the guests while I take care of serving food, organising the stuff, and taking pictures? You know I can’t do the talks, and you are best at it.”
My mind interpreted: “Please be yourself and do what you do best. Do not stop having fun. The mundane tasks are all on me.”
Something clicked inside me. It was my moment of truth.
I felt amazed to be recognised for my inherent skills. To know that being myself was enough! Even to others.
You are enough. You are so enough, it is unbelievable how enough you are — Sierra Boggess.
The quest to find my passion revealed my wishlist
In the last few years, the recurring haunting question in my mind was: “How do I find my passion?”
The question inevitably branched out to several others like:
What can I do for the rest of my life without getting bored?
What can keep me in “my zone” and let the energy flow within me non-stop?
What do I naturally do well? What do people around me notice about me?
What keeps me awake at night?
What can I do for free because it is so important to me? What is the problem I want to solve for good?
My primary roadblock was not having an answer. But, having more than one to the questions above.
For starters, I applied the “Elimination” method to get rid of what I didn’t want in my life. To my surprise, this exercise also revealed my wishlist.
I can’t continue living in a foreign country. I yearned to go back home and live close to family.
I was afraid of becoming a victim of the monotonous routine. I wanted more vigour and zeal in my day-to-day living.
I couldn’t imagine working on my IT job until retirement. I wished to switch directions in my career and become my boss.
The thought of limiting my life to my family and friends shrunk my living potential. I wanted to give back a part of my heart and soul to the community, whatever I decided to do.
I figured I got stuck at the “Self Actualization” phase of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. where he points out, “What a man can be, he must be.”
If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life -Abraham Maslow.
I wanted to unlock my fullest potential and live a life with greater meaning.
The Serendipity of my passion
Six months back, I started to read and write again on Medium. I shared my life experiences in words.
I was amazed how writing has the added advantage of expressing free-flowing thoughts with no interruptions.
Tell the story once and share it with everyone else in the world.
No wonder my love for talking has taken a back seat by my insatiable appetite to write.
Writing kicks me to my zone in no time, and I only find love everywhere I see.
There is no drop in my energy or enthusiasm in my need to bring life to the words in me.
The appreciation and comments, I receive on my stories keep me going. It helps me realise my potential to keep entertaining the readers with my unique ideas and perspectives through my true stories.
I feel immensely grateful to bring my natural ability to the spotlight.
It is fascinating to unlock the readers’ hearts and minds to new possibilities. Through my writing!
I am so blessed to have found my village of like-minded writer souls who support me wholeheartedly. There is no greater force than the power of community, I admit.
The story of My newsletter
My passion finally dawned on my sparkling mind in a dimly lit room as I wrote a guest post to the coffee times newsletter.
I wondered what-if I could create a weekly newsletter targeted to my specific audience. My whole heart lit up in an instant.
It was the answer to all my questions!
When you find your purpose, it is like your heart has been set alight with passion. You know it absolutely, without any doubt -Rhonda Byrne.
Writing to touch peoples’ lives with love, kindness, hope, and laughter will enable me to live a fulfilled life. And I can do it forever with nothing but intense joy and love.
I can never have enough of writing. It is the path I choose to give back to the world, a part of my heart and soul!
Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you -Oprah Winfrey.
What is your passion? How did you find it?
Please share it in the comments.
This post will be incomplete without the special mention of Coffee Challenge 3, which kickstarted my newsletter journey.
[This article was first published on Coffee times Substack.]
A run begins the moment you forget you are running! -Adidas
My run starts at the end of the third mile. The legs are well warmed up by that time. Joy overrides any discomfort in the legs. With every passing mile, feeling lighter drifting through the space in front of me like a feather.
I start to notice things around me. I have the urge to look at the color of the sky. The leaves on the trees appear a tad greener. The birds and squirrels in the park get my undivided attention. The music in my headphones becomes the voice of the animated people around me.
