I’m not an “Englishman in New York,” but am an Indian-woman in Colorado.

Mountain Creek

I’m in the mountains today…I love the mountains.

When I’m in need of a break from the harshness of life…I run to the mountains.

As soon as I had my first car…I drove myself in that little old beat up car straight to “my” mountains.

When I need to think…I escape to the silence that I can only find in high altitude and pine trees.

I think it’s a funny thing…a girl from coastal south India who finds strength, peace and balance in the mountains.

So…where do you go to find peace and balance?

So today, I got the greatest gifts from those closest to me. I got a poem, a visit, an email and some phone calls and great treats at home.

I had a friend say, in a poem,  that I’m cooler than Blaise Pascal!!! Who would’ve thought such things could be true?!

Have I mentioned I love poems?

I had another friend bring me dinner and a gift!

Have I mentioned I love food and gifts?

Another friend wrote me a long heartfelt email!

Have I mentioned I love words…especially in long emails?

My son made me breakfast!

Have I mentioned how I love that my son knows me so well?

My daughter and I played in the rain

Have I mentioned how much I love being in the rain?

I took the dog to the vet

Did I mention they were so sweet to my dog and didn’t charge me for the office visit and told me there would be no charge to take out the stitches?

I feel like today was a “For Me?” kind of day…where people went intentionally out of their way to make me feel loved. Well, guess what, you did it folks, I feel loved. So there, are you happy? I know I am!

I got to hold a brand new baby today. He wasn’t even 24 hours old yet. It’s amazing what happens to me as I hold babies, especially, newborns. I love staring at their little faces. So Perfect. Everything just the way God intended for each little one to be.

Perfect little eyes, a wee little nose, a precious little mouth, itty bitty little ears. A perfect hairline and precious precious baby hairs following the curves that only the Creator himself could’ve made by running his fingers over each baby’s head.

What an amazing little gift and responsibility each and every child is. I sit there and think of all the experiences ahead for the little one and his mom and dad.

I go into a place in my brain where I run through all the memories in fast forward with my babies…everything from pregnancy to delivery to today…now.All those sleepless nights that blur and fade into all the little milestones, holidays, birthdays, laughter, tears, frustrations, sicknesses, experiences…and hopes for the future.

I think my favorite part today of holding this little one was whispering in his ear that I love him and how excited I am that he’s finally here and how I can’t wait  to see him grow into all the days ahead.

Amazing…no other way to explain it.

perfect little feet

Picture by deweller

Want the 411 on what I’m thankful for

The date! Guys, it’s 4/11 today! Okay fine, that’s not all.

I’m thankful for so much today. My heart is seriously ready to burst with gratitude to God.

The other day I was thinking of how annoying I can get when I start settling on all the minor details of life. The things that go wrong or the things that get in the way of me reaching my daily goals. I am guilty of focusing on the negative and forgetting how fully blessed I am. On Thursday evening I decided to count my blessings and little by little over the weekend, I’ve reached this point on Sunday evening where I’m feeling blessed beyond words.

Lemme rewind the weekend for you starting an hour ago:

• Lucy and I went for a walk at the park and I took her leash off so she could run around like the maniac dog she is.
• Listened to “An Hour To Live” by Richard and Christine Carlson
• Grocery shopping
• Library time where I got: (Zig Zigler’s autobiography and also Stephen Colbert’s “I Am America(And So Can You),” I know, quite the range of book titles.)
• Hot shower
• Did the Incline and had an absolutely amazing time of worship with very little oxygen.
• Cleaned up dog pee from the carpet
• Sweet text messages
• Dinner and great conversation with my sister from another mother.
• scrubbed toilets and cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed the floors
• Birthday party for one of the cutest baby boys ever!
• Ran almost 11 miles and felt so very alive!
• Woke up too early on a Saturday morning
• Got home way late after driving home from Denver.
• Dinner with my brothers and some cousins visiting from out of town.
• Borrowed a copy of the book “Love and Respect” after randomly seeing it on a bookshelf after having conversation about it the night before.
• Drove to Denver
• Received a super meaningful email
• Deep conversation about life and love over IM. Love technology!
• Work at Compassion
• Sent out invites to my birthday party!:)
• Dr’s appointments for the kids
• Brainstormed some birthday ideas for others close to me.

Seemingly random and unimportant things on this list…Mostly things that are not life shattering. But each one of these things represents the most important details of my life. The things I value and treasure. The things that I count as blessings.                  I think it’s only because of the  difficulties of life that I can fully appreciate the beauty and joy in the simplest things…including but not limited only to… cleaning dog pee out of the carpet.

If you could walk out of the office, house, building, school, wherever you are to find a taxi waiting outside with your packed bags and you get to choose where you go…WHERE WOULD YOU GO?! Tell me now!

