Tag Archives: family

by | May 29, 2022 · 11:45 pm

TYMMPB … | of the Way you Bring Joy

You’re 6.

To the unfamiliar, this is a kid after loving a roller coaster ride. To those who know you, this is … just how you look at what’s ahead in life.

Where does the time go.

I don’t know … maybe you use it for fuel? Because we’re still trying to figure out where you get all of that energy from.

When we started planning your birthday, well, the world happened. Job changes. COVID.

Whatever suggestion we made for your birthday, you responded with the all-time classic Jaanu “shore”. Which, if you’ve never heard before, sounds like it’s somewhere between a sarcastic dismissal and the most sincere buy-in to a suggestion one can make.

Anyone who knows you, knows you’ve found a way to do and feel both at the same time.

What you really wanted all along is what you shared with us, just like last year: “I want our family to be together, just like last year.”

Now if you remember last year, it was an epic failure of a birthday getaway. Yet you don’t; and actually, because of you, most of us remember a hiccup in the venue and location but also remember the extraordinary time we had when we got back together.

So this year, we leaned into creating space for the family to be together.

And we did.

And we were.

And we laughed a ton.

At LEGOLand Resort. At home with the family after. And then with your friends, in a bit of impromptu birthday singing at the Metuchen Pool.

As we look back on you and who you are, the thing I share with everyone who asks about you is the same thing: “Nobody in the world makes me laugh as hard and as often as Jaanu”.

Dude! You’re first roller coaster ended with … our having to get right back in line and do it again!

I wish I was the only one to believe that, but your energy, performances and relentless slapstick comedy keeps our house light and laughing even when sometimes, we just don’t want to. At some point you’ll read this when you’re older and I’m putting it here: the number of times your Mama and I are trying to discipline you for something and you say some ridiculous things that make us laugh, can’t be counted or tracked. Really. The person who’s talking to you has to keep a straight face while the other one of us gets to laugh silently in a part of the house where you can’t see us.

Homie. This happens weekly!

Today you Make Me Proud Because of the way you make the world feel and laugh. But what I love most about how you make people laugh, and how you’re able to make people laugh, is that it comes from who you are. You feel feelings deeply. There’s nothing superficial to you. There’s no show or artifice. So the reason you make people laugh is because you yourself are feeling that joy so deeply, at that moment.

And that’s Money.

As you emerge into Age 6, I’m excited to watch you harness that joy, and to start creating space for yourself to feel all of your other emotions at their fullest, without feeling the need to wallow in them. You’re too wonderful a kid not to allow yourself more space and grace to feel tired, to feel hurt, to feel sad, or just, to feel responsible for bringing joy to everyone.

Just because you can and have, doesn’t mean you’re required to.

You, Jaanu, are the life and joy every family needs and deserves. Know that your Mama and I count our blessings for you every moment of every day.

Between fits of laughter of course.

I mean really … who eats like this?

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by | May 29, 2021 · 1:30 pm

TYMMPB … | Family

People have to wonder if you’re scripted. There’s no other answer.

How is it, for a boy of 4, when granted any wish for his birthday, almost as if given a genie in a lamp, turns quickly to his parents and without batting an eye and without missing a beat, responds with more confidence than an honest man on trial:

“I want the whole family together.”

Except with you, there’s no cliffhanger.

There’s no clause to follow. There’s no extension of the ask. There’s no “I want the whole family together, so I can get more gifts.”

There’s just you.

Expressing your incredibly kind, warm, loving soul, in the most authentic of ways.

When we got the family together, and when the house we rented tortured us into leaving after 18 hours, you know what made everything ok: knowing that you would be more than ok.

I realized that the house, was for us. The pool was for us. The game room was for us. The weekend plans were for us.

The “us” was for you, and the “us” was all you needed.

As much as you find excitement in new things; gifts, toys, foods, experiences. What’s so magical about you is that consistently the simplest things make you happiest. And nothing makes you happier than time with the people (family and friends) you love.

You remind me of what’s important every morning and every night. You teach me what the world sometimes makes me unlearn.

And it is undeniably the thing that makes me proudest of you.

At age 4, going into age 5, you make me proud because your greatest and most authentic happiness comes from the people and in the ways that the entire world is taking courses, setting reminds, seeing coaches and actively seeking to get back to.

Time. Attention. To and for. The people we love.

I am proudest of what you love, of the way you love, and how simply, easily and clearly you’re showing the world, what love means to you.

Happy Birthday, Money….and thank you.

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by | May 14, 2021 · 9:56 am

DIGITS or LOCKING IN HAPPY AND PROUD

I made today a numbers day. I woke up with a feeling. It’s been an intense week. Honestly, it’s been intense for way longer but the past week I’ve taken strides toward fixing my state of mind, my mental approach, my framework for thinking, processing, reacting.

