Today is the 7th day of the Navratri.
On this day, 2X every year, my Mom prepares a feast. Rice loaded with chana dal. Malpua. Pakodas. Puri. Plus 2 veggies as well.
All of this is great. However, for the past few years, she is getting tired easily with all that she has been doing.
So I suggested her she take it light this time.
But she wasn’t ready to.
It was a surprise to me, because she has taken it light 2-3 times before too in the past two years.
Then I went on to explain her: God won’t punish you for taking care of your body and doing less. Nor will God reward you for killing yourself even though you prepared sumptuous meals and went out of your way to donate it.
I closed my case with: “God helps those who help themselves.”
The conversation happened last night. I honestly forgot about it the moment I put the phone down, because to listen or to not listen to me is my Mom’s prerogative, and I have had an equal success and failure rate. So no point getting tensed over it.
However, this morning when I called her after breakfast, she said: “I am glad you gave me that perspective. You must continue doing so, as I did very little. It gave me joy, took care of my physical health. And, it did take care of my mental health too.”
The core boils down to this:
- Repeat your core message often.
- The world needs repetitions, not revelations.
- Do what you are supposed to do, and then be done with it. Don’t obsess too much about it.
- Don’t consider repeating yourself as a stab on your ego. It’s a crown on your head, because someone considers you worth it.
- People love to make their lives better (yes, Indian Moms too). They just quietly need someone to tell them subtraction is the way.
