I am sad, but I’m happy
I am lost, but I’m found I am soft, but I’m a hard shell I stumble, but I don’t fall This is my Year-Long Musings!
Another year, another 365 days going down. Plenty of soul-searching, reviews, pondering, and hope. What else would I have, if I did not have home?
I am feeling a little funky lately. I have not been driving for a while. But I am back to driving. I have also not drove the Mercedes August. But now it is back, and all mine. Well, hopefully! The first day I got back to driving it last week, it brought me a little sadness. To the pile of sadness I have.
The Mercedes represents grandpa. It reminds me of grandpa. It replays the entire memory of the life I knew of him, especially this year. It reminds me of witnessing the pain and agony of his life, straight up, in the same house. I had never been in the same space, up-close, with a person so sick. Yet feeling inadequate to help. Often feeling, it is not your place to show great care and concern. Not sure whether I would be construed as “overstepping the boundaries” or “crossing the line.”
But I wonder, how could somebody ail so much! Yet not get well to enjoy life after that gruesome pain? How could one go down too fast? It seemed it all came and went down too fast! How could one hurt so much, yet remain strong for others, for those he loved? He surely kept on taking care of those he loved — his wife, his children, his in-laws and his grandchildren.
I particularly recall him seated in the living room, groaning with so much pain in the abdomen. Especially, whenever he tried to get up. He loved driving, to the mosque, to the store, to take school kids to school, to take his wife to work in the morning or to take his family on long trips. But getting up to go drive, was the climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Throughout the ailment, he drove on other family trips: to Detroit and back to PA, down to Atlanta and back, to Toronto and back. I recall so vividly his last long drive, a 500 miles roundtrip PA-MD-PA, while trying to contain excruciating pain. He avoided eating, and barely drank, the entire trip. He did not want to have to get up and go to bathroom; it was too much hardship. Yet, he stayed steady on the wheel, without a single incident. He did not knock off the steering wheel, and only took very brief rest stops
So, with such display of stamina and resilience, how could he not live through his ailment to full recovery? I still wonder! Because, his strength did not burn out. He often woke up in the wee hours of the morning, drove wifey to the NYC bus terminal in our PA-hood. He drove two girls from their Muslim community to and from their school bus. Because their mother, worked early and long hours, and left and returned home before and after school bus hours. I watched how he splashed his grandkids and children in-law, with love and adoration. But he is gone. It is three months later!
But that is not the central feature of my sadness. Though, it struck me as well. I am sad, as the year draws to a close. Reflecting on what has transpired. How much gained, how much lost. Of course, plenty gained —especially in the weight department! I see me in my “new mother suit” again. And that makes me sad, and induce me to create more sadness. It has to go, I cannot keep it around in 2016. Can’t support it no more! Big is not always desirable. But I will take big pockets, and big bank accounts!
Big, I will embrace, to rise again. Big dreams, to become big reality. Big smile, big achievements. Big social networks. Big alliances Yeah, I will even take a bigger contribution to the carbon footprint, then settle back into my “tree-hugger-ness” I want to fly by, be big, celebrate big and sleep big.
I’ll take all that will keep me happy, I need big happiness of mind, body and soul. I need the positive energies that come along with big feelings and big achievements. I need my big confidence to rise and shine through again.
I miss my big old-self! Santa baby, I want my big happy self back I want a sing a new song That, I am happy more than sad I am not sad, but I am happy!
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