The Happy Gardener

Years from now (hopefully), when my wee weary soul finally begins to make its journey over those grey seas, they will rummage through my closets and find all those buttons in my sewing kit. And they'll wonder why they smell like almonds.  To get to the bottom of this mystery, one must travel back a few weeks (from now) - back to India where it all began. (Alternately, they can look on the outside of the box that the buttons are in and figure out that the box held almonds at some point of time). Anyways, let's take the cinematic route. To India - where it all began. We (C,his parents, my parents, and I) flew from Hyderabad to Delhi and back as part of our sightseeing tour. We had paid for snacks along with our tickets (that meal business is a whole another blog) so we got our choice of an assortment of nuts, cookies,etc. So far so good.  But here is the key. These snacks all arrived in cute little tins/boxes instead of the microscopic plastic packages that we're used to i...

This is the prologue. Tomorrow morning, when the cat feeder goes off, my mind will vaguely register that it is just getting to 7 o clock. And that's about it. There will be no attempt to open my eyes, no racking of the brains to remember if I have a 9 AM meeting that I need to prepare for, no pondering on what this week will look like work-wise. Sounds good. Yes, tomorrow will be the official first day of our 8 week sabbatical leave. A suggested that I maintain a log of my time off and write about what I did (or rather, did not do) over the course of these weeks. He said it'll be something to look back and read once I'm back to the daily drudgery. He's a precious sun beam, isn't he? Well, I need very little persuasion to write so I decided to take the opportunity anyways. I'll have to figure out how I handle the whole travel piece but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Folks are often surprised when they find out how domesticated I am - I am not...

There are facts that make you pause. There are facts that make you wonder and change the way you think about things. And then there are facts that turn your world upside down and change your frame of reference for everything.  I came face to face with one such fact today. It was something that I had long suspected but I finally gathered up the courage to face it today. Here it is in  all its stark, cold horror :  I own 21 pairs of shoes. I had to take a deep breath before and after I typed that sentence. 21 pairs. That's one pair more than twenty. That is two tens and another. Painful. It started with organizing some shoes in the living room. C & I bought bought some new shoes - supposedly for all the hiking and walking we intend to do in NZ and they were lying in the living room along with our daily use shoes. I was putting them away in the coat closet and was appalled by the number of shoes already in there. They seem to be multiplying every time I opened...

Let me tell you what I dream about. I dream about leafing through my "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine with nothing else on my mind. I dream about sleeping in and painting in the late morning or early afternoon by a sunny window when the lighting is at its best. I dream of doing Yoga or taking a walk at 4 PM when my energy levels are at their highest. Of sitting down and paying attention to my lunch as I eat it. Of reading in bed. Of noticing the hours of the day pass by. Of not paying attention to time. Of going through and posting my pictures unhurriedly. Of pottering about in the garden and making foolish plans for summer plantings. Of organizing my closet at 11 in the morning because I feel like it. Of not worrying about emails and status reports and meeting deadlines and schedule. Of going to Target or the grocery store at odd hours of the day. Of not rushing through anything and everything. And maybe some hectic travel to far flung & wonderful destinations befor...

New England winters New England has two winters : one is a thing of heart aching beauty - of soft white snow on every tree and branch and fence and post, of warm lights, of bright mornings of blue sky when you can almost touch the crispness in the air, of quiet evenings and empty roads when you can hear the muffled snowfall outside, of warm cider and thick wool coats and bright scarves and hats. Of fields of golden bulrushes and stately evergreens.  Of skiing and snow tubing and perfect Christmas settings. The other is a study of misery. Of dirty black snow and wintry slush. Of late afternoon twilight and biting cold. Of endless snow cleanup and layers of clothes. Of empty trees and not enough sun. Of salt everywhere - on the roads, on your soles, on your floor. And the long long wait for warm outdoors. The Moment I had one of those moments today. It happened at a stop sign close to home as I got in the car and drove to the bus station.  The part of my brain that is al...

Where did the carefree days go? Now, if I spend an evening just watching TV and reading, I feel like like I'm forgetting something or just plain guilty. Anyways, here I am. You'll be happy to know that even though I haven't been working out as much as I'd hoped or writing as much,  I am making reasonable progress on the other items on the year's bucket list.  C & I have the basic planning for the India trip done and I finally re-started Slaughterhouse Five ( I started this a loong time ago, read about 10 pages and then got distracted). Aaaand, I actually made a couple of new recipes this year - a veggie pasta (with much help from C) and a white-radish-and-fenugreek-leaves recipe, all by my self.  I think I am taking after my Mom in making random recipes up based on what veggies we have at home. Of course, I have a secret power she didn't - Google! I should tell you about the very nice day I had last week. I had a bad cold and sore throat and decided to ...

And so it begins. I was reading an article a few days ago which talked about some studies on happiness. These psychologists found that happiness depends on three basic needs being met - autonomy, competence and relatedness. (We clearly don't see eye to eye , me and the psychologists, 'cause I think the basic needs are 70 degree weather, dark chocolate and high speed internet). So I spent some time ruminating on this. I don't think I would have picked such a mundane set of words but it actually makes a lot of sense. At least, when I think of it in the context of work. You see, I've been spending a lot of time wondering what it is that I want out of my work life/career - mostly because I need to be in unending meetings with excruciating people who's only agenda seems to be to get me to snap. And now that I think about it, these precisely are the characteristics I'd look for in any endeavor that I need to spend 8 hours of my day on : - Autonomy : I want to have...