It’s been an intense week.

Just like anything else, it’s amazing what a few deliberate, committed steps can do around creating momentum and accelerating you into progress. Try going vegan for a week. Try not drinking for a week. Try breathing before every response for a week. Try no TV for a week. Try reading every day for a week.

It’s amazing what a week can do.

It’s been an intense week. In the best possible way. And today I woke up with a feeling. So I leaned into that feeling.

I knew today was a day I was going to lock in what made me Happy, what made me Proud, and set the stage for tomorrow, thinking about where I’m Not Yet Satisfied so I can find new achievements, states of mind, I want to pursue.

Sometimes what I’m happy about and what I’m proud of, are feelings.

Today, they are digits.

1.

It wasn’t today, but of all the numbers, “1” and “first” are where things should begin. I became a Kaka for the first time. To the child of the boy who was the first human being I know from day one. There’s something powerful; about seeing the first child I remember holding in my arms, holding his first child in his arms. That I’ll never shake. There’s no digit more important than this digit. But there are more digits.

2.

I’m excited about the progress I’m making on my storytelling project. Helping people unearth, frame and share their authentic stories. Yesterday, I posted my second testimonial; my second bit of evidence about the approach I’ve taken to help people gain confidence and bring their stories to life. It was humbling.

$1 million.

I woke up and in my first work meeting I found out we hit $1mm in monthly revenue in April. That’s 3x growth in the past year. That’s a little under double from December. It’s incredible. Given what we’ve faced the past year I view this, plain and simple, as one of my best efforts at work. I find tremendous happiness, and take tremendous pride in knowing the role I played in organizing, aligning, motivating, inspiring, and compelling our team to make this happen.

30.

Today I started reading book 30 for the year. I’ve read 29 books in 2021. Of all sorts, sizes, shapes, lengths, formats, genres. Today, I started reading book 30. I picked The Razor’s Edge because 25 years ago almost to the day, a friend and then roommate to be told me that in Maugham’s book, he saw me reflected in the main character. To this day, I still don’t know how to process that feedback. I’ve read the book once, at his first reference. I’m reading it again now as I turn the page on 45 and the past year — the healthiest of my life in so many ways — because I’m eager to see if this still holds up. Or if that insight into me 25 years ago was prophetic, showed a deeper understanding of me then than I have even now. Book 30.

26.2.

Miles. That’s a marathon. I’ve tried to prep for 5ks, 10ks, 1/2 marathons a few times over. Every time I try, I get hurt. Plantar fasciitis. ACLs. MCLs. Groins. You name it. The past 6 months I haven’t walked with a number in mind, I’ve walked with a spirit in mind: get healthier. The most I’ve done in a day is 18 miles and that happened because I couldn’t sleep so I watched a movie and walked starting at 2am.

Today wasn’t that. Today, I started walking with my first call at 8:30am. And then, I just didn’t stop. It was 10:30am and I was at 10.5 miles. Then I spoke it into existence.

I said out loud to the person I was on the phone with “I think I want to walk 26.2 miles today. I want to do my first marathon.”

And then, I kept repeating it. It wasn’t a straight through walk. Life, work, forced some pauses. But with the kids asleep at 8:15pm I had 9 miles left to go. So I hopped on the treadmill, work documents ready to go, got after it.

At a 5-5.5 MPH pace, I finished at 9:40pm ET. My first “marathon”. And I’m confident I’m one of the only people to pull off 26.2 miles in one day, while working. (Note: I did watch 45 minutes of Point Break for the end of that walk.)

46.

It’s coming around. 46 is two weeks away. I used to wait for important days to lock in milestones.

“I’ll make that resolution on January 1st.”

“I’ll change that behavior on my birthday.”

Today I realized that I would walk a marathon for no other reason than it was Thursday.

And I f*cking wanted to.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for digits. For numbers. For happiness and pride providing fuel that made yesterday one of the most accomplished days of my life, holistically.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that I remembered to write it down and to lock it in.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for my framework; for my mantra around being “Happy. Proud. Not Yet Satisfied.” because it’s a reminder to remember what’s important (happy), it’s a reminder to remember what we’ve achieved (proud), and it’s a reminder to remember — I ain’t through (Not Yet Satisfied).

L
F
G

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by | January 13, 2021 · 9:20 am

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAGIC or WE’RE HERE FOR YOUR SMILE

I’ve got a longer tribute to our 7 years old daughter coming. I’ve no words for her.

I can’t believe that last night was the last time I’d hug her as a 6 year old. Ever.

Maybe it’s melodramatic but every year that thought shakes me awake a bit more.

A couple of weeks ago, Anaiya said she “missed the diner”. When I asked why, she said “I really miss the animals and the trees and the rain”.

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Not a diner. You miss The Rainforest Cafe.

So we brought it home to her.

