She spoke to me with a twinkle in her eyes. Listening to me intently, brushing off every excuse and filling me with positivism.

She took me down the memory lane and around her life with its own struggles and how she finds joys in between and how it is all worth its while. I made excuses complaining of the generational gap, but no, she would hear none of it, till I finally just sat hooked to my seat and to the twinkle in her eyes and the lilt in her voice wondering where does she find all this energy from!

As we talked I could feel myself getting recharged almost visibly and smiling with absolutely no reason, surprised at her spirit, in awe of her enthusiasm for life and in admiration of her ingenuity.

I looked at her in surprise when she said, “I got it from you, mam’, ‘you do that to me every time’.

I was surprised, shocked even, really, how? I wanted to ask her but I kept quiet because it was so good to just have her talk so animatedly, sharing her life story, punctuating it with suggestions for me, a decade and a half older to her but still so unsure and lost…

We had a mixed meal of random items, then she asked, ‘so what do you do on Sundays?’

I said, ‘Like I do a lot of cleaning, scrubbing, rearranging, washing and stuff’. ‘Oh,’ she said mockingly, ‘what an interesting life you have’ and I blushed crimson in embarrassment!

‘There is a world outside your little universe of cleaning and scrubbing, go get ready to explore, travel, watch movies, read books, go’ she said, ‘I will ask you next time!’

I sighed thinking of what would I do without these souls of pure love and nodded my head not even able to thank her for her time and her timeless wisdom.

There is always a way, if you want to find it… hmm I thought to myself.

We find excuses only because we want the excuses even more than the way out! Strange then that we complain so much!

Ps: of friends and friendships!