for a lot of us, especially those who willy-nilly, without really meaning to just get into the whole routine and cycle of work-work-work... . It could be because we believe Work is Worship, or we love working for the sake of working, or our work brings us a lot of satisfaction, or it fulfills some deep need in us, or we are ambitious, or we have no other options... .Whatever the reason, we are caught up in work 24/7/365, and if we are not working, then there is this terrible sense of guilt that we are not doing anything 'worthwhile'.
This is what I read (I've paraphrased it) - There is no question about your devotion to your career, but life is more than just work. Each area of life, and that includes home, love, fun, need your attention too. Chances are that if we get into the habit of committing all our time to one area, then, inadvertantly - (this is the catch, because it quite often is inadvertant) - sabotage or neglect another area.
It is difficult to balance all the activities that go into every day, but then for real fulfillment, this is what we have to do, or at least, work towards.
Probably the time was right for me, because it has clearly hit home...
29 June 2012
21 June 2012
A little pep-up....
for those of us in the golden age,
here is a must-visit site - advancedstyle.blogspot.com
here is a must-visit site - advancedstyle.blogspot.com
and this is a must-conquer...
Strange...
how we choose to allow discontentment to creep into our lives. The good Lord has taught us to be content in all situations in life, be thankful in all situations, for that is the only way we can get the most out of life, and the most out of ourselves too.
Words of wisdom, 'In acceptance lies peace,' is something we cannot seem to comprehend - accept? never - how will life change for us if we just accept.......little realizing that it is only after accepting that we are in a position to change our situation. And change can be as much a change in our attitude as bringing about a tangible change in our situation (May God help us discern the difference)
but no....contented?....accept?......we just cannot be or do......
It's like a space. We want a garden - then a rose plant. When the rose blooms, then we want it to have been another color, or a double one, or a creeper, or in that spot not this one, or.....or.....or.....
We just are not happy with the rose that bloomed in a place that was once barren.
Words of wisdom, 'In acceptance lies peace,' is something we cannot seem to comprehend - accept? never - how will life change for us if we just accept.......little realizing that it is only after accepting that we are in a position to change our situation. And change can be as much a change in our attitude as bringing about a tangible change in our situation (May God help us discern the difference)
but no....contented?....accept?......we just cannot be or do......
It's like a space. We want a garden - then a rose plant. When the rose blooms, then we want it to have been another color, or a double one, or a creeper, or in that spot not this one, or.....or.....or.....
We just are not happy with the rose that bloomed in a place that was once barren.
Another ship...
17 June 2012
Chinese bamboo...
When I first started experimenting with Chinese bamboo, I bought a bunch, opened the thread that tied them together, and tried to leave them free. They refused to stand straight, and kept falling over. So, I made smaller bundles - again it was no go. They just refused to survive.This second attempt, is proving more successful, at least till now - I'd got them on my DD's birthday, 20th January. I've learnt that it is only when they remain tied to each other that they grow. Now there are sprouts from lower down on the stems, and in themselves too, the plants are growing. They need a spot of TLC (tender loving care), but they seem to be alive and well.
Something very sweet...
One of my students has a dog that is very much an integral part of his life. Recently, I started following Maiya on Twitter. This is what Maiya says:
Throw me a bone and maybe I'll do a double shake for you. Take me for a ride, and I'll love you forever. Ignore me, and I'll just do my own thing.
I particularly love the 'I'll do my own thing bit....' There's no double shake or anything else then, to grab your attention.....No whimpering, no growls, no trying to please, no nothing....Just takes off and does her own thing.....
Wise dog!!!!!!!!!
Throw me a bone and maybe I'll do a double shake for you. Take me for a ride, and I'll love you forever. Ignore me, and I'll just do my own thing.
I particularly love the 'I'll do my own thing bit....' There's no double shake or anything else then, to grab your attention.....No whimpering, no growls, no trying to please, no nothing....Just takes off and does her own thing.....
Wise dog!!!!!!!!!
Something that I've learnt...
very, very recently is about shackles...
How many times do we feel weighed down? or caught in a web? or entangled? or limited? or hemmed in?