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This was an absolute blast.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the inspiration (Anaiya and Jaanu) and the freedom to pursue that inspiration no matter how ridiculous (thank you Priya KC Bhatt).

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The kids adored it. They tossed coins into the croc fountain. Yukked it up with the parrot. Approached and pet the snake with caution.

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And they want to leave it up as long as we can.

Why not? We are here to make you feel loved and to help your smile reach it’s fullest potential.

We try every day. We fail a lot.

Sometimes, like today. The stars in our humble rainforest align, and the four of us know we got it just right.

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I love you, magic. You inspire me to pursue greater things. You’re simultaneously my catalyst, my fuel, my compass, and my destination.

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by | February 14, 2018 · 4:31 pm

LOVE or THE INSANELY FINITE

The ability to feel love, is for all intents and purposes, eternal. You express it involuntarily from the moment you’re born, and you express it in whatever form possible for as long as you’re humanly capable. But the ability to show that love to someone, to extend it to the people you love, to know they feel it in return, is incredibly finite. The ability to make someone feel loved is INsanely finite.

For today, for this Valentine’s Day, I hope you are motivated by the insanely finite in pursuit of the infinite.

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful that I kissed my Daddy on the cheek every single time I saw him, and every single time I said goodbye. Including when I landed in India last week. My love for my father is infinite and will carry with me until my own last breath.

My ability to say it to him directly, and to know that he has heard me, to make sure he knows he was loved, feels today, very much in the realm of the finite. Love your family. Love your friends. Love the people around you. Not the way you want to love them, but the way they want to be loved.

Love them not so you can say aloud that you expressed your love, but rather, so that someone very comfortably and very consistently and very clearly says “I know you love me.”

Love you all. I do.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

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by | September 2, 2017 · 4:15 pm

LEMONADE

Queen Bey had a different reason for talking about it. And…it was brilliant. I want to talk about my own experience with lemonade this week. We were supposed to vacation in Asheville with some friends from Sat-Tue. They came to a house in the Smoky Mountains and we headed to the airport to go home. As good friends would do, and inspire, the conversation on Sat-Tue was often enough about our extending our stay.

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A non-starter for all the right but responsible/boring reasons (notably. work). Then we got our lemons. We sat at the airport for hours watching our plane get delayed. The ticket counter was urging us to change our flight because though United wasn’t giving us truth, their on the ground staff was telling us this wasn’t going to be good for us. They were right. United sent us an email telling us our flight was bumped out two days to Thursday night which basically…meant we would come back on a dead and unproductive Friday before a holiday weekend. So then we made lemonade.

We got out our surfboards and rode the wave that was coming at us. We pushed the flight to Saturday. And we headed to this house in the Smokys with friends…with some of the people I’ve known best basically since birth. We had to figure it out.

Priya had to work.

I had to work.

And we had two kids who needed love and attention. That’s the lemonade. Friends stepping up to help Priya while I worked all day Wed. No small thing in the mountains. Helping load and unload cars. Literally carrying my (c)hunkster son 3+ miles on a hike while I banged away on a keyboard. Kids playing with my kids and making them smile and laugh.

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https://web.facebook.com/1314738/videos/pcb.10102065918519534/10102065918090394

Occupying them as peers but almost as babysitters. I have been blessed left right and center in so many ways. But this past week, #iamgrateful and #iamthankful for finding my way into the good graces of some truly extraordinarily kind, funny, smart (and freaking accomplished) friends. After 16 hours of travel delays in August alone, I can say every second was worth it for culminating in this.

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The most emblematic photo of the past week is Shashank Sheth carrying Jaan one way on a hike; Mital Sheth did the other way. Tina Dave’ Sodha and Samir Sodha made sure Priya’s car was always loaded and unloaded and that she was following the caravan to the appropriate next destination.

Soniya Babu ShethAmish Barot and Deepa Shah Barot captured Jaan’s love and affection in ways we haven’t seen him do outside of fam. Hina Patel Sheth made sure the kitchen was always humming, and along with everyone in the house, helped moderate the dynamics between three spunky 3-5 year olds who ended up performing How Far I’ll Go for us to kick off a talent show.

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Priya KC Bhatt, Anaiya, Jaan and I couldn’t be luckier. Our friends get more props den stunts den Bruce Willis.

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by | June 14, 2017 · 7:33 am

WE ARE BETTER TODAY

An old family friend wrote a great piece on data (“lies, damned lies, and statistics”) and the importance of context. It was an awesome reminder not just for work, but for all the conversations we’re having about where the world stands today. I want to be clear, there is an extraordinary amount of work to be done. I’ll beat that drum, and I’ll live to the beat of that drum for the rest of my life. But context matters. If we don’t stop to realize the progress that has been made, it will be harder to motivate people for the progress that’s yet to be had.

