Who loved you into Being-Mother’s day-2020

It takes one person, to inspire a world of kindness

* * *

My mother was my first teacher.

She would read the different lessons, prepare notes and then explain to them.

In a way- she taught all subjects to me. She also taught me to be organized.

When I visit our family home in Palam-India I come across her notes-logs of works done in house-the list of boxes to be packed (in the different shiftings we did as a military family). I could have brought those log books and note books with me to Mississauga-Canada. But I let them remain there- as they are part of the family archives which I have been maintaining in Palam. That sense of connection will remain through those note books.

SOME EXAMPLES

Logs of relations

 Who visited- for how many days- what we ate together- where we went-National Museum-2002

How we went to Srinagar-Garhwal- for what- whom we met- 1999.

How we had dinner at Rishikesh-Garhwal- where we walked-Chotiwala- 2000.

Log of works done-

How much money was given to  Mr.A to repair the front door-1996.

How many boxes of Paint were bought, who was paid how much-for the paintings of house-2007

Who gave how much rent-where did it go? How was it distributed in savings-2006

The family momentoes- and how my mother was linked with them- whom I gave them away to

-My grandfather’s eye cleaning piece- which I gifted to her youngest sister In 2011- after she passed away

-The Buddha bust- my gift to her- when I last met her-2009- I gifted that to my father’s sister, when I met her in 2013

-My father’s emergency kits- for resuscitation – Some of those are still in Palam, some I gave to my brother-in-law who himself is a Cardiac Anesthetist (like my father)

– The Doll which she gave me-when I was a pre-schooler- That I have still kept in the house in Palam- as a symbol and memory of the times when we used to stay in Khadki cantonment area-Pune-1970

IN POPULAR CULTURE-A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

It takes one person, to inspire a world of kindness

In 1998, Lloyd Vogel is an Esquire journalist known for his cynical writing style. He attends his sister Lorraine’s wedding, along with his wife, Andrea, and their newborn son, Gavin. During the reception, Lloyd starts a fistfight with his estranged father, Jerry, over memories of Lloyd’s deceased mother Lila, whom Jerry cheated on and abandoned.

As Lloyd tries to interview Mr.Rogers to prove that his kindness is just a made-up act, many layers of relationships are revealed.

Lloyd refuses to remain overnight at the hospital with the rest of the family and returns to Pittsburgh to see Rogers. Exhausted, Lloyd collapses on the set of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and dreams about his repressed childhood trauma. In his dream, he stumbles into an episode of Rogers’ show about hospitals, finding himself wearing rabbit ears and shrunken to the size of Daniel Striped Tiger and King Friday XIII, while Rogers and Andrea tower over him.

Lloyd also dreams about Lila, who urges him to release his anger.

(one of the pivotal moments in the movie-a mother giving the message of forgiveness and kindness to her son- who still holds a lot of resentment, anger towards his father)

Rogers and his wife, Joanne, bring Lloyd to their home to recuperate. Lloyd and Rogers later go to a restaurant, where Rogers asks Lloyd to spend one minute thinking about the people who “loved him into being,” and encourages him to forgive Jerry.(1)

TRAILER

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

Rogers and François Clemmons reprising their famous foot bath in 1993. The 1969 scene was a message of inclusion during an era of racial segregation

By Dr. François S. Clemmons – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41429120

PREVIOUS PERSPECTIVES-A walk in the world of Sophia McNab-1846

Last year 2019-around Mother’s day, we went for a walk through Dundurn Castle. We got the diary of Sophia McNab- the daughter, written in 1846-the year her mother passed away. A touching account of the way life was in that period, the pages give an intimate inner view of a family which shaped the Canada of today in many ways.

https://prashantbhatt.com/2019/05/20/what-will-be-all-be-about-this-time-next-year-around-mothers-day-2019/

WHAT WILL WE BE ABOUT-THIS TIME NEXT YEAR…This question asked by Lady McNab to her daughter Sophia-in Jan 1846-the year she passed away, made me think of how the world has changed since last year-2019. If someone would have told us that around this time -2020-we would be in lockdown and not be able to go freely for walks in Dundurn area of Burlington Heights, it would have sounded far fetched.

As a family, we went through some interesting discussions, based on the theme of forgiveness and recovery based on the  movie-A Beautiful day in the Neighborhood.

This made us look and follow these words in a deeper sense

Anger not transformed, is transmitted.

                                                Rick Reynolds, Family Therapist

KEEPING LOGS AND NOTES

Carrying forward the lessons my mother taught me, I have been keeping some logs of the progress I am making in cleaning and arranging my backyard garden in Mississauga. It is a work in progress. The lessons she taught me by her example remain.

My sister saw this arrangement, and commented that it reminds her of some of the gardens we used to see in Pune Cantonment area in 1970s.

My mother would have been happy to hear that.

GARDEN 2020-PHASE 1

GARDEN-LOG-MISSISSAUGA-MAY 2020- Phase 1-
My mother, was a trained Botanist, and we arranged many gardens in the cantonments of Pune and Delhi area. The Rock Garden which my mother arranged in Golibar Maidan-Pune-1970s – is still fresh in my memory

NOTES

1-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Beautiful_Day_in_the_Neighborhood

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About prashant bhatt

A psychologist, interested in mindfulness practices. I practiced medicine as a radiologist for 23 years in India and Libya as a radiologist before shifting to Canada. A regular diarist, journaling since 1983 Reading journal : gracereadings.com
This entry was posted in COVID19 Lockdown notes, Diary and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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