A long time back, while working  on a consulting project at Muscat for PDO, Our team was truly a potpourri mixture of cultures. A Spanish,  a New Zealander, a couple of personnel from Scotland, two English, One American, an Arab from Syria who had moved to Jordan with his family, for a short period of time, we also had a team member who had dual citizenship of  Brazil + Italy and an American, in addition to  Rukmuddin, Senthil and I.

Gab Pico Benet was our Project Manager.   Rukmuddin, Senthil, Gab and I had shared two apartment suits in  City Seasons hotel at Muscat.  Gab hailed from Barcelona, and no prize for guessing, he was an out and out Barcelona club fan, had a great zest for life, beer, soccer and humour.  One of my great memories, when went on a boat ride on the coast of Muscat, for seeing those wonderful sea caves and dolphin watching, Gab just removed his shoes and dived into deep sea for a swim to our horror!  The teenage boy, who was the driver of our boat, was shouting saying , he will overturn the boat …

(pic courtesy: Social Media)

No other work stint in my life had exposed to so many different cultures at the same time, and it was real life school on the balancing act. Everyone in the team had a different way of working, communicating, humour sense and time sense.  ..

I remember one long after dinner discussion, on sense of humour, and someone in the group remarked, that those  ( as a community) have suffered a lot tend to develop a great humour sense and they learn to laugh at themselves.  And he shared the below Irish blessing as an example. Ever since , almost all year, I had shared this with my dear and near as a Season’s greetings .

One never get tired of a good thing. Especially when deep philosophy  is   it is laced with a pinch of humour.  So here we go… 

“May you live as long as you want and

never want as long as you live.

May you be in heaven a full hour
before the devil knows you r dead.

May your heart be light and happy,
May your smile be big and wide,
and may your pockets always have
a coin or two inside!

Always remember to forget
the troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
the blessings that come each day.

May you always have a clean shirt,

a clear conscience, and enough coins

in your pocket to buy a pint!

May the face of every good news and

the back of every bad news be towards us.

May neighbours respect you, Trouble neglect you,
the angels protect you, And heaven accept you.

May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,

the foresight to know where you are going,
and the insight to know when you have gone too far.

May misfortune follow you the rest of your life

and never catch up.

May your mornings bring joy
and your evenings bring peace...
May your troubles grow less
as your blessings increase!

May you get all your wishes but one,
so that you will always have something to strive for.

May be their history, or beauty of the land or way of living, they do have a great collection of wishes.  And i too have collected many of them. 🙂 

(pic courtesy:  toosweet4two.com)

Wish your dear and near happy holidays and season’s greetings.

Be happy.. Peace and Joy.