Gratitude brings MORE!

“No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.” – Alfred North Whitehead

   In my childhood, I never understood the statement given by Aristotle which says, "Man is a social animal. He who lives without society is either a beast or God". But today, after so many years of struggle and hard work in the field of dance, I owe everything I achieve to all those who stood by me during the tough times, and all those who have given me opportunities even when I couldn't recognize my own talent. The success of an individual is never ever just that individual's success. There will always be an invisible army behind that person which constantly supports that individual just out of pure love. Whether we agree or not, we are the most fragile and vulnerable beings where we crave for that little spark of love, appreciation and recognition. I have always been grateful for the people around me, and when I doubt whether I should be really grateful about my life, god creates an instance to make me realize how much loved I am by everyone. That makes me even more grateful and eventually leading to more gratitude and more love and more opportunities. 

    One of such instances happened recently which made me cry out of joy for the love people showered on me. I have applied to present at the international conference in Finland without any expectation and luckily my abstract got selected. I have always wanted to go to the International conference for dance science and medicine as it is greatly my area of interest and research. As I was shocked to see how much it costs to go to Finland (at least for a student), I thought it wouldn't be possible. Then, I was advised to approach A P government for funding and luckily I was assured a grant. But it wasn't a cake walk. Ever since then, the path wasn't easy as I couldn't get visa on time, for which I had to go to Delhi and collect the visa in the last minute, and my poster wasn't ready till the last minute. I almost didn't sleep for seven days before I flew to Finland. But those seven days made me realize how much people love to help me, right from making the poster, to printing it, from following up my visa to picking it up from the office in Delhi, from arranging my stay at Helsinki to taking me out to show beautiful places in Finland and Estonia, from checking on my funding to subtly understanding whether I have enough Euros in my hand to travel in Europe, around 20 people among my friends, family and friends of friends magically came out of no where, helped me and just remained there invisibly cherishing my litttttle success. Perhaps, you may think that it is not a big deal to present a poster in an international conference. Whether it is a big deal or not depends on our background, our timing and many other very individualistic factors. For others, it may not be a big deal. But for me, YES it was a big deal because I realized how grateful I should be towards my life. I am extremely grateful for all those people. May this gratitude be constant in me so that it brings more love, more happiness and more MEANING to my life. 

Since, I can't embarrass all those people who helped me,  I can only make a collage of their photos and secretly thank them :)  

PS: I have so many other soldiers in the invisible army behind me who contributed for my success. :) 

            “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” – Willie Nelson