A four day odyssey in an 8X4 box

The title of this post seems a lot similar to a previous post of mine for a couple of reasons

1. Partly inspired by a friend of mine who has a series on travel. What a great idea to bunch them together. (You know who you are 🙂  )
2. It is only during this trip that I realized that each journey is a learning in itself and so worth mentioning. Hence deserves to be penned about.

Discoveries during the recent road trip :

• Night driving is a lot more intense than day driving. The combination of nothing else to focus on, except the road and passed out father and children in the car means, more time for introspection.
• Music has a completely different meaning when driving at night.  Lyrics seem so much more powerful and music itself a lot more soulful.
• The debate between “me and me” is a lot more saner, often yielding positive game plans to be implemented.
• Creativity is at its peak and I even envisioned a mind-reading software that could pen my thoughts down. (Caution: Software to be used only during creative times. Company is not liable for penned thoughts during insane moments!)  😀
• A slightly uncomfortable pair of jeans tight enough to annoy, but loose enough to let  live, will ensure a sleepless safe drive.
• Drinking a lot of water during the travel gives not only the much- needed hydration, but also the much-needed courage to walk down the well-lit, yet eerie parking lots of the rest areas  (to use the washrooms).  The humongous trucks and the stray cars parked there give a touch of thrill from a pyscho movie! 😀
• Last but not the least, my firm belief was reaffirmed that my circle consists more and more of people who have small homes that are inversely proportionate to the size of their hearts.  Just amazing!

If I go back into the workforce…

I will miss waking up with my children’s agenda in mind, rather than my own.

I will miss the quiet of my own home when my children are at school and the joy of the noise when they return.

I will miss sipping my morning coffee after 9:15, taking one sip at a time, letting the taste buds relish the flavour.

I will miss walking through grocery aisles, reading every label, eliminating the ones that are high in sugar, corn syrup and other unwanted junk and including some amazing nutritious food that exist out there.

I will miss researching on the internet for new ideas on how to cook better and stay healthier.

I will miss taking my time to cook – cooking for joy, rather than cooking to eat.

I will miss watching my children eat as each bite goes down  their little stomachs satiating their hunger as they come back from school.

I will miss watching the week crawl by.

I will miss the time I have spent doing things for other people when they have needed me most, rather than being there for them when I ‘have time’.

I will miss the joy of jumping up when my husband calls when he gets a break.

I will miss listing things in my head to talk to him about the things we cannot catch up on due his hectic schedule.

I will miss my children coming home right after school without going to after school program.

Last but not the least, I will miss the joy of living with limited financial freedom, that joy that comes from immense planning of whether to buy something now or never!

Weight…

This is a thought that has been hovering in my head for a bit. I haven’t been able to articulate it to myself and hence the unsettling feeling. I believe that thoughts become things. I know it for a fact. However, I have always found that it takes so much longer for a positive thought to materialize than a negative thought. I pondered as to why. Then an analogy struck me. If you had a bucket in which you filled balloons, you would walk skipping and hopping for miles without realizing the weightlessness. At the same time, if that bucket were filled with sand ? The whole journey seems not only treacherous but every moment is spent on thinking about the weight being carried. Bottom line, the power of the negative thought is so much more, thus manifesting unpleasant experiences in a jiffy. In the same time, we flutter around like a butterfly with the weightless bucket of balloons, not giving the same amount of power to joy. The odd times that we do look at the balloon bucket, we do send enough positive thoughts for it to manifest over a period in time.

The issue is how to see the sand as balloons ! How do we keep the avalanche of good thoughts flowing constantly, reminding us of the mercies we have been showered with constantly. How do we charge our positive thoughts in order for them to stay charged and not get depleted ? Questions,  Questions, Questions !