It's Christmas time..

It's my favorite part of the year "Christmas". Though I have been brought up in a Hindu household, we have always celebrated Christmas as my sister and I went to a Christian school, loved watching Christmas movies and loved christmas trees.

Ever since I moved away from home ( Chennai, India), I have started to remember the good times and things we used to do during various holidays. As a young kids my sister and I loved going to the Christmas bazaars in the city. Shooting ballons with pellet guns, playing silly santa games , eating plum cakes and setting up our christmas tree was some of the favorite things for me. But among all, I loved to watch the Christmas movies on star movies. Every december is when our school has half-yearly examinations, coming home after the exam around lunch, I would switch on the TV, get some food on my plate and I was hooked. I guess I used to enjoy watching these movies as most of them had images of snow, decorated christmas trees and santa claus. It never snows in my city and to watch all this made me feel magical.

I still believe Christmas is magical. As we grew older we stopped believing in Santa Claus. Stopped dreaming. I happened to see this video of an airline called West Jet how they gave all their customers on a flight what they wished for christmas. As I watched the video I thought to myself, what would I have asked for if they asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Would I be true to myself and tell them? Becoming an adult often times means losing the kid within you, You dont do silly things anymore, dont dream, dont do things spontaneously and the list is long.. One thing I want to revive or do consistently is DREAM. Dream about what I want to achieve, things I want to do, goals I want to accomplish. As a young child I had no problem doing this, I used to dream big without limits. These days logic gets to me and I start analysing and stop dreaming. This quote by Harriet Tubman sums it up beautifully, " Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars and change the world."
This Christmas I wish for you all to be big dreamers. There is no greater joy than seeing your dreams come true.

Courage

What is Courage?

Courage is to wake up each day and move on. Move on and do the same things again that did not work the first or second time. To start believing once again it will work.

I particularly recall the story of Suleikha Jauoud a 22 year old whose life was affected by cancer. That did not prevent her from achieving what she dreamed of doing. She says in her columns that she always dreamed of being a journalist, traveling places and finding stories. But here she was 22 year with leukemia and cancer. I bet if I was in her position all I would do is moan and cry. But Suleikha, started to blog about her experiences as a young adult with cancer. She soon started to write about her experiences in the New York Times in a column called Life, Interrupted. She still does. Just this month, her video series Life Interrupted was nominated for the Emmy Awards 2013 and it also won.

WOW, is all I could say thinking about her story. It is nice to just read about someone like Suleikha and think they got luck.

Today is Hallowen, I vow that today is the last day when I shall be afraid, I will move ahead into the future living one day at a time and giving my best each day. It makes a 'Big' difference to wake up, give your best at work and personally and be confident. The past few  weeks have been dull, I have lacked confidence in myself. I have to get back to who I used to be.