Week’s Guest: Renuka Raghavan
At the Online Mindful Writers Group (OMWG) Page, I invite a new guest-of-honor every week. This week’s guest is Renuka Raghavan. To read her daily posts and look at the accompanying photos please go to the Home Page on this website and click the middle button, “Visit and Join.” Here is her bio:
Renuka Raghavan
Author of Out of the Blue, (Big Table Publishing, 2017) and The Face I Desire (Nixes Mate, 2019), Renuka Raghavan writes short-form fiction and poetry. Her previous work has been featured in Boston Literary Magazine, Chicago Literati, Nixes Mate Review, Gravel Literary Magazine, Lily Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She serves as the fiction book reviewer at ?ervená Barva Press and is a co-founder of the Poetry Sisters Collective. For a complete list of her previous publications, visit her at www.renukaraghavan.com Renuka writes and lives in Massachusetts.
An Excerpt
“Years ago, my daughter was home sick with a bad cold. She came to me that morning with the saddest look on her face, but it didn’t have anything to do with her illness. She was missing her friend’s birthday party. It was something she was looking forward to—not only because it was a party—but because she was going to decorate her friend’s house in preparation for the festivities. No amount of cajoling could assuage her sadness.
Finally, as I told her, “I’m sorry, Honey, but you have to stay home,” for the umpteenth time, she tromped upstairs, shoulders sagging, utterly defeated….or so I thought. An hour later I hear cabinets and drawers opening and closing, suddenly she’s running through the house gathering glue, tape, scissors, glitter, construction paper, you name it.
I sat there thinking, “Yay–she found something to keep her busy.”Not long after, she came and asked if she could Skype with Isabella, the birthday girl. I went upstairs, laptop in hand, Skype call accepted, and I stood open-mouthed staring around my daughter’s room. She transformed her bedroom into a birthday party. Complete with ring streamers, a giant “Happy Birthday Bella” banner taped to her wall, and a table set for a princess tea-party.I share this anecdote, not only because I was humbled by a 5 year old’s ingenuity (to be honest, I felt like an idiot for not thinking of the Skype idea myself) but because she instinctively displayed a perfect example of a positive mental shift that instantly enhanced her life: embracing a limitation can drive creativity.
A closed mindset can hold us back in so many ways. Achieving goals, be they professional or personal, is all about making adjustments in life that foster creativity, allowing us to achieve something that once seemed impossible.”
Photo By: Renuka Raghvan