What ingredients are we adding to the dish that God's cooking?

Remember the theme song of the Powerpuff Girls show. Wait, I'll help!

Sugar, spice, and everything nice

These were the ingredients chosen

To create the perfect little girls

But Professor Utonium accidentally

Added an extra ingredients to the concoction--

Chemical X

Thus, the Powerpuff Girls were born

Using their ultra-super powers

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup

Have dedicated their lives to fighting crime

And the forces of evil

I came across something similar when I was reading my book - The Forty Rules of Love. The writer asks the protagonist - "What ingredients do you think you are putting in the collective stew of humanity?". 

Recently, I have been practising something. When someone begins to bug me, I ask myself- Are they adding any value to my life? If they are not, then I ask myself - who gave them the power to hurt me so much if they bring absolutely nothing to the table?

However, today I felt differently. I asked myself- What value am I adding to humanity? This is what self-introspection is supposed to feel like. Often times, we are so absorbed by whatever is happening around us, we forget to pause and think, how much of it is caused by our actions or even our inactions. 

But really, what is it that I add to someone's life that only I can do and nobody else can. Okay, so I have a weird habit. I pick up my phone and text people the minute I miss them.I might be working on something really important but in that moment I drop everything down, text them and then get back to my work. If they are really close to my heart, I tell them that I love them. It's an irrational fear - I don't want to die without telling the important people in my life that they are loved and they are missed. And most times, I get the reply - I was just thinking about you. I was having a bad day and your message lifted me up. I am so glad you texted. 

Just giving gentle reminders to people that they are important is so important, don't you think? I have a theory, hear me out. Me reaching out to the person who needed me at that very moment is god's way of telling that person that they are loved and cared for. I am a mere messenger. I really feel that we are all puppets in his hands. He knows when we fall, but he wants us to learn to get up on our own. He will only give us as much grief as we can take. I often wonder, who gets to decide our threshold for pain, for receiving and giving love, for grief, for happiness. I know it's him, but imagine this, each person has a different code running inside their veins, inside their soul. I've known women who have horrible period cramps and I've known women who don't feel a thing. I've known women who pick themselves up in a minute post a break-up and I've known women who take years to get over it. I've known people who have always seen the glass as half empty and I've seen people who have seen a glass at a place where there was none (probably too drunk in the first place!). But that's not the point. The point is that we all add some value to this big dish that god's cooking. 

For instance, my Ma adds her never ending Whatsapp forwards which I absolutely can't stand but I have to watch because I love her too much! Kidding! She adds the ingredient of care to this dish. She cares so much about everyone! She has OCD - Over Caring Disorder I call it! She cares about me (the most- cause she never fails to come up with the easiest of all recipes cause she knows her daughter can't cook for nuts so she simplifies it to the level of a 5 year old for me!).

 My bestie adds the element of fun to this dish. She doesn't allow me to sit idle even for a second. I have to do something at all times - play scrabble,draw, look at memes and laugh, play "rate the best dress", choose the fugliest dress (and guy too) for each other, try a new recipe only to be sad at the outcome and give it a fancy name so as to feel better about it :P Never a dull moment with her! Never! She does the same for her students. She finds interesting ways of teaching stuff to them. She makes learning a fun activity.

This brings me back to my main question - What ingredient am I adding to god's dish? I think I add hope and faith. Hope on the days when I am down on my knees, begging for a sign from him. I believe in the best against all odds. I believe because I know that he is right there, beside me. He wants me to have the faith to take that step, knowing that even if I fall, I will learn. And I will walk again. Even if it scrapes my knee and it bleeds, he is there, with an ointment for my wounds, not literally, but figuratively. Good people are the ointment. Sometimes, they say somethings that god wants you to hear. He speaks through them to help you ease the pain. He has done that for me countless times. Maybe not at the very moment when I needed him to, but eventually, he did. He is not a sadist. Far from it. He knows I am hurting, but he wants me to learn. It's like learning to ride a bicycle. I will fall multiple times before I learn to ride. But I need to keep the faith that he is there. Somewhere, around me, as I am learning to balance my way on the roads in my new bike. On the days when I don't believe in him, I still do. Because I am still fighting with him. I am still talking to him. I am still telling him my side of the story. So I bring hope and faith to the dish. And I add a pinch of gratitude to it, because I have been blessed, multiple times. Sometimes, I am too thick-headed to realise it, but when I do, I waste no time in being grateful for it. 

I also feel that I bring love to the dish. I love way too much and I can't help it. I love the people who are kind to me, I love those even more who are not because they need it the most - Hurt people hurt people. I love my parents despite their inability to give me the love that I deserve, I love my friends for scolding me when I was wrong and taking a stand for me when I was down and out. I love my past, just as much I love my present and future too, because I came out of it and come what may, I will come out of it. Earlier I thought that it was a weakness, to love everyone so much and not expect anything in return. But now I feel that it is a superpower. I love people who don't love themselves. I see the cracks in their souls and I find it beautiful. I don't try to mend it, no, that is not my job. I just appreciate it and make them see their worth. I compliment without holding back, ever. One compliment has the power to make a person smile and forget about their pain, even if for a second. Isn't this a superpower? You have the ability to make someone feel less alone, less broken. So I compliment everyone (I learnt this from my mom- learn to appreciate everything around you and not just appreciate, be vocal about it). I offer a handkerchief to someone who is crying, I help the blind cross the road when god knows that I don't know how to cross one, I am the mediator when my friends fight so that they don't end up losing each other, I smile at people without ever expecting a smile in return. I love endlessly despite knowing that I will never be loved back in the same manner. But I believe that all the love that you give to the universe, finds its way back to you in the most unexpected ways. Maybe a lover won't love me back with the same intensity, but a random act of kindness can surely light up my day. I feel that these random acts of kindness are nothing but the signs from the universe manifesting the love in a different form. They are all interconnected.

So yes, that's how god made me. He made me with a little extra love in my heart, a little extra care in my soul, a little extra hope in my head and a little extra faith in my beliefs! 

I am in fact, another sister of the powerpuff girls! Now you think about it. What are you adding to this amazing dish that god's cooking? ;)

Signing off with lots of love,care,hope,faith and gratitude,

Aaliyah