During my junior year of English, I recall underlining passages in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. If you look at my bookshelf, a copy of that old and wrinkled paperback still sits in the second tier. My English teacher emphasized how we were reading a classic and that it was important we understood the gravity of Mr. Twain’s insights. As a sixteen year old, I failed to understand the magnitude of Twain’s words in Huck Finn. The combination [...]
September 2011
She grabbed my hand. Not now, is what I wanted to say, but instead, her fingers intertwined with mine without hesitation. I knew her questions would come next. My mind gravitated toward my to-do list, a mental blueprint of all the things I felt compelled to do. Drive to the store to get groceries. Pay the bills. Do the laundry. Write. Exercise. “Momma, can we color? Please. Please.” My five year old runs with her steel pail as crayons fell [...]
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.” - Seneca Gratitude. That is what is streaming from my heart this week. I am overwhelmed by all of the incredibly thoughtful gestures by so many of my friends on my birthday. One of my closest friends wanted to take me back to my childhood. While she is enduring sleepless nights with her newborn, she decided to make my favorite Indian dish, pani-puri, a fried [...]
On September 20th, I turn 38. In a conversation with my husband, I confessed that the older I grow, the less I know. Part of me keeps wondering, when I will be wise about my choices and reactions. On most days, I am filled with a multitude of emotions, the swing moving from happiness to regret to sadness to sheer joy. Much of this resembles the pendulum of life and the unexpected joys and sadness that stream from it. Despite [...]
For twenty-seven years, I spent my days and nights in one place. My mother, father and sister and I called it home. At 6:00 p.m., most evenings, we would gather at our dining table and eat roti, dal, and veggies. When my sister and I asked for a glass of water, my father would say, “Wait, finish your meal and then you can have a drink.” On that same table, I spent many nights studying, trying to figure out statistics [...]
Ten years ago, I remember the day. I drove to Downtown Dallas, walked into the elevator and pushed forty-four. My office overlooked the Dallas skyline. When it happened, I watched on a television as the buildings fell. Surrounded by my legal colleagues, we all had the same face. Shock. Sadness. Disbelief. As a precaution, the partners at the law firm decided to let us go early and I remember running and jumping into my car, and calling my husband, who [...]
“If you worry about what might be, and wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is.” Unknown I’ve been thinking about this quote and its implications in my own life. Most of my thoughts lie in the past or the future, but in rare moments, the present. I am a planner by habit and personality. As absurd as it sounds, I make to-do lists to plan when I am going to write my next t0-do list. It’s a feeble [...]
Sometimes a simple unexpected gesture uncovers a happy memory. On one Friday afternoon, I made the short walk to our mailbox. As I removed the contents, I caught a glimpse of bills, magazines, and an image of the Eiffel Tower. My fingers grabbed the picture and I looked at it as if it was a mistake. In my hands, I stared at this Parisian postcard. I turned it around and my eyes gazed toward the bottom. It was a postcard [...]
