Giving thanks to those who matter

Ever since I was a child, I have always wanted to hold on to people who I find dear to me, forever. However, living in a desi household, this came with a dilemma, a rather major one! As a child I was preached by my elders how love, compassion and kindness must be distributed to everyone around through the actions we did for them but there was also a sudden lack of expression for appreciation, a shyness that clouded real emotions.

I had a certain sternness while I told my mother how much I admired her for all what she has done for us, or I could never hold my Baba’s hand and express how much his struggles meant to each one of us and how we were so so so proud of him. It never really happened.

I really wanted to tell him what he meant to me. Even though he lived a life compromising his needs and his passions for us to live ours fully, I wanted to tell him whatever he did, makes my heart swell with pride and I just wanted to tell him how incredible of a person he is.

I’ve had moments where I actually wrote letters but never gave them to him because I felt I was incompetent and couldn’t do justice to whatever he had done. Gathering some courage, and listening from a friend who always wanted to do it but never could until it was too late, I wanted to make sure I did mine without wasting time.

I know he knows already how much I love him, what he meant to me, but I just wanted to say it so that even if there was a tiny bit of doubt in his heart or mind that he could have done something more, something else, he would know that he had done more than enough already!

This time I wrote letters to express what I felt for my parents. Our parents are the most underappreciated people in our lives because we start living our own lives and our never able to tell them what we feel. I started with my father but I intend to write letters or a few words for gratitude daily hoping to tell everyone around what they matter to me. It’s never too late to tell them what they mean to you!

Here’s a glimpse of what I wrote to my Baba:

His response was pure, raw emotions. His heart swelling with pride, his lips moving with prayers for our(all of his kids) happiness and successes. The feeling is definitely indescribable.

I know we often say ‘Thank you’ to people around us but we often excuse ourselves from expressing more than that- Gratitude in its truest sense. Here’s to holding my dear ones forever and also telling them how much they mean. Let’s be more connected in a virtually connected yet a very disconnected world of ours!