Letter 1: Unleash the Warrior Within

Dear darling daughters 1 & 2,

I am writing this letter to you on a rainy spring morning, while you try to enjoy your spring breaks (amidst having to fulfill my difficult demands such as bathing and brushing your teeth!) and I ponder - how am I ever going to be able to get through to the two of you.

It seems most definitely an impossible and improbable task. But you know your mother is stubborn. A true believer that manifestation works. So I have decided that I will write these letters to you. Once a week is my hope. Each letter sharing my perspective on life, its challenges, mental health (cause its the part of an individual’s health most overlooked), healthy habits, believing in yourself and overcoming life’s hurdles while enjoying each and every moment of it.

The thing is that I myself have been on a journey. A journey of trying to remember all the things my parents used to say, do and help me understand about life and living. And wishing they left a cheatsheet to life based on their experiences that I could follow. In good times and bad. I miss that they are not here physically with me today. And so, I have been reading. Books. Articles. And more books. Each helping me weave together some knowledge with my own experiences and what I used to hear them say creating an understanding. And I wish to share this with you. In the hopes that even if not now, later, you have this resource to lean into.

I can see you smirking as you read this letter and saying to yourself, “Mumma, you hardly read books. You LISTEN to them on Audible!! And to top it all off, who reads books on self help and development rather than stories.” I get it. I get it. Its boring stuff to you. And so, my task will be to really make you see it all in a light where its understandable and digestible to you both. As a pre-teen and as a teen.

Its a daunting task. But you know, in my recent travels to a Abu Dhabi, I got to visit a Hindu temple - the Swaminarayan Temple. Built across 27 acres of land, no one could have ever imagined that a Hindu temple would be built in an Arabic country and that the land would be donated by an Arab Sheikh himself. A temple that shows carvings from Hindu mythology alongside carvings of Mosques and other places of worship too. In a world so divided, the impossible has been made possible. Not only that, I got a wild sign at the end of my visit. A piece of stone (marble, I believe) left over from construction. Hand painted with a message from children who volunteer there. The message, all of four words, read - Unleash the warrior within.

So here I am, my darling daughters, unleashing the warrior within me with the beginning of this blog journey where I share messages for you. Every week. One topic at a time. One thought at a time. One perspective at a time. One story at a time. I hope it means something to you and provides some comfort to you sometime in your lives. I would love for you to give these a chance now, but if these are out there in the universe, I know you will find them somehow.

I wish you happiness, health and success now and always. I love you both loads! Now and always,

Your mumma.