99 things I love #FridayReflections #GratitudeCircle

Unlike the times where I have to play a mental tug-of-war with my mind on one side and the words being typed on the other, I could just dive in this week and write out to my heart's content. Because it's a list I love, it's about all the things I love and there can be no end when it comes to picking out our favorites from this lifetime. Incidentally, this list also combines items that I am grateful for.

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What I would love, even more than the list, is to find out how many of you amazing people have the same things on your list, if you had to write one now ? 

So what are we waiting for ? Let's share and find out. :)

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1. My birthday (ok! That seemed obvious. :p)
2. Birthday cake (or any cake in general)
3. Books, books and books - need I say any more
4. Reading on my couch with a steaming hot cup of coffee in hand
5. A comfy couch
6. Watching the rains while listening to my favorite music
7. Traveling to exotic places
8. Food ! 
9. Writing
10. The 'Fall' season - how nature changes its colors and makes me 'fall' in love with it :)
11. Watching the first snow of the season
12. Shopping for Baby Girl (or myself :D)
13. Watching romantic movies with LP
14. A long shower (yes, that is indeed a privilege these days)
15. Loitering around mindlessly in a book cafe
16. The smell of new books
17. Blogging community and all the wonderful friends I made in the past year
18. Writing letters
19. Poetry
20. Dancing 
21. The performing stage - it's where I want to die when its time 
22. Going home to see my parents and baby bro
23. Planning surprises for loved ones
24. Driving on my own 
25. Occasional solitude - lets me indulge in my thoughts
26. My busy routine
27. My dance studio - it's where I forget the outside world and sometimes even my family :D
28. My iPhone - even though I hate how the invention has replaced 'almost' everything, I am used to it
29. Doing nothing from time to time
30. Chatting away with friends for hours
31. Watching mom cook
32. The appreciations after a good performance
33. Watching my dance institute grow an inch every month
34. Going away for the weekend
35. Thanksgiving shopping - when good things are really cheap
36. Holiday season 
37. Sightseeing in NY - you never run out of places
38. Walking around the neighborhoods of NY on a Saturday afternoon
39. Spending some well-deserved alone time at a coffee shop
40. Flipping through old photo albums
41. Watching silly movies with my baby bro 
42. Balloons
43. Historical fiction 
44. Mythology
45. Indian classical music
46. Soft toys
47. My laptop
48. Early mornings and its eerie silence. For the same reason I love late nights and the solitude it brings.
49. Going for a long walk
50. Long drives
51. A clean home
52. A cleaner sink :P
53. The days when I have a lot of reasons to smile about
54. Sleeping after a really long day
55. Disney stores - I could keep gazing at the toys and the princess dresses forever
56. Movies at the theatre with popcorn in my hand
57. Feeling the cool breeze on a hot summer day
58. Watching reruns of F. R. I. E. N. D. S.
59. Creative thinking - irrespective of whether it's for dance, painting or writing
60. Playing games with close friends
61. Having a pot-luck dinner topped with hot debates, delicious desserts and late-night movies
62. Opening gifts
63. The accolades from childhood
64. Long walks along the country side lanes in UK
65. Visiting churches and temples to admire the intricate architecture
66. Meditating
67. Acts of kindness
68. Quiet evenings
69. Meeting my students every week
70. New Years' Eve celebrations
71. Snuggling into bed
72. Flowers
73. Chocolates 
74. Shoes
75. Reconnecting with school friends
76. Being silly with my toddler
77. Cartoon time - makes me reminisce my childhood days
78. Photo shoots - personal, professional or plain candid
79. Peeking from my blanket while watching a horror movie (Yeah, I do that a lot.)
80. Singing in my car with the music on
81. Planting sloppy kisses all over my kid
82. Volleyball matches with friends
83. Bowling
84. A nice dinner at my favorite restaurant
85. An empty calendar day
86. Video chats with my family
87. Ice cream
88. Exploring best picks for furniture from IKEA 
89. Silly dancing along with Baby Girl
90. My morning free time before the pandemonium begins
91. Puppies and kittens
92. Visits to my library
93. Clouds
94. A nice hot bowl of soup on cold wintery nights
95. Sunrise and sunsets (who wouldn't have these on their list)
96. Vacations
97. Fridays
98. Memories
99. Special moments of life

Go on, it's your turn now. :)

"Is there a letter for me?"

