Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago. Warren Buffett

I experience this feeling imbibed in the quote above (header), whenever I pick up a nutmeg (jaathikkaya, in Malayalam, our mother tongue) from the ground. I have never planted a nutmeg tree so far in my life, every other nutmeg tree in our backyard is planted by my Father, some of them even thirty years back. I am just taking care of them…just a care taker, before passing it on to the next generation. If possible, following my Father’s footsteps, I too want to plant something which the next generation can benefit, need not be in the form of plants, it could be in any form…then I can say I lived a meaningful life. In the photograph are the nutmegs from our backyard, kept for drying, each handpicked by me and my daughter, and each time we pick up a nutmeg from the ground, we are filled with gratitude and thoughts of the thoughtful persons who planted and nurtured these trees, My Dad (Appachan), and Mom (Ammachi). Thank you for living a life worth emulating.

 “Don’t be ashamed to weep; ’tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there must be sunlight also. A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us.”
― Brian Jacques, Taggerung