..there is a woman. Or so goes the adage. My version and story differ just a bit.

I am blessed with three women in my life. 

My mother. She has taught me to be always be honest with my emotions and never be superficial, to live within and accept your means, to love and live for your children, and to help those less fortunate. Unfortunately, India has an abundance of those less fortunate, and ever since I've come of age, all I can remember and see to this day are efforts she takes to help those downtrodden ones. "Help ever, Hurt never" is her life's motto and she goes to great lengths to live this. I have seen first-hand the unshakable power of prayer, belief and the force of the Lalita Sahasranamam or Narayana Bhattatiri's ode to the Lord of Guruvayoor, Kerala, the Narayaneeyam. She personifies the Bhakti-Marg or path of devotion and unbelievable events have happened for our family because of that devotion.

My wife, undoubtedly the smart one, was educated at premier institutions around the world incl. MIT & Cambridge. She had a great career and put that on hold for our kids. Her reason for doing so is to provide an environment for them, at least as good as one our mothers provided for us. She is my sounding board on every aspect of my life and I make better decisions only because of that. She helps me understand subjects that I have a tough time grasping, like micro/macro economics and social development, that come naturally to her and I am wiser for it. Because of her, I know who Austan Goosbee or Paul Samuelson (RIP) are and how their work shaped our lives. My intellect is better formed because of her.

My daughter, my fountain of renewal, teaches me to just let life be. She knows how to let the truly insignificant pass from memory. No event is as important as the one currently being experienced, and that's good enough. That is also the essence of Zen. She wouldn't know, that's just how she is. She teaches me that life's worries are easily forgotten if only we became more like children. Through her eyes I see how much love life can really give us. Every man should be blessed with a first child that is a daughter. It will help him.

Behind every successful man there is a woman? The revelation I had recently is that they are actually my life's blessings. I know the impact these women have on me, making me a better person. I am aware of, respect and treasure that with my very being. It is that knowledge that makes me successful.

Something as meaningful as this really helps to ground you back into reality, both when things are going unbelievably well and when nothing appears to be going well. Keep it in your back pocket. Comes in handy.

"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless..."

-- Brandon Lee from The Crow DVD

-- Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky [original author of the quote]