Life Lately - A Slow Start to Summer

It's been more than 10 days since I've last updated this blog. Life can change a lot in 10 days. Life can change a lot in just an instant...

2 weeks ago, I was planning our Summer vacation. The kids had just about finished their exams; and we had, unofficially, started the school Summer holiday. In fact, I was planning to physically write down the mental bucket I had already made - a list of things I wanted to do and places I wanted to visit. It was a list of simple things really...dipping my toes in the ocean, catching a sunset, climbing a mountain, visit some places I'd never been before. It was a list of simple things...and it was also a plan - and I guess, also, a list of expectations.

But of all the places I had planned to write on that list, of all the places I wished to see; the last place I expected to find myself, was in the corridors of a hospital. And that's exactly where I've been stationed for most part of the past 2 weeks.

Life is strange like that. Always handing you the unexpected at the oddest of times.

 One moment you are having an animated conversation with your mother at the kitchen table, and the next day you find her curled up in a ball on the bed...and the next thing you know she's been rushed to the hospital...And the day after that, you are hugging each other wistfully as she gets wheeled in for emergency surgery.

It's been an emotional rollercoaster since then, but things are slowly starting to return to normal; although a new kind of normal.

Experiences like these teach you many things. It makes you realise exactly how short life really is. It makes you value time a little bit more. It makes you think about all the things you've taken for granted. It makes you wonder if you've done enough. It makes you want to lean in for that hug you assumed would always be there tomorrow,  and that I now know I may never get again. It makes you appreciate the little things and makes one realise that even though wish lists and planning are important; things can change in an instant...and when that instant comes, you should be ready to adjust your sails, embrace the moment, dig deep, and do whatever needs to be done.

It's been a slow start to Summer. It's not Summer I planned or envisioned...but I am grateful for second chances and I will be grabbing it with both my hands.

Thanks for reading!

Peace,

NAMU :)