Welcome 2009

A new year, I welcomed 2009 in Salt Lake City. As I looked out from the window, the moon light was reflecting on the snow, making it look glittering white. It was still dead city outside. Unlike other cities, it was a very quiet new year welcome, no one on the road, not a single fireworks in the sky, it seemed like any other night. Many a times I enjoy the quietness of Salt Lake City.
The window glass was as cold as stone, outside temperature was below freezing (being an Indian, below freezing always means -ve in centigrades) reminding me that I am a lucky one, who does not have to endure the adversities of harsh weather that Mother Earth often inflicts on us. Do I need to think of these adversities? I have almost everything that I want (though there is no end to want), a satisfied comfortable life.
My mind is transported back many years down memory lane, to a haggard looking man in tattered clothes, standing infront the gates of my house in Dhaka, Bangladesh and my "unbehaved" dog barking like crazy as if he had seen the most unwanted person on earth, making his master sense his earnest desire to chase him out of sight. I am reminded of the cold and wet late evening, the man asking for some food, murmuring he hadnot eaten a morsel for two days.
My phone rings and brings me back to the present, it was my brother calling me from India to wish me "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
Welcome 2009 - people make resolutions, I ask God to remind me to thank him for giving me a bright day to which i look forward every morning, to thank Him when I offer myself a plateful of warm tempting food which helps me sustain, to thank Him when I walk in to the shelter of my home after an exhaustive day. Thank You God for giving me a life full of joy hope and mirth!