The Good and the Bad of it.....

A friend once told me that she likes being alone, so much so that she is possessive about her solitude.
Solitude often refers to loneliness, but in this day and age it has split into varied meanings, it can act as a break in which we can recollect our selves and recall the days happenings.
When we meditate in solitude , the mind settles down and stops running the daily marathon that it has got used to. It helps a person to stay focused.
Solitude can act as a balm but can also serve as an enemy...since when we try to cut ourselves from others for longer periods, we fail to realise that relationships too are vital for a happy life.
Striking a balance is a must. It's good to spend time with oneself, all alone, just we and our thoughts, but it's also important to open up and breathe in the freshness of the blessings showered on us ..our loved ones, our happy moments, our sadness...yes sadness as well, since it helps us grow, making us appreciate the good things in life.
Solitude is a bliss, till it doesn't turn into a well in which we decide to stagnate forever...it should act as a short sojourn, getting that refreshed effect that helps us understand and appreciate life.

Tame Your Fears!

Yesterday I saw a painting of a lion sitting comfortably in a living room, with a little girl resting against it and reading a book. I've seen this painting many times before, on my visits to my cousins' place and it has always given me a lot of peace. I could never explain why it had such a soothing effect on me! Yesterday, when I saw it again, a big fact of life knocked at my mind....don't we all have fears? In the painting like the little girl rests against a lion, we too rest against our fears but don't ever let them take over , because life has to be lived with courage.
Our shortcomings, our fears, our failure, all this is a part of the game called life , we just have to be good jugglers, juggling with the good and the bad and striking a balance in our life. Sometimes the negative becomes heavier and tumbles down but that doesn't stop life from going on, it does come to a standstill for sometime, or it seems to be the case but time flows away and heals every thing.
Our courage to take life as it comes should never fade away. We are never too far from the positive, neither are we too close to the negative, the courage to conquer our fears, sets things right!

Looking at the painting, I realised that our fear walks with us, where ever we may be, but we should never let it overtake our path...when we overcome the negativity in our life, we can always be at peace with ourselves and our life would be touched with a serene smile in turn giving us the courage to walk with our fears.
You must be thinking as to why I've chosen a lion to be a symbol of our fears, well that's what they seem to be when they scare us, but when we turn them into a tamed pet that's when our courage to brave life comes in the forefront!
Tame your fears........ they'll never be able to take over!

Complex beyond imagination!

Do we really know the people with whom we have spent a significant part of our lives ?Is it possible to understand a human being....however close we may be? Why is there something that always comes as a surprise? Why are so many questions left with no answer at all? Is this complex phenomenon called humanity, a tale with innumerable plots, one unfolding after another.....Confused??So am I!
It's difficult to understand people, even those whom we claim to know well. Our mind works in different ways and we never get to know which new turn it decides to take at any point of time in life...things happen and we are left zapped, struggling to find a reason that triggered them off....A person we've known for long becomes a stranger in a jiffy...someone whose thought process is alien to us! It happens with everyone, even if we claim to be simple....the very simplicity shows so many colours that we surprise our selves and are taken aback!
Yes, we humans consist of a complex mechanism....more complex than we can can ever imagine it to be....
The simplest of all can turn into rocket science and the complex ones can be as simple as ABC.
Be Prepared to be surprised where fellow humans are concerned, even if its our own self.....you never know when life takes, hopefully,a pleasant turn ;)













You are a mystery to me ....
you and the self within.
Days passed and life kept surprising...
Until I realised one day, that it's all in the mind...
It's a complex machinery we fail to understand!

Even if it's just once everyday!

I remember a school assembly that was conducted by our principal. She started it with a question.."how many of you have made someone smile in the whole week that has passed...does anyone remember??There was complete silence in the assembly hall, since all of us were busy remembering when we actually made someone smile but the mind went blank...totally...completely.
How important is it to do something good for someone even if it's a small little deed like making someone smile...very important..in fact if all of us strive to make someone smile everyday the world would be a better place since there would be someone or the other to spread the cheer and lift our spirits!
A smile is contagious, most of us must have observed that when someone smiles at us..even if it's a stranger, it brings a smile on our face..it sure does.
I still remember that the question wasn't left confined to the school assembly, it was brought to the class. We were asked to list a number of incidents when we made someone smile, then on the next page we were asked to list a number of things that can be done to make someone smile..when the list was ready our class teacher asked us to reflect on the first list and if we feel that it isn't sufficient we should paste the second list on the first one..i.e. we had to paste the list of things that can be done to make someone smile on the one that had the list of the number of times we made someone smile....the first list was highly insufficient and hence was taken over by the second one...Thus our teacher announced, now you have an important list in your hand...the ways to make someone smile ....."Make a fresh Beginning!"...from now on it's your duty to follow it everyday "religiously"...the word religious emphasized the fact as to how important it was to at least attempt to do a good deed everyday...
That day I went home, hugged by mom and promised to be an obedient kid...it did bring a smile on her face..even though being a mother, she knew that time keeps changing ;)
There were many things that were taught to us when we were kids...That day, in the school assembly those lines got registered somewhere deep within.. and still reside in my mind's eye, so much that today I do make a conscious attempt to bring a smile on someones face...if nothing else the thought makes my day :)

