SOULspace

  Growing up, my grandmother had this very funny statement to make, "Don't laugh too much, otherwise you will end up crying". I say 'funny' because this is what happens if we take it at face value ( tears streaming down as we laugh and laugh?!), but what she meant was that we should not get carried away with happiness (laugh/giggle loudly), for sorrow and sadness will follow in its wake. So macabre. I really don't know where she learnt this. But it somehow seeped into me for a long time and I would always remember those words growing up,  but even though our culture believes in emotional restraint, we should make knowing and acknowledging Happiness as our greatest habit.  Gratitude is a great mood enhancer I am told and Happiness is a subset of that.  So which comes first?  Of late, I consciously tell myself what I am happy and grateful for. There is an immediate and perceptible change within me. This is an experiment I started for myself to break ...

Storytelling is a relationship created between the person telling and the person listening through the medium of a narrative, an oral language. This relationship remains just a communication between the two, but when the teller consciously reaches out to connect with her audience, then magic is created as they then choose to embark on a journey together, a journey of discovery, a journey of interpretation and meaning.  Watch this presentation, snapshots from the Chennai Storytelling Conference. Be patient as it is 18 minutes long, but worth it!!   Storytellers get all geeky when they get together.They want to talk about narratives and metaphors, story structure, theories and processes, maybe even get pedantic...Now balance that with pure fun, passion, sharing, and connecting...Even then  I cannot do justice to a space that involves Storytellers, Storytelling and Stories! Conferences are fun, learning spaces and a great occasion to network. Wel...

My daughter is entering her teens... Oh my, I am growing older! Yet it is a standing joke between us that she is 2 years old and I am 16!! So does that make me a child bride?! In a way that is true, for I enjoy thinking like a child and behaving like one too. So coming back to my daughter. She has moments of extreme anxiety, about her intelligence at times, about her looks maybe and at other times about her skills, but basically about her abilities and inabilities. School teachers add to such self-conversations by projecting very unnecessary and unwanted thoughts into her. My husband and I are also be adding to it, as we tell her to be more organised, be more aware, be more present, be more, be more.... Gosh, what a lot the child has to process. Usually she is the cool cucumber, but the pressure is adding up and she is just in 7th standard. The other day she was very distressed about her Math scores and spent an agonizing 15 minutes pouring her heart out. ...

The last post I wrote was in January, 6 days after my mother passed away. It is February 19th today and finally I have the motivation to put words on paper. I miss her...but I don't also. My son says, "Amma she is not in pain now, she is happier, why do you miss her?" My daughter says " Amma, think I am Paati and give me a kiss, you will feel better" It brings tears to my eyes. I think of her at so many spaces in my life now; at different times with different emotions. I never thought of her as much when she was with me. We can never be prepared enough for a loss. Last friday we had friends over for dinner and my father was with us, in fact the small gathering was to say bye to him, as he was leaving back to Chennai after a short stay with us. I missed her then.  She would have made a dish and then nagged me to take out the cups she had given me for my wedding, 15 years back! If I brought out a new set, she would fidget and sigh at me, that I was ...