A birthday and a few lessons

 

Image courtesy: Pixabay

 

Dear Vi,

I hope by the time you are big enough to read this, you know that June 20th is Amma’s birthday. My birthday was a few days ago. Let me first tell you what we did. Papa and I accompanied you and your class to the Ile de Margarite, near Cannes. It was a nice and sunny day. We had fun running around the place, searching for treasure and acting like pirates. All thanks to your maitresse (Class teacher) Magali. She sure knows how to make things interesting. So that was how our day went. A whole day spent with you and your friends made me understand you a little better. We spoke about this later that night.

Amma turned 34 yesterday and I guess I am halfway down my life. I wanted to share with you a few lessons I have learned from life. Hoping that at some stage of your life you may find these useful.

1. Be yourself and be the best version of yourself – whatever anyone tells you, know in your heart that you are enough. Strive only to be the best of yourself. Change yourself only if you want to. Changing for someone else is not worth it. Neither is expecting someone to change for you.
2. Be content with what you have – This is something you should learn from your Papa. He’s always happy with what he has. Although he works hard, he doesn’t have too many expectations. He’s someone who’s happy with whatever he has.
3. Be grateful – Always have gratitude and be thankful for the people around you, the situation you are in and the comforts you have in life. From being able to see to having food on your plate. All things you need to be grateful for.
4. Happiness is truly a choice – Amma took some time to realise this one. The onus of making ‘you’ happy, rests on you. No one else can be responsible for that. And, to find that happiness on a daily basis is easy if you look around you.
5. Don’t judge anyone – Open up your mind, learn to be accepting, and don’t judge anyone. Not based on their attire, not on their gender, not on their origin and not on their religion. It will be very easy to for your opinion based on the various stereotypes you see around you. But in reality, each person is different. Take time to know a person before you make up your mind about them.

 

That’s all I want to say today, Vi.

Love and hugs and kisses,

Amma