I’ve slacked a bit on this idea, but I’ve been reading, I promise!!! Have you been reading? Tell me, tell me, what have you read in the past week?!

Okay, so does it count to listen to a book on tape? If so, the latest reading/listening was of:

Pay It Forward- by Catherine Ryan Hyde. Let me just say, it doesn’t end happily ever after, but it’s sooo good!

Currently working on: The Sin Eater- by Gary D. Schmidt

I’m in one of those moods where I feel like I should just focus on the things that I love in my life. My daughter did this in one of her blog posts recently, so I’m taking her lead in this.

I love:

lazy mornings…especially when my kids come and crawl into bed with me and everything is just right in the world.

waking up to the smell of the coffee brewing  from self-timer mode.

finding and trying new  recipes.

opening my eyes and seeing blue sky outside my window.

playing board games with my kids…especially games that make us look and sound goofy.

going to the library and finding great books that I don’t know anything about.

impromptu dance parties in the kitchen.

our silly dog who loves to dance with us and thinks she’s a child as well.

playing football with the kids outside.

jumping rope.

running in perfect weather.

I love that I’m currently squished by my boy who has decided to come and lay right on top of my arm.

Okay…guess that means it’s time to go…..hope you all enjoy a few of your favorite things today.

Once upon a time, I was the 10 year old girl in the red bathing suit with the white polk-a-dots and ruffle around the waist. Unfortunately all the other kids in my class were 6. Disparaging to say the least, but I wanted to make my dad proud, so I didn’t complain and went to all my lessons. Unfortunately for me, there weren’t too many opportunities to swim in my life after that, so all the lessons from age 10 went out the memory window.

I took a lesson last summer, but it was a little remedial and I didn’t learn much, so now it’s time to proceed with finding a new swim instructor…Have I mentioned I’m a big baby and think that I could drown at any given moment?

So, I read this poem tonight and it made it all sound lovely, and I wanted to share with you.

First Lesson by Philip Booth

Lie back, daughter, let your head be tipped back in my hand.

Gently, and I will hold you.

Spread your arms wide, lie out on the stream and look high at the gulls.

A dead-man-float is face down. You will dive and swim soon enough where the tidewater ebbs to the sea.

Daughter, believe me, when you tire on the long thrash to your island, lie up and survive.

As you float now, where I held you and let go, remember when fear cramps your heart what I told you:

lie gently and wide to the light-year stars, lie back and the sea will hold you.

So, let me know if you have any swimming tips for me! I’m all ears.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved to read. I’ve really gotten lazy over the past couple of years and have been reading blogs more than books, but, I’m proud to say that since the beginning of the year, I’ve resumed my reading habits! Yay Me!!!

So, since I’m also making an attempt to write more often, I’m going to launch a little weekly experiment called, “On My Nightstand.” Really this is a very thinly veiled attempt at having accountability in finishing more books and actually remembering what the stories or themes were in each book… I’ll keep you posted! But in the meantime, tell me what you are reading!

Oh and before I forget, these are the books on my nightstand tonight.

Linchpin-Seth Godin ( So far it’s making me want to write letters to all the fabulous teachers in my kids’ lives)

East of The Sun-Julia Gregson

Born To Run-Christopher McDougall

Poem Crazy-Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge ( I love this book!)

Good Poems-Garrison Keillor (I need at least one great poem a week!)

Incendiary-Chris Cleave (Finished it 2 weeks ago. Really was sad, but very thought provoking at times as well.)

I got to play on a volleyball league this winter. I haven’t played on any leagues in a few years, so it was a lot of fun for me.

I started playing volleyball when I was about 10 years old…My big brother, Titus, would take me to the sand pits with him and I would get to chase after the balls that he would pummel into the ground. Sometimes, if I was very lucky, I’d get to try and dig his hammer-hits.

Tonight was our last game, and funny enough, we were a four-person team, playing in a six-person league, and we were undefeated all season and were the league champions.

I have to admit that we really didn’t have a ton of competition…we might have played 2 matches that demanded some effort. I’m a competitor by nature and by heart. It does me good to play and run and act silly.(I think my parents still wonder when I’ll start acting like a mature, Malayalee, mother of 2 kids.)

My body definitely feels older, but I feel like I’m probably a better athlete than I was 10 years ago…I’m still short, but it doesn’t stop me from going up to block  OR  hit…and I’m pretty confident that I can dig most hits(what with all that practice in the sand pits and all?!).

I loved that my friends would  show up and sit in the stands to support me. Even more than that, I loved when my kids were there to cheer for me,  give me a thumbs up sign or even say a, “go momma” on  my serves. My kids know that I’m an intensely competitive person, but it’s such a clear reversal of roles for us in this sport,  with them being the cheerleaders and me being the competitor. I’m always so proud of my kids, but what I’ve been able to see is their pride in me…tonight I realized, that their pride is definitely something worth competing for!