Choice realisation

I woke up grumpy on Wednesday. My week had not gone well, and as I turned on the kettle to make a cup of tea, I considered calling in sick at the office.

While I stood barefoot in my kitchen, I stared out of the window and saw that the silly orchid plant which my husband and I had tried to nurture all winter had suddenly bloomed.

Beautiful lush pink flowers – what a brilliant picture to a woman who had struggled to get things right for some time now and was harbouring thoughts of chucking it all for some peace and quiet.

That brilliant twist in my day didn’t end there. I turned on the TV and there she was – Hillary Clinton, fresh from her wins in Ohio and Rhode Island and in a dead heat with Barack Obama for Texas.

I am a card carrying Hillary fan and as the numbers popped up on the screen, showing her win in Texas, I whooped for joy. Everybody had said she was finished with Obama’s 11 wins, but I had insisted that the fight was not over yet. Getting to work was a breeze.

The highlights of my working day have always been the five minutes, twice daily, that I must walk under the trees of the Dubai Centre for Special Needs. The place has a beautiful mature garden with a variety of fruit and flower bearing trees that provide excellent shade and a haven for Dubai’s exotic birds. I sometimes sneak in just to sit and be one with nature for a few minutes.

Wednesday morning however, the gardener was mowing the lawns of the school, and the smell of freshly cut grass had permeated the light wind. A lung full of that perfume – and I realised how really blessed I was.

I knew then it was really up to me to choose to stay depressed or take some time in my otherwise busy day and stop to gaze at those lovely orchids, rejoice in the victory of a fellow human and smell the grass, or forever worry about traffic, an ageing parent, the children’s future, vocational changes… The list is long and therefore I stop.

You, of course, have got the point.

Nirmala Janssen
Editor@alnisrmedia.com

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