If we look carefully, we're sure to see - as I did - that what started off as threads binding us very lightly in something, or with someone, have started changing into chains, or have started getting woven into a web, or have started tightening like a noose. But, we've allowed this to happen....and therein lies the tragedy.
Once though, we realize this, we have to perforce, if necessary, break these shackles - for the release of our souls and hearts, to clear the mind and brain, and to open out a little more space around the emotional and psychological part of our being.
Unless we forcibly remove these shackles, they'll just take us down.
However, it would also be good to remember that there are other threads - loving threads that we turn into shackles, thereby bringing down our loved ones as well as ourselves. These too have to be released...
Remember, even something as ordinary as forming opinions can start off the first part of the thread that we bind ourselves in, for an opinion has a for and an against built into it - and we must need take sides...
Give freely, so that at least no binding thread will start from you...
How many times do we feel weighed down? or caught in a web? or entangled? or limited? or hemmed in?
If we look carefully, we're sure to see - as I did - that what started off as threads binding us very lightly in something, or with someone, have started changing into chains, or have started getting woven into a web, or have started tightening like a noose. But, we've allowed this to happen....and therein lies the tragedy.
Once though, we realize this, we have to perforce, if necessary, break these shackles - for the release of our souls and hearts, to clear the mind and brain, and to open out a little more space around the emotional and psychological part of our being.
Unless we forcibly remove these shackles, they'll just take us down.
However, it would also be good to remember that there are other threads - loving threads that we turn into shackles, thereby bringing down our loved ones as well as ourselves. These too have to be released...
Remember, even something as ordinary as forming opinions can start off the first part of the thread that we bind ourselves in, for an opinion has a for and an against built into it - and we must need take sides...
Give freely, so that at least no binding thread will start from you...
A great deal of...
hurt, pain, distress, heartache, trouble, misunderstanding..........can be spared if only one observes this wonderful Arabian Proverb -
The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers:
Is it true?
Is it kind?
Is it necessary?
And it's never too late to start over, and over, and over...
The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers:
Is it true?
Is it kind?
Is it necessary?
And it's never too late to start over, and over, and over...
12 June 2012
Some thoughts...
I read this in Diffenbaugh's 'The Language of Flowers' - When Victoria, who is a mis-and a dis-everything because of her life experiences except for her love for and talent with flowers, was struggling to find out which flowers she could use in a bouquet for a customer who was looking for 'desire' in her relationship with her husband, for a moment thinks - 'I could give Annemarie a bouquet of something bold and bright and lie about its meaning....,' she brings herself up short and realizing that she just could not do something like this. Her thoughts were ' I had been loyal to nothing except the language of flowers. If I started lying about it, there would be nothing left in my life that was beautiful or true.' And with that thought, she went to another flower expert, who she trusted, for help, and gave Annemarie the right kind of flowers.
We do so many things - but in all that there has to be something - one thing - which we love, which we are good at and which we enjoy doing.....we have to remain loyal to that no matter what the obstacles that come in our way.
Loyalty is also to ourselves - our values and beliefs - the core of who we are - so in a relationship, we have to see that while compromises and adjustments may have to be made, we must never hide, or try to change or re-model that deep core - because that is who we are. .........I cannot be a carbon copy of you, or your clone, but I can be a good friend and companion. This is also a hugely difficult thing because all the time we come across people who desperately try to make us who they would wish us to be.......This is also where dear honest friends come in, who love us for what we are, and who nudge us reminding us of who we are, bringing us back on our own rails...
We do so many things - but in all that there has to be something - one thing - which we love, which we are good at and which we enjoy doing.....we have to remain loyal to that no matter what the obstacles that come in our way.
Loyalty is also to ourselves - our values and beliefs - the core of who we are - so in a relationship, we have to see that while compromises and adjustments may have to be made, we must never hide, or try to change or re-model that deep core - because that is who we are. .........I cannot be a carbon copy of you, or your clone, but I can be a good friend and companion. This is also a hugely difficult thing because all the time we come across people who desperately try to make us who they would wish us to be.......This is also where dear honest friends come in, who love us for what we are, and who nudge us reminding us of who we are, bringing us back on our own rails...
09 June 2012
A relationship...
is all about investment of yourself...
How much are you willing to invest of yourself in a relationship - any relationship.
