Hello lovelies,
I am hoping September is treating you well. Also wow, it’s already September??!! Wow, is my new favorite word. Which gets me to the (mis)adventures of the last few weeks. I reached my holiday destination with much anticipation. And in barely 24h of being there, the friends I was spending the first few days with had to leave because of a tragic event in their family. Wow, it triggered one of my worst fears of being left alone. A few days later, I dropped my phone and cracked the screen and for a few hours panicked over whether it would stop working altogether. Wow, all alone, in the jungle, in a resort with poor network coverage, with only the staff and a St. Bernard called Max. A few days later, Max bit me. Wow, firstly OUCH and second, I had to go look for a tetanus shot in a nearby small town. That last experience was just wow, seriously wow. (And also made me realise the privileged lives we lead in the city!)
At some point, I did wonder whether I should just abort and get back home. Cutting my holiday down just felt awful, though. And so in the process, I discovered the ability to face my fears armed with “wow, this happened, and I’m OK.” And so even though it shocked my system, the trip in hindsight turned out better than OK! Every evening I’d watch the sunset followed by the sight of fireflies and lightning streak across the pitch black sky. I watched it rain in torrents. I discovered that butterflies and dragonflies are just as busy as the bees. I even watched a tiger snap at flies, blow bubbles and yawn, all the while snoozing in a rivulet. My first ever tiger sighting y’all! Here, see picture! (PC: Gaurav, the manager at Chimur Tiger Resort, Tadoba.)
End result: I am feeling calmer, clearer, stronger and happy to dive back into life. So, yep, WOW.
I also had to deal with a fair bit of fat phobia. Interestingly, not aimed at me. In fact I received a lot of admiration but somehow, my fa(t)ulous self triggered fat phobia in the people who saw me. It boggled my mind the number of times people walked up to me to ask me dietary advice, “what exercise regime I follow,” “where could they find clothes like what I was wearing,” even “whether I could teach them to swim” (OOOH, I forgot to mention the pool I got to splash around in, all alone on most days.) All because, “wow you are so confident, but I think (or my child) needs to lose weight/be healthier etc.” SMH, also … more wow… lol.
Any-hoo, I did a video a few days ago on how deep this conditioning runs, lookittt. Meya has been keeping things going (sweetheart) despite the fact she’s probably feeling like this, about my being so out of it (grins).
We are getting back into action though, and so stay in touch! Am skipping the links today butttt will ask you to share, share, share! Hee! Ok bye!
Love and hugs,
Pallavi (& Ameya)