26 April 2009

On Children
Kahlil Gibran
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
My friend over at Eve's Lungs tagged me with this interesting tag on motherhood which was started by by HBM and David. It's part of Global Voices Online. The tag requires that I state 5 things that I love about being a mother. The tag also requires that one tag other mothers, of whom at least one person, should be from another country. After reading HBM's and David's posts, I went searching for posts by women from African countries. I found a couple of interesting ones, but haven't had the time to pursue the matter further. I certainly intend to add a few to my blog roll and then maybe tag them later.
About being a mother, Kahlil Gibran's 'On Children' has been my guiding principle (most of the time). "You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts" has been a thought which has helped me so often as a mother. Whenever, especially in my children's younger years, I wanted that they should think in a certain way and they didn't, this quote of Gibran's has been a help and a prod to keep loving them.
So to list 5 things I love about being a mother:
1. I loved when each child became articulate, so that then I could get an idea of their view of the world.
2. I loved/love the fact that each of my 3 children (2 sons and a daughter) have such distinct personalities and world views but are such good friends, loving and respecting each other.
3. I love being the mother of a daughter. She is one of my best friends and I am so proud of her personality.
4. My sons have taught me a lot, especially patience [:-)] I love it when they include me in the things they may be doing at the moment. But the best was when one day the two of them, (when they had just about become adults) sat me down and told me "You don't need to feel responsible for our actions anymore. What we are now has been shaped not just by you, but also the world around us. You taught us whatever you could and that is a part of us. But now, we're adults and responsible for our actions". I am very proud of them both and the kind of people they are now.
5. And then I loved the physical love expressions of motherhood--the weight of a contented baby on my shoulder, the passing touch of a child, children leaning into you while listening intently to a story, the little cuddles just because, the sudden hugs, the breaking out of a beautiful smile. Now as adults, there are the occasional hugs, the weight of an arm draped casually on my shoulder, the fact that when I hug my boys, I have a long way to look up to their face but they accept my hugs [:-)]
Now to tag some mums :- I tag Rohini over at Mama Says So and Dot of Dot's Thoughts
and Esbee at Life in Forsyth and Shari at Literally Blind-Sided. I would love my own daughter to take up the tag too, but wonder if she has the time!

19 April 2009

I'm out of town, to stay with my daughter. The plan is for us--my husband and me--to take back our grandson with us as he is on summer vacation now. As he is just 3.75, almost 4, there is no guarantee that he will get on the train with us,when we return on Tuesday. Here's hoping he will.
But anyway, if he does come, then I guess Iwill have very little time to blog, take night walks or any such 'me' time. But then again, I get to spend quality time with him and watch the workings of a growing mind, see a personality forming, all of which I love. I also get to see the world from his perspective.
So to Eve who has tagged me, I promise to do the tag during a stolen moment :-)

15 April 2009

4 cousins between the ages of 12 to 22 head out in a car to watch a late movie in a theatre not that far from their home.  Soon after , nobody is exactly sure how, the car ends up on the wrong side of the road and smashes into a concrete garbage bin at the edge of the road and 2 young lives are snuffed out, that of the young 19 year-old driver of the car and his cousin, a young woman of 22, sitting in the back of the car behind the driver's seat.  The young woman was a student of mine in her pre-school days.  The 4 youngsters were the children of a brother and a sister. 
It is an awful tragedy.  What happens; is it that young drivers are reckless? It was not even that late in the evening--just around 8.30 p.m.   Whatever maybe the cause, the consequences have been devastating.  I pray for those two families.
Every day in our newspapers there is a report of somebody dying in a road accident.  Is it that my fellow citizens are bad drivers who do not follow rules?  Is it that our roads--built mostly in the last century--cannot cope with the surge in vehicular traffic? Is it that our training methods for drivers have not been updated to deal with the lighter, faster cars of today?  Do not the laws governing the road have enough teeth?   All we see are the consequences and the consequences are always tragic and always seems senseless.

13 April 2009

A blow out!

We have been having summer showers. The good side of that is the temperature comes down. But summer showers are usually accompanied by thunder and lightning. So we had a bad case of that last Thursday evening and the modem got knocked out along with the LAN card on my computer. The modem was repaired on Saturday. But I found out about the LAN card only later. Finally that was replaced today. I find it seriously cramps my style when I have to share my husband's computer! I am so happy to have my computer back today. Unfortunately I could not put up the Easter greetings I had intended to put up. Well anyway, I hope everyone had a good Easter.

05 April 2009

Tab buttons

I decided to keep the nature walks/studies in another blog. So now I have the tabbed buttons in the side bar, each of which links to different blogs as well as to my blog roll and profile.

04 April 2009

It is interesting to think about how people have views and attitudes formed by both their nature and nurture. I know that all this is already so well known, but the study of human nature is always fascinating. It also helps to realise this fact as it eases one's need to docket/judge/identify with or against, another person's attitudes.

Tweaks

I've been so intensely working on getting a tabbed menu on my blogs, that last night--even after getting to bed by 1 a.m., by brain was whirling with html! I had to force myself to calm my brain and sleep as we had a breakfast engagement this morning.
Now I've kind of done it to my satisfaction and hence am feeling sleeeepy.