I read the following poem while surfing the net and thought should share...it's very meaningful!

SMILE FOR YOU
Smiling is infectious; you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin,
When he smiled I realized I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile then I realized its worth,
A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected.
Let's start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!
Anonymous

"Let's saddle up and ride"

"No matter how bad things are, you can always make them worse. At the same time it is often within your limits to make things better."Through the whole ordeal I don't think we ever said to each other, "this isn't fair. We kept going . We recognised that there were things we could do that might outcome in positive ways...and we did them. Without saying in words, our attitude was, Let's saddle up and ride."The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch

What would we do if we are told that we don't have enough time to live, would we prefer going into self dejection, mourning about the calamity that has struck, or would it be right to make use of the time that we have and enjoy it to the best of our abilities!
The last lecture is a novel based on a lecture given by Randy Pausch, a computer science professor and a highly experienced person who was diagnosed with terminal
cancer . Pausch decided to give a lecture that would be his last and a way to be remembered by the people he cared for...the lecture is not about his terminal illness but about "Achieving ones childhood dreams!"
Some people have this great positive energy about them, it's not that they don't feel unhappy, but they know how to make themselves happy with whatever limited reasons that they may have.
How easy or difficult is it, to generate positivity within oneself?....it sure can be difficult in situations like the one Randy was facing, but is it good to let go of the "now" and crib about something that might happen tomorrow...
As Robert Frost said, "life goes on", and therefore it's in our hands to make our journey as happy as possible. All of us go through our share of pain, all of us go through our share of discomfort and all of us are blessed with happiness as well, it's our decision as to what we concentrate on, the most.
In one part of the lecture, Randy describes " a way to understand optimism", he says that "my personal take on optimism is that as a mental state , it can enable you to do tangible things to improve your physical state. If you're optimistic you're better able to endure brutal chemo, or keep searching for late-breaking medical treatments."
Optimism is a key to a healthy life...life that smiles at you while you stand with open arms to embrace it, as and when it comes with different hues, that oft change our perspective and show us a new opening every time.
He sums up the lecture with the greatest truth behind a good life;
"It's not about how to achieve your dreams.It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself.The dreams will come to you."

Stepping Ahead!!

Wrapped in a soft cloth with eyes open wide , when God had just whispered life into me and I was an epitome of innocence as much as can be, when the soft sound of Azan entered my ears, I knew for sure that I had arrived where I was meant to be .
The world, a place that would witness my deeds for life and God would keep an eye on me for sure....
"I'll be watching over you!" were the last words I heard on my way to the world of mortals.
As I was pushed down from the heavens, I let out a cry and on opening my eyes found myself upside down, hanging from the hands of the woman whom I'm sure had something to do with my tears. She handed me over to my mother, who I had been told was a door to heaven, and yes she was, coz it was for the first time, in her hands, that I was introduced to the feeling of love, in its purest form...Life seemed beautiful and the road ahead a little bleak but steady, coz I was sure that she would help me learn to walk on the right path.
Today I am at a point of time in my life when I can see the road ahead quite clearly ...Hopefully I would start a new phase in my life and a new life would toddle ahead, when my journey would seize....
Life cannot be measured with the number of days you've lived but by the number of moments that have painted it better and have made it look nice!
Today as I step into another year of my life, my treasure chest full of memories looks happy and bright :)

Wish to be a Wild Flower

I saw a wild flower and felt it belonged to me,
or was it me dancing in the soliatay breeze,
trying to touch the endless sky,
kissing the sun that nurtures my life.

I wish I were a wild flower...wild and pure with untouched serenity,
away from the bustling city life,
thriving in a beautiful countryside.
The winds would have blown through me,
lifting me away from all boundaries.

Oh! How I wish, I could talk to the sun....
to the sky..to the river...to the motherly earth,
Oh how I wish I could just be me!!

As it is true that in this day and age,
you find yourself lost in the societal haze,
But one fine day your dreams come alive,
and turn you into a wild flower under a new sky :)