For,
What you get in return is in direct proportion to what you invest.
Agreed a relationship has two people in it. If one does all the investing, the relationship is never going to hold. Both have to invest - both have to want to invest.
No relationship can ever be taken for granted - least of all the one with your children. So you have a relationship with friends, with a spouse, with an organization, with an employer, with employees, with the neighborhood shop, with the vegetable vendor, with your country....... .And each of these needs an investment.
So first of all are you willing to invest?
and next,
how much are you willing to invest?
You even have a relationship with yourself. Which therefore means that you have to invest in yourself too. And what you invest in yourself, is what forms the corpus of what you are going to invest in others. And, better still, what you invest in others comes back to you as interest on investment and thus strengthening you... .The catch is that if you invest in yourself, either to the exclusion of investing in others, or don't invest enough in others, then what comes back is also a mean quantity.....
This whole process of investing can be joyful and very, very rewarding!!
How much are you willing to invest of yourself in a relationship - any relationship.
For,
What you get in return is in direct proportion to what you invest.
Agreed a relationship has two people in it. If one does all the investing, the relationship is never going to hold. Both have to invest - both have to want to invest.
No relationship can ever be taken for granted - least of all the one with your children. So you have a relationship with friends, with a spouse, with an organization, with an employer, with employees, with the neighborhood shop, with the vegetable vendor, with your country....... .And each of these needs an investment.
So first of all are you willing to invest?
and next,
how much are you willing to invest?
You even have a relationship with yourself. Which therefore means that you have to invest in yourself too. And what you invest in yourself, is what forms the corpus of what you are going to invest in others. And, better still, what you invest in others comes back to you as interest on investment and thus strengthening you... .The catch is that if you invest in yourself, either to the exclusion of investing in others, or don't invest enough in others, then what comes back is also a mean quantity.....
This whole process of investing can be joyful and very, very rewarding!!
07 June 2012
Everything...
but everything............ but everything.............
is built one single step at a time.
Those steps may be big or small, painful or happy, stressed or relaxed, difficult or easy.....
but if you seek not to skip the steps, or jump over them, or be negative about them, then you move - one step at a time.
You may balk at a particularly dicey-looking step, or cry before one, or hesitate because you are apprehensive about something. But step you must, and if you do, and hang in there, no matter what - without looking back - it will be easier for you to negotiate the steps by and by. They don't get easier, but you find them easier just by carrying on...
is built one single step at a time.
Those steps may be big or small, painful or happy, stressed or relaxed, difficult or easy.....
but if you seek not to skip the steps, or jump over them, or be negative about them, then you move - one step at a time.
You may balk at a particularly dicey-looking step, or cry before one, or hesitate because you are apprehensive about something. But step you must, and if you do, and hang in there, no matter what - without looking back - it will be easier for you to negotiate the steps by and by. They don't get easier, but you find them easier just by carrying on...
06 June 2012
Three...
powerful thoughts...
Disbelief in ourselves is disbelief in God - Kabbalah.
If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you - Louise Hay
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again - Maya Angelou
We have to believe in ourselves...for those of us who find this hard to do, for whatever reason, use the belief that those who love you have in you - for they love you for those very qualities that you find it hard to believe you have. Do so before these limiting thoughts become your truth. Forget the past, for every time you let it steal into your mind, you are reinforcing them and preventing them from letting you see today as it is, and you as you are... .You can also rest in the faith and belief that mistakes made become history in the next instant - that should give us the courage to keep moving on in a better and better way...
Disbelief in ourselves is disbelief in God - Kabbalah.
If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you - Louise Hay
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again - Maya Angelou
We have to believe in ourselves...for those of us who find this hard to do, for whatever reason, use the belief that those who love you have in you - for they love you for those very qualities that you find it hard to believe you have. Do so before these limiting thoughts become your truth. Forget the past, for every time you let it steal into your mind, you are reinforcing them and preventing them from letting you see today as it is, and you as you are... .You can also rest in the faith and belief that mistakes made become history in the next instant - that should give us the courage to keep moving on in a better and better way...
01 June 2012
Look...
into the eyes of another, when waves of pain threaten to engulf you, and you will find that there is always something to be grateful for...
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