This is my first blog. Before you read any further, I must say that this is not your typical Technology, Social Media or Business Blog. It is my little step towards figuring out a way to give back and to motivate people to straighten their priorities in life. If I have lost your interest already, this is not for you and if you are continuing to read on I hope it will be able to touch you in some way where you can benefit from it. What got me motivated was my desire to help people get in touch with the side that they have lost touch with.Today, one year ago something happened that changed me more than anything could ever have. It got me on this path of soul searching, looking for answers to questions like – what are we all eventually working towards. This blog, more than anything else is a dedication to Marilyn, Sid and Brian. For those of you who do not know, they were my colleagues at SiPort who we lost in a horrific tragedy Nov 14th, 2008. I have been thinking all this while and finally here is an effort to put it down on paper or in this case a blog. I just wanted to stop and think. It is the day of reflection for me. I do not wish upon anyone that learning should come the way it did to me. I don’t wish that anyone should have to go thru what I and the family and friends of Marilyn, Sid and Brian did. The first question that I asked myself was, do I even want to do this. Do I want to put myself thru the torture of remembering the sequence of events and the answer that I found was, yes. I realized that this is important for my healing process. Hopefully being able to write it all down and share it with you will be another step in the healing process. It is still fresh in my memory and seems like it just happened yesterday. There is a part of it that will always be with me. There is this yearning in me to be able to express myself and let the world know what I have gone thru and how I was forced to grow as a person in the last one year. I hope people can benefit from my learning, just here to share my experience. I am not here to tell you what is right or wrong or how you should react to any situation that you are faced with in life, but only to share. We all have our ways of reacting. I have been asked by a lot of people as to how do you react when such a thing happens in your life. I have a simple example to illustrate the effect that it has on you. When I read the headline in the news this morning “mourners grieve as Fort hood soldiers laid to rest”, everything that we went thru flashed in front of my eyes. It is almost impossible to put in words the emotions that you go thru when you loose someone who was like your family. All I can say is that every time you hear or read about some thing like that happen, you can empathize with the people vs. sympathize. You can relate to their sense of loss. You begin to understand human suffering and develop a deeper sense of appreciation for things we take for granted in life. No issue seems big enough. It puts things in perspective. I think it gave me the depth to understand things and to connect with people on a deeper level. Some are born with depth and unfortunately for some it takes a lot of pain before they develop that deep a level of understanding. I would like to share with you an excerpt from what I wrote for Marilyn’s Memorial:“That smile says to me…grieve not my dear I have not left you, close your eyes and you can feel me all around you. Being in that body my presence was only limited to the places where I could carry that body of mine, now I am free and all you have to do is think of me and I will be with you. Magical!! Isn’t it? I am a traveler at heart and can be at one place only for so long. My soul was longing for the freedom and this body was restricting me from being my true self therefore I had to get rid of it. “ That is how strong the bond was. The loss is irreparable. We all have different motivation behind doing things that we do in life. I’m not here to judge anyone or to say that my motivation is better than yours. For some its passion, for others inspiration and they both need tons of motivation. My inspiration or motivation was the passion that I saw in people around me for what they believe in. It is no one special, but people that I meet everyday that have had an impact on my life. I think each person that you meet in some form or the other adds to your learning, to your life experiences and growth. All you have to do is pay attention. I learn from and observe every person that I meet. Being able to write this has definitely been empowering. Thank you for taking the time to read. May you find the inspiration you are looking for to make the change you have been wanting to. Wishing everyone true happiness!