In today’s time and age, everyone seems to be in a constant race with their clocks. Prioritizing activities is highly essential in order to skip the countless other mundane chores staring from our never-ending ‘TO-DO’ lists. ‘Spare time’ seems like a luxury for those who don’t get a second’s space to calm down, breathe and smell the roses.

And it is this ‘rush’ of life that seems to have taken away the charm of doing simple things. Like having a conversation with a friend for hours, looking through photo albums, enjoying a cup of coffee with family or alone and many such pleasures. If you ask me, reaching out to a friend today means a lot of stress. Even though we have countless avenues to contact one another, we still yearn for that personal touch. For this reason, I cherish the memories of a telephone call from a friend, a hand-written letter or a greeting card from a loved one over a long email. 

Technology has given us a zillion options to stay in touch but somehow it always fails to express the emotion of the gesture. When the Blog-A-Rhythm group created the ‘Snail Mail Challenge’ about 3 months ago, wherein you get to send a hand-written letter to a fellow blogger and also receive one from another, I jumped at the opportunity. The catch of the challenge was that every blogger would be assigned at random, the name of the pen-pal, to whom they would write the letter. So I filled in my details, sent it across and waited patiently.

One fine day, when the Godmother’s (aka Shailaja’s) email sprung from my inbox, I knew it was time to bring out the pen and paper. :)

My excitement knew no bounds when I came to know that I get to send a letter to one of my favorite bloggers - Shilpa Garg. So much so that I ended up writing a 5-page letter to her. Not that there was a word or page limit, but once I started writing there was so much I wanted to share. I wrote to her about my recent vacation to Cincinnati, Ohio and the fun things that we got to do with our close friends.

In the end, as a surprise, I thought it would be a good idea to share my identity with her since pen-pal letters are meant to share our deepest feelings. So I sent her a photo of my family and my friends. 

Once I posted the letter off to it’s destination, I couldn't wait to know whose letter would reach me. I regularly checked my mailbox and pestered LP to search through the envelopes in the hope that one would be addressed to me.

A couple of weeks down the line, a private message popped up on Facebook and I knew who sent me the letter. The scanned pages of the letter lay in my inbox waiting to be opened and my first reaction was a confused look. I got so caught up in the expectation of an actual letter that I missed experiencing the joy of actually having received one from my partial namesake (as she calls it :) ) - Inderpreet Kaur from Eloquent Articulation. Turned out that, while providing the address details at the start of the challenge, I had checked the option which said - ‘I am moving and can’t receive a letter’.

So I went back to the letter and learnt how Inderpreet had recently moved cities and in the midst of the pandemonium she had to write to me for the Snail Mail Challenge. Having moved 3 times across 4 states during the initial 2 years of our stay in US, I know how hard it must have been to stick to the deadline. At least in my case, it was just LP and me moving places but with a child the definition of ‘moving’ tends to go out the window.

I got to know a little more about Inderpreet through the letter where she went on to talk about her work, her 6-year-old son, how she would find it interesting to blog under a pseudonym on some occasions and how she loves the art of letter writing but finds it almost dead in the current scenario.

Inderpreet was so sweet to mail the letter to my address even though she had scanned and sent across the content. That indeed was a surprise. I was so happy the day LP handed the envelope to me and said - ‘This one’s for you’. :)

Before ending her letter, I did find an extra page written in letter that wasn't part of the email that she had sent over earlier. It felt heartwarming to read Inderpreet express her feelings about the blogging world and how it has helped her make quicker friends. 

‘THANK YOU’ Inderpreet. We should definitely keep this association going on.

‘THANK YOU’ B-A-R for this wonderful challenge and helping me enjoy the art of letter writing again. The next time, I want to express my feelings with a loved one or a dear friend, I am going to write them a letter. 

Do you love writing letters? Do share, I would love to know :)

**Linking with the Snail-Mail Challenge hosted by Blog-A-Rhythm**