Have you felt this way?

Last Sunday we went to attend a birthday party. It was my daughter's friend who was the birthday girl. The highlight of the birthday was a huge bouncy that my daughter completely fell in love with.

It was simply amazing to see her jump for the entire three hours, but for the small breaks that we insisted on just to wipe off her pouring sweat. It was set outdoors and in this scorching summer, despite the late evening hours, it was terribly hot and sultry. I bet , an adult would not have lasted even 1/10th of the duration that the kids managed to "bounce".

Forget the energies, but would we actually do it. Filled with all our inhibitions, we would first see if we had company or think of how awkward we might look bouncing all our extra kilos up and down!!! Or maybe if our dress might go out of place and embarrass us.

Maybe that's why we SHOULD indulge in some such activity every now and then. Just so we "let go" and feel "free".

I don't have much of guts to actually do a free fall or a bungee jump. But it always remains a maybe-i-should-try-out-sometime activity on my mind. Its scary. But those who have done such liberating activities seem to have enjoyed the letting-go feeling.

Watching my daughter free of inhibitions and full of joy on that bouncy reminded me of my very own experience of "letting go" and "feeling free". I went skiing once. I loved it. It was a daylong experience. Right from the excitement of driving up to the mountains. Thoughts like: how am i gonna do it? Did we get off the right exit? Am i going to look clumsy? Wow, think about the beautiful white snow...and many such mixed thoughts. Finally we got there and everything from getting on our skis, the boots , our first lessons...was very exciting. Then finally you are on your own to ski. Man, was that scary, exciting and fun! You have to do it to feel the adrenalin rush. It felt so good when i actually learnt just to stand on my skis. Its really hard!

There was this cable car that takes you to the peak of your choice to ski all the way down. Of course i did not venture further than the first peak. The car keeps moving and you have to jump off the car when you get to the peak and the car keeps moving on. If you don't get it right you can be assured to have and accident with the next skier getting off the car. It takes you a while to get the hang of it. I had more than a few accidents. But to get your turn in the car was even more painful coz it was quite a long wait since the line was long. At the end of this long wait to get onto the car and then getting off the car tactfully, its just a great feeling to be zooming down the hill. The good part is the way you feel coming down. The bad part is, it gets over so fast!!! And its not like you had this picture perfect ski downhill. I had more than a few instances of bumping into fellow skiers, bumping off unexpected humps on the way or simply not being able to get myself to stop!!!

At the end of the day it was the most enjoyable experiences that gave me a meditative feeling, taking my mind off every aspect of my life and my thoughts being just myself on the snow filled hills being able to control the fundamental movements of my body.

The next day my body ached like crazy. But still, I think that was one of the most memorable experiences in my life and one that really made me feel "free". I must thank my daughter for reminding me of my "free" moment .

Maybe it is time for me to experience "IT" again.

Who is the teacher?

Kids are amazing. Its all the more interesting to watch them. I have a daughter of 2 years and 5 months and a son for 4 months. It amazes me how wonderful and amazing the human brain development is. My son can recognize voices and is able to demand for attention at 4 months. To see what he is perhaps going to be like 2 years down the line, i just need to take a look at my daughter. She has a wonderful capacity to remember people, a great sense of direction and very imaginative these days. These are just some of the aspects that stand out in her ( for a two plus kid).

I wonder many a times what an irony it is that a great creation that starts out so-near-perfect, progressively deteriorates. And then one day we turn around and say "Hey! i need to get to perfection" and head back all the way to how it all started!!!

Babies have so little needs, are happy most of the time and are not very hard to please. A new born has no negative feelings- no jealousy, no enmity, no food cravings;).......Most of the times, you will find that if the you smile at the baby, she will smile back at you. How many times are we able to return smiles? For a good portion of our lives, we keep wondering what we need to do to get the smile on our lips. Perhaps if we stop to figure out how to smile from our heart, the smile could last longer.

If I stop to actually watch my kids closely, I learn a lot from them. As an adult/parent i "teach" my kids to face the world. An interesting circle of life...who's the teacher?