Rekha's Ramblings

  It's National Selfie Day today. I call myself the "selfie Queen". I was taking selfies back in the days even before the word "selfie" was coined, not on the phone but with a regular camera. I was an exhausted mom, of twins, there would nobody be around to take a picture of me with them. I have no pictures of me as a baby or growing up, of me or pictures of me with my parents/ siblings and I wanted to make sure that my children had plenty of those. There were times when I was tired, sad , angry, frustrated, feelings of hopelessness, at home with them, sitting on the sofa, crying, all of us. There was a TV in front of the sofa I could see our reflections on the TV screen; looking at their innocent faces on that screen would melt me, spark happiness inside of me. That's when it occurred to me. I wanted to catch those moments, happy, sad moments, when I was ready to give up but I didn't. I had found my happiness, through these selfies. I so very loved tho...

  Lately, I have been listening to Melissa Clark ‘s writing pool podcast. In one of the episodes, she talks about celebrating, are you celebrating enough? She was of course talking about writing, writing victories. She inspired me to write this post, a celebration of small victories. I am not a writer. I am what you may call a rising blogger, mostly mom stories, my journey as a mom. However, my creativity involves pictures and photography. Not too long ago, someone I know in the community asked me this question, why do I label all the pictures I post, who do I think I am? They were joking but I was kind of offended by that remark. Hmm. Who do I think I am? Not a professional photographer by any standard. I don’t have formal training. Sure, I accumulated a lot of photography gear over the years, but it has remained a hobby. I am not delusional. I am an amateur. I label my pictures in the grim hope that someday they may go viral, someday they will be shared by many, and the ori...

  Watching "THIS IS US" these days , a TV show and one of the episodes is named "there". Didn't know what to expect until halfway through. One of the characters, Kevin, talks about his dad who is now deceased, about how he was the most "there" father, how he was always there for them! It hit home. My siblings and I were, are blessed by the most "there" father ever, physically present dad. He was always there, did not miss anything. When and where I grew up, my father was ahead of his time to be always " there." That was not what fathers did back then. But my father did, he was always present, pushing us to do better, encouraging us in the most subtle ways. He didn't care that we were girls. He taught me to be curious, passed his love for books, reading and his legacy of journaling to me. He wanted me to touch the sky, aim high. We may not have had money, but we had him, our rock. He was solid. He could make anything happen and h...

  Yesterday I came across a post by one of my Facebook friends, ‘Vibrantly you growth and leadership’ asking their readers, “how often do you take time to truly reflect on your journey?”   It took me back to a blog I had written almost a decade ago, in my forties and how I have changed over the years. I have always loved to reflect, to ponder, about things, geo political events, people, where we are going as humans. I am always reflecting when I am driving, when I am sitting in the parking lot or even when I am home. My personality back then was that I usually blurted things out, good or bad, no filter. While I was reading my own thoughts which I wrote in my forties, I came to a realization, I am no longer that person, the person who struggled but tried her best to fit in.  I grew up in a household with an abundance of love, where I was seen and heard, where I was allowed to have an opinion and voice. But when I was thrown out in the real world, in a foreign land, by ...