Small Pleasures

Saturday, November 25, 2017 10:07:28 AM                                 (Actually, January 23, 2018)
Subject: Thanksgiving Greetings are always current
Dear Friends,

‘Giving thanks for you all, and your part in our lives. Reading Ps 100 in The Message Bible, ‘found appropriate verses for you all: “Bring the gift of laughter, “ and “Know the password: ‘thank you.’” And you do, and so we do. God bless you all w health, healing, family laughter and spiritual enrichment.

Who knew that 'season's greeting' message to friends, sent just before our annual trip to India, would figure in a blog nearly two months overdue. The Psalm verse jumped out of my  devotional reading that morning, and laughter and thanks have been on my mind ever since.

Humor is important for our health because of the endorphinine warm fuzzies it brings and for our relationships because it's a sharing of friendship, a bonding experience. But laughter based on words can be elusive in a foreign language. Linguists say it's the enth degree of foreign language learning-- and I'm not there yet.  Whether in a small group or large gathering, a foreigner can feel a bit (understatement) left out of camaraderie in a foreign language, even lonely, when she doesn't get the point about which everyone else is laughing. Even more so when you are evidently involved in the meaning, but have to ask what it's about, and the moment for joining in the laughter, thus allowing the possibility that you are, after all, a good sport, has passed.

All the same, there's no use crying in the soup (see, that one could take a bit of interpretation--even to a younger generation of English speakers), because life is short, and there's so much to be thankful for, including humorous, dear, or striking observations and occurrences that simply cause a person to smile.

Some of this season's smiles:

Pushpa (our household helper)'s  joyful nature and smile, despite language differences.

Narrowly escaping the angry flutter of a pigeon which often  rests on top of the air conditioner unit on our laundry verandah.

The laughter of half a dozen little children who live with their  (six or eight) families in two lines of connected rooms under corrugated rooftops, just under our back window. I can hear little voices calling to each other and their mothers in the slate lane between their homes;
small twins fighting over a low stool where the winner squats only briefly while the 'loser' feigning nonchalance, wanders away, probably already planning her own adventures, the laughing of childish voices, little ones playing around a mother washing clothes or dishes at the common tap in the corner of the lane.

Realizing( for the enth time) that the daily, early morning pounding sound in the neighborhood is not the sound of construction, but of the mother slapping twists of wet laundry against the slate before rinsing them--an early version of the washing machine.

The absence of construction sounds (think truck motors dumping sand and other materials in the night, scraping of hand-mixed cement, pounding, workers calling back and forth) which the neighborhood has had in the last couple of years.

Blooming aedeneum and miniature orchid plants in pots, one by our front door and one on the coffee table, courtesy of a sisterinlaw.

Glancing out our fourth floor  window and noticing youth playing badminton (here, aka shuttle cock) on a ROOFTOP (?!) across the street.

When you really do get the joke, no matter who it's about.

Warm, crisp dosais for breakfast.

Stunning tv  performances of song (classical Indian music) and modern dance by children

A security guard, bystander, our driver's hand offered to help lest I falter on the commonly uneven ground and un-protected stairs outside many homes and public buildings.

Remembering to be thankful for (most) everything, even the awkwardness. It's all part of the mix.