My dearest boo,
Today’s your birthday. One more year around the sun, and one more year since I have fallen even more in love with the fabulous lady you are blooming into.
It’s been a marvellous year of transformation for you, one in which you took deeply personal, moral decisions borne out of the deep well-spring of compassion within you. Anyone who encounters for even the tiniest moments will attest to your deep commitment towards wellbeing of gentler co-habitants of our earth. This past year saw you cement that conviction further by choosing to give up consumption of all animal origin products.
I mean, the transformational journey has been all just wow! For someone who consumed liters of diary products daily to go vegan takes a lot of moral gumption. And having seen your determination from close quarters, my admiration of the deeply conscientious person that you are has not only deepened further, but also galvanised me to put my own convictions into actions.
In the past year, you have taken giants steps into your spiritual journey. In your insatiable drive to explore newer possibilities within you, you even undertook a 10-day daunting course of fully immersive, silent meditation. This one year also saw you travel far & wide – from the seas of Vietnam, to the beaches of Goa to the foothills of Himalayas to the ancient temples of southern India – you kept the wanderling in you alive. You also became a mother for the sixth time when we got adopted by our youngest son, Gundappa.
I feel so blessed and lucky to have found a conscientious and mindful partner in you. In an ever-increasingly vast & dark ocean of turmoil, plague, war and suffering – in a world that rewards wickedness and disincentivizes good deeds at every step – your love is the soothing lighthouse on the isle of sanctuary guiding me & our kids home. It’s your love that’s the salve to heal my aches, of the mind and of the body, after a tiring day at work. It’s your love that centres me, anchors me and drives me.
Yours in eternal love,
म्हातारा
أن تقتليني .. وأن توقفيني عن الموت .. هذا هو الحب
“You are killing me and you are keeping me from dying. That is love.”
– Mahmoud Darwish