My father also had a strange habit.
When he sat down to eat, he would break a morsel of food and move it around the plate and then keep it aside and bow to the plate and start eating. I used to watch him do this and wonder why my father does this? One day, gathering a lot of courage, I asked him, father, why do you break a morsel of food and bow to the plate every day?
My father looked at me and started smiling. Then he said that I thank God before eating. Thank you for the fact that I got food to eat. Thank you for the fact that he is worthy of eating food. Thank you for the fact that the food is worth eating. I was very young, I could not understand that the food has been cooked by my mother, then how did God come into it? Perhaps my father had read the question in my eyes.
He told me very softly that the food is very good, so when your mother comes here now, I will thank her too.
I shouldn’t have remembered this thing. But I remembered it.
Because on the day mother was dying, a few moments before that she had gestured father to come near her and said that you put a leaf of basil and some water in my mouth. Father did the same.As soon as father put water in mother’s mouth with a spoon, mother started smiling. She folded her hands and whispered thank you to father. Mother was leaving. The whole family was standing in front of mother’s bed. There was not even a trace of worry on mother’s face. Mother thanked father while leaving. Thank you for being with me for so many days. Thank you for serving me in a disease like cancer.
After my mother’s death, I was disillusioned with life. I was not able to understand what to do. I was very young. So young that I did not even understand the meaning of death properly. One day my father made me sit near him and said that you should not be sad. You should try to understand life. You should understand that your mother stayed with you for so many years.
Then my father started telling me that when his father died, he was three years old. When God decides many things, he has his own plan. We should accept every decision of God and thank him that he is thinking something for us every moment.I told my father that mother left us, what can there be to thank in this?
I do not remember from where my father got my diary, in which I had written that O God, give death to my mother. Father started showing me that page of my diary and he said that mother got relief from pain. You should thank him for this also. Many people in this world suffer a lot from this disease. They pray to God for death, in such a situation, no matter how much you regret that your mother is gone, you should be grateful to God.
The gist of whatever my father had explained was that we should develop a sense of thankfulness within ourselves. We should learn to say thankfulness.We are healthy. We get food twice a day. We have a roof over our head. We have many things that many people don’t have. We should say thankfulness for this. We should say thankfulness because there are many people in this world who don’t have what we have. Many people in this world have things that we don’t have. Instead of keeping regrets in the mind, it is more important to learn to say thankfulness for what we have.
I have never seen my father sad.I once asked him if he never felt sad, and he hummed a song from a film and explained the truth of life to me- “Mujhe Gham Bhi Unka Azeez Hai Ki Yeh Unhi Ki Di Hui Cheez Hai.” While humming this song, my father explained to me that life becomes much easier if we consider the events that happen as divine providence. This gives us more patience and peace in facing difficulties. This perspective helps us understand that every event has a reason, and even if we cannot understand that reason immediately, we can still believe that it is part of a higher power’s plan. This helps us avoid disappointment and frustration, and we try to remain positive in every situation. Apart from this, believing in divine providence gives us a deep sense of gratitude towards life. We feel that everything we have is a gift from God, and this makes us value our lives more.
However, it is important to note that this viewpoint is a matter of personal choice. Some people don’t feel comfortable with this idea, and that’s okay. Everyone has the right to freely choose their beliefs and attitudes.He used to explain to me that you can find goodness even in very small things. Once you get into the habit of finding goodness, life becomes easier.
Redefinewisdom 