I am present in the moment. The mesmerizing reality keeps me going. As I arrive at the 7th mile, my legs pick up speed like never before. It always turns out to be my fastest mile. And in the next couple miles, my body cools down.
End of my weekend long run. Every run has a story to tell.
Running takes me to places I’ve never been.
There is something magical about running; After a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, And what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul. -Kristin Armstrong.
A writer is a world trapped in a person — Victor Hugo
My urge to write started during one of my runs. At that time, I was not prepared to share my love for running with anything else.
Today, Writing has become a part of me.
Writing takes me to places I would otherwise never be able to go — Bea Cannon.
The first hour of writing is usually the warm-up time. As my mind settles down, it starts sending commands to my fingers. After a few hours, I find myself in the zone where the words rush to me. I am yet to figure out from where. Or maybe, I will just let them be.
Writing for hours fills me with more energy at the end of every page. Sometimes, I am tempted to rewrite the entire article from a different perspective. With not a bit of drop in the zeal.
There are some days with writer’s blocks. And at times, letting out the words is the only way that makes me feel alive. I burn myself down to be reborn again. To tell the same story distinctly.
I choose to live across different worlds through my words.
Embracing all the fears, rejections, and challenges inside me, one world at a time!
A Writer’s Marathon has no finish line
As I reflect on my writing journey, I have come to realize that writing is like running a marathon every day. To keep going through the unknown. Breathing in strength and Believing in the work.
It takes as much to write as it takes to run: Discipline, Dedication, and Consistency.
Writing is like running a marathon. Not one. But, a series of Marathons! With no finish line!
A writer’s medal comes from within. It is the power to touch a million lives!
To create a lasting impact on the readers’ souls. Through words. A writer lives forever!
Marathon experience is for the driven; A Writer’s life is for the chosen!
The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start -John Bingham, Runner & Writer.
Please share your experience in the comments about how writing set you free.
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A huge shout out to Winston for inspiring me to write this article for the coffee times newsletter.
Check out one of his stories about the importance of writing a newsletter. Heeding his advice, I have started writing guest posts for Coffee Times to kickstart my newsletter journey.
Going up on a 3mile hike with a toddler and a grown man [my husband] taught me something profound. We were both taking turns carrying our 2-year-old daughter and her stroller. Heading over to the gorgeous waterfalls in Oregon. It better be good, I thought.
When I spotted the falls from feet away, I froze. The pains left my body unannounced. My body, mind, and soul were immersed in the beauty of nature: The endless pouring of waterfalls with the gushing sound filled my heart with absolute joy.
A voice interrupted my view, “What a rough hike.” I looked back to notice a fine young couple with their cute backpacks telling me how challenging it was to climb up to the falls.
My involuntary response was instant: “Well, at least you didn’t have to carry a toddler or a stroller.”
Luck was in my favor, as they thought I was joking. Only that I was not.
We don’t realize how effortless some things are until we are left with no choice but to push our limits.
If we get a chance to go alone on that hike now, we had probably do it twice. The power of hindsight, I know….I know. But in all honesty, we never did many hikes as couples. This urge to connect with nature was an aftereffect of becoming a parent, I guess.
The same applies to my writing every morning. Some days, I can write for an hour or two with no interruptions. But once my kids are up, it gets challenging. My son wants to hold my hand as he enjoys his morning cup of milk, and my daughter’s interest in spelling is fully ripe in the morning.
Although I continue to type with my left hand to finish the paragraph, spelling out the words to the second-grader, nothing beats using both hands and a free mind for writing.
This is why I have set myself an alarm first thing in the morning. To wake up to my ideas and spill out my soul before it is too late for my hands.
“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed.… It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” -Christopher McDougall.
In the above quote, Gazelle is the idea that sprouts in my mind every morning. And Lion is the time that waits for none.
I better write it all out before the time is up!!
I hope it was all relevant. My time is up now. Period.
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