Hi. From MotorMouth Podcasts, I’m Nupur and this is Straight From My Heart, your weekly dose of poetry and honest conversations with which I aim to make you think, feel and just relax your mind.

I hope you’ve had a nice week and that your days have been easy, happy and fruitful. I find myself increasingly learning the value of a boring day. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to think that I like my days to be dull by any means, of course I like them to give me an adrenaline rush and to be invigorating, exciting. But the last eighteen months have made me miss the times when I took for granted the true worth of an uneventful and calm twenty four hours. I think after this second wave of the pandemic in India, especially, most of us find ourselves missing our old lives. Even the memories of an act as simple as heading to your favourite coffee shop to catch up with a friend and gossip, without worrying about sanitizing your hands or double masking seem so glorious now, don’t they?

I’d like to believe that we are on the long, convoluted path that is slowly but surely taking us back to that time. But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it is that I must always be grateful for what I have today, in this very moment, because I honestly don’t have any guarantees that I’ll have it all tomorrow. The fact that I have a roof over my head, my family is safe and sound, I have food on my plate, I have love in my heart and air in my lungs- these are little miracles, if you look at them closely.

Like Mathew McConnaughey once rightly said, gratitude reciprocates itself. I like to live on the sunny side of the street and attract good vibes towards myself, and that can only happen if you live a life of purpose and positivity. What you sow, so shall you reap, and what can go wrong will go wrong, so why bother always thinking of worst case scenarios and burying yourself in worry. Be happy, be grateful and good things will invariably come to you. 

And on that merry note, allow me to share my poem Grateful To Be Alive, on the other side of the break. 

Welcome back guys! Time for my poem, Grateful To Be Alive; here we go.

So what if the world is 

up in flames

I am quite grateful today

for a roof above my head that

shields me this morning

from this sudden cloudburst

that’s drenched my town 

in working-class woes.

I am quite grateful today

for a hot coffee mug

as it warms my hands

that have gone cold off late

with anxious off-handed 

phone scrolling.

I am quite grateful for 

birdsong

despite my terrible ornithophobia

for it is sweeter than

the songs of loss.

I am quite grateful for this 

breath of fresh air from this 

clean, wet, promising morning

because at least it sustains me.

I am alive, much like these

mynah birds on the windowsill,

and I too will fly soon,

but until then, I am just

so, so grateful…

That was my poem and I hope you enjoyed it. I’d love to hear what you thought of it and if it helped you feel better about your day. Please feel free to share it with family, a friend or anyone you know who might like it, because as someone wise once told me, poetry has no business not seeing the light of day and remaining hidden.

This show is all about simple, easy, beautiful, happy living so with that in mind, I’d like to share today’s little life hack with you. You know how some days are just really really hard and everything seems impossibly difficult? Whenever I have days like that, I make myself a list of everything that’s going wrong with me in that moment. I list down all my obstacles and remind myself to recheck this list a week later and seven days later, I always discover that I’ve managed to strike down at least something if not everything off it. Not only does this small act remind me to always look at the bigger picture, it reinstates my belief in the fact that no feeling is final and everything in this world is transitory. Everything passes, the good, the bad and the ugly, so it’s best to stay zen and never get too attached to any situation. I hope this hack helps you on a hard day.

With that we come to the end of today’s episode of Straight From My Heart with me, Nupur Parik-Pandey. Thanks for listening. You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook – our handle is @MotorMouthPods

Check out more episodes of this show and other MotorMouth Originals on our website – motormouthpods.com

You can find music and other credits in the episode notes.

This episode was written and hosted by me, Nupur.

Sound production, design and mixing by Prateek Sharma

Our Creative Director is Gargie Sharma

Executive produced and created by Prateek Sharma, for MotorMouth Podcasts.