If you’re wondering whether the world is better today than it was even 20 years ago? Here are some good reads and points of reference.

A Recap on the Millennium Development Goals:

https://www.theguardian.com/…/despite-many-obstacles…

Norbert and 10 Reasons to Look Forward to the Future: https://www.cato.org/…/why-cant-we-see-were-living…

10 Charts: https://singularityhub.com/…/why-the-world-is-better…/

#iamgrateful and #iamthankful for the progress that’s made. #iamnotsatisfied, but I sure as hell am grateful and thankful.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/feb/14/despite-many-obstacles-the-world-is-getting-better?fbclid=IwAR0m2vBWsV4l3jb7lxR2Wg1i4UDyjVxTsYOqznabr4n6A2wqRsMhaxpNqfc

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by | December 26, 2016 · 10:42 am

TYMMPB… | of your Shoulders

We’ve already talked about the power of touch. About being grateful and thankful. About building bridges. We’ve covered some topics.

This might be our most important.

Give. Just. Give.

Of yourself. Of your soul. Of your wallet. Of your time. Of your energy. Of. Your. Self.

You may not realize it, but 6 months in, that’s what you’re doing right now. You’re being present. You’re spending time. You’re giving love. And hugs. And holy hell are you giving hugs. It helps that you’re a fairly huggable young man, whose body basically morphs to and absorbs the shape of whatever you hug, but still. Holy hell do you hug.

Where was I? WTH I just lost myself thinking about hugging you by the way. Remember that when I take your car keys away one night.

But give.

Think of progress. Think of your history books. Not even US History, but World History. Think of how we got from Pyramids to Skyscrapers. From Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama. From suffering to suffrage. From infant mortality to required rear-facing car seats up to like, 90 lbs (I exaggerate, but still.)

We got there because people gave forward. Ideas. Time. Energy. People gave. To make the world better than it was.

I look back on my childhood and even early adulthood and realize I never gave enough, and I never acknowledged, enough, what I was given. Perhaps the most important thing I was given were shoulders. To lean on, to cry on, and then, and now, to stand on.

I ask that you acknowledge always the shoulders you are standing on so you are thankful for what you’ve been given, but perhaps even more importantly, you look up, you look forward, and adjust your shoulders for the feet looking for their foothold. It will come at you sooner than you think. Your ability to make an impact in this world and to give starts on Day 1. (Nice work, by the way.)

TYMMPB | December

You make an amazing elf. You will, undeniably, make, an even more incredible person. I’ll leave the definition of “incredible” to you, forever and for always.

Today you make me proud because in you, I see already, such an incredible ability to give.

Go on and dust your shoulders off, Jaanu.

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by | November 24, 2016 · 3:19 pm

TYMMPB… | #iamgrateful and #iamthankful

Two years ago I hit a rough spot at work. I have many of those. I hope one day I can explain why … so you don’t have those yourself.

Two years ago, I hit a rough spot at work, and I made an active choice. I was going to spend every some time every single day talking about what made me grateful and what made me thankful.

I did this for a long time.

About a year later, we realized we were going to have you.

And today, two years later, here we are. Here you are. And you’ve plugged yourself into the perfect place. You are the love your sister’s life, from moment one; and your mother and I feel the same.

TYMMPB | November

Two years removed, I look at this moment and say unequivocally: #iamgrateful and #iamthankful. I say I am, and I tell you Jaanu, no matter how I may act in precise moments, I always and I always will be. You (and your sister) have made certain of it.

Today you make me proud because, today, you have given me yet another reason to be forever grateful and forever thankful.

I love you, homie. We were a family before you; but we are only a complete family because of you.

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by | October 31, 2016 · 11:07 pm

TYMMPB … | We Click on the Immeasurable

Rulers. Scales. Tape. Google Analytics.

These are all tools you use to measure, Length. Width. Height. Weight. Clothing. And the performance of your website.

What gets measured, gets done, goes an adage you will probably here when you get to working (it makes me sad that some things, I believe, will never change.)

What you’ll learn over time though, is that what truly matters is the space between everything that can be measured. The specific and the measurable gives us security and confidence that we can truly know the world (we can’t).

What’s in-between however, is infinite. It moves in every direction. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, sure; but the truest distance between two points is actually magic. With all the things that matter, there’s no straight line, just infinite emotion and hope and love shooting out in every possible direction.

It’s immeasurable. And the immeasurable, the thing you can’t know or measure, the thing you can only believe, is the only way to explain moments like this.

TYMMPB | October

You. And Dadi Masi. How you and your sister have forged such a strong bond with her when geography, time and space conspire to enforce the opposite, I can’t know. I can only know, it’s beautiful, and it’s immeasurable.

And it’s further evidence that you’re mine. Today, you make me proud because you understand that sometimes, you don’t need proof or evidence, you just need to feel.

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