A Mover, A Thinker, and A Doer

I’ve started writing this post over and over again. I didn’t want to, but now I’m ready. (I hope so.) This could not make any sense and be a ramble, but hey what’s new?  

My family is full of movers, and thinkers, and doers. People you study, write, and learn. People who work hard, go against the norms. Encourage knowledge and living. But movers, thinkers, and doers don’t pop-up out of nowhere, they’re shaped by a mover, thinker, and doer who was shaped by one and so on and so on. It’s like an expensive family heirloom passed on from one generation to the next. But right now I want to talk about one mover, thinker, and doer who taught me what a mover, thinker, doer is. And more importantly how to become one.

Nana.

Dr. Zainuddin KurbanHussein Natalwala. The best mover, thinker, doer I know.

He touched the life of everyone who’s ever met him. I wish I could say I knew him well, but I didn’t. I knew him as a granddaughter. I knew him as a man my mother told me about, and a man I met rarely and spoke little to. Except in the last 6 months. That’s when I learned the depths of my Nana. And that’s when I learnt was a mover and thinker and doer is. And how those aspects were in my family.

A Mover: He was constantly on the move. He was always going from somewhere to somewhere. Even when I was younger and visited in Pakistan, I felt like I never saw him just sit down. But he moved with purpose. He moved to make sure we were comfortable. He moved for the people he loved. Or the things he loved. But he didn’t just physically move, he always moved on. He told me never to hold on to a situation, forgive and forget. And I see this in my mother and her sisters. I have never seen them relax. They’re like a tornado, hurricane, or tropical storm. But they’re really good at forgiving people, and not holding on to situations.

Thinker: Nana was an extremely witty man. He is one of the smartest men, I know. And for brains like his, one would have think. But some people are either book smart or street smart; but I see Nana as both. I mean how else do you support, provide, and love for an entire family? And each child to extremely successful in his/her field. I see the thinker in my Uncle. He’s calm, and collected. Not because he’s not a mover, but because he thinks about the situation. My uncle once told me his life story and only a man with street smarts and books starts would be able to do what he has done, and he gets it from his father. They both think about the situation, and they both think.

Doer: Whenever I talked to Nana, he never seemed like he was just “talked the talk”, his knowledge came from a place of experience. When I heard about how my Nana grew up, I learned he didn’t just say he would do something. He did it. He wasn’t a man of just thought, he was a man of action. He did his job, but more importantly he did what he loved. He became a doer out of passion. And that’s his grandkids. We follow our passions, not the norms. We don’t just sit around and talk about the great things we will do, we get up and do it because we have Nana who was the first one to get up.

But Nana was more than just a man of moving, thinking, and doing. Nana loved. He loved everyone. He loved deeply. But his love, it was true love. And that’s what’s in everyone: the ability to love, to truly love without hesitation. Nana was a mover, thinker, and doer not out of force but because he loved. And whatever he did, he loved. Nana followed his heart. And it was that path that brought us here today.

So dear family, dear world,

                When you’re at cross-roads. When you need to move. When you need to think. When you need to do.  Make sure it’s because you love what you’re moving for, what you’re thinking about, or what you’re doing. The biggest lesson from my Nana’s life was his love.

Sincerely,

The granddaughter of a mover, thinker, doer.