I will let today’s delightful guest columnist, Divya Krishnan, introduce herself to you. As an introduction to her Friday Five, she writes,
“Here is my “Friday Five”. I thought of changing my dear friend Arathi’s blog completely by writing about my “Friday Ten” but very quickly realized that this is not a decision I can make, simply because this is not my blog. So by a process of elimination, I got to these five. Thank you for this amazing opportunity Arathi!”
That in a nutshell is my dear friend Divya. She is all rock and roll. She is full of energy and enthusiasm and sparks joy, wherever she goes. I hope that the five beautiful insights from her world spark joy in your world too.
Nature
A rising mist over the lake. Birdsongs, a double rainbow. A cherry blossom tree in full bloom. Alpine meadows and the smell of the early morning air. The sight of an old growth forest, the sound of river water rushing over old rocks and the sight of Bald eagles just skimming the surface of the lake looking for fish. Nature enthralls, Nature also relaxes, and Nature makes us reflect on why we are here. The real stillness in the busy rollercoaster of life. I have always been attracted to mountains for this reason; hiking in old growth forests fills me with a sense of peace and belonging. The views are spectacular, and the trees make you pause awestruck. Finding mushrooms is another bonus. I usually hike with friends who know mushrooms, but many of them look edible even if they are not. The colors of these mushrooms always keep me coming back to take a second look, as with most things of natural beauty.
I am lucky to live in a city like Seattle, which offers most of these sights on a daily basis. However, just tending a little garden or weeding a community pea patch can also help you commune with Nature.
Friends
To get through this life’s journey friends are absolutely essential. Friends prop you up when you are down, laugh at your poor jokes and are even sometimes able to look you in the eye and say what an idiot you are (only to be punched in the face quickly after), yet they stay your friends.
I have several sets of friends. The ones from high school, the ones from college and the ones I have met in my more adult avatar) we gossip and trade secrets (oh that is very important, got to have those secrets) share our love for books, movies, terrible teachers and the outdoors. I hold this sisterhood close and we keep in touch. Then there are those special friends who just show up at a particular time and vanish thereafter never to be seen again except in a Souk in Morocco after 15 years! We still rush into each other’s arms because it does not take that much time to reconnect. After a quick recap of why you are in a Souk in the first place, you repeat lines from your favorite movie or book and it is like you were never apart. The great miracle of good friendships.
Music
Remember that note in the movie “Amadeus” that Salieri referred to? That single note of the Oboe that made you stop just for a second and listen, oblivious to wailing children, honking cars, vomit on the floor and overflowing bath water? That is the kind of music I am referring to – music that makes you go still, break into a dance, become a weepy mess or just make you want to hum the tune over and over again. Music that will be on your “desert island disc” collection. Seek those tunes, soak in those melodies, they speak to your spirit. True music is for our souls.
Travel
I am a big fan of Jean Luc Pickard and his Starship Enterprise. I would love to “go where no woman has gone before” However, have to be content at the moment living on Earth. Until Virgin makes their starship accessible to us common folk, being an eternal wanderer on our beautiful planet, makes my heart sing. Travel kindles “The explorer” in all of us. Ideally I would like to touch large part of each continent, but until that happens, subscribing to “National Geographic’s travel magazine and meeting their explorers here in Seattle, makes me live that vicarious life. There is always a possibility that they may need an assistant, and I eternally hope that, that assistant will be me. I have not done shabbily by way of travel by any standards, but I always seem to want more. I think being immersed in another culture for a week or even a few days is so refreshing that when you come back home you want to set out again almost immediately.
The Power of a good book and a cup of hot tea
Stories draw us into mysterious worlds and take us on journeys that make us come alive.
There is the world of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer that transport us to another era. There is the “Hobbit” where we share our room with elves and dwarfs, and then there is the world of “Witches” and “Muggles” in the “Harry potter” series. As a little girl, I was drawn strongly into the mysterious lands atop the faraway tree in the “ Magic faraway tree” series. I hoped one day to have my own “Famous five” who I would have adventures with. I painstakingly built and stuck wings on my dining table chair, hoping it would transform into the “Wishing chair” by morning. I loved and lived the vet’s life with James Herriot and then took a little walk in a dark alley with Poirot and Holmes into the world of mysteries. Living in these worlds of “make believe” made life so exciting. Today, I still have a large pile of books but now have my little cup of tea to make the whole experience feel better than a visit to the spa.
Image Credit: Sridhar Chandrashekar
