Something that crossed my heart...

There are times when spoken words move abrasively over the silence of my soul...
I crave quietness
And yet the right kind of silence and quietness are full of the incense of companionable words...


When I gave of all I had
You took it for granted, as your due
Now I have nothing to give...


I used to think that I should share my thoughts..........could share my thoughts....and feelings...
Now I know that my thoughts and feelings are best kept to myself
They retain their purity, and offer their solace and serenity...

Intellectual Elegance...

Iconic designer Massimo Vignelli says:

I would define intellectual elegance as a mind that is continually refining itself with education and knowledge. Intellectual elegance is the opposite of intellectual vulagarity.


Elegance in everything is something to strive for...to cultivate...to refine....to guard....and intellectual elegance sounds eminently strive-able.

There's more where this thought came from. Check out:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/10/massimo-vignelli-debbie-millman/

There are times...

when all you need is the reassurance of yourself from a loving friend.....and then any mountain can be climbed...

Here's an African saying that says it all:

Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.

Our happiness...

is in our hands and our duty is to ourselves first.....

You compromise on yourself and you will compromise on everything and everyone else....

If an action...

is in itself wrong, then no matter how many justifications you make for you decision to take that action, whatever it is...

no matter how much you reason and rationalize...

even if the decision is to get away from a wrong situation or a person who has wronged you and hurt you deeply, lacerated your soul and heart...

no matter how serious the issue...

you will never be at peace till you correct it, modify it maybe, and then work things out in the best way you can in the situation you find yourself in......making sure at all times, that what you do does not take you away from you....it does not compromise your soul.....

One of the best things...

of growing old, or being older than those who are in top position, in a work environment, is that it frees you to give of your very best without fear of the competition that inevitably creeps into a workplace.

It's the same in the social environment - you have the freedom to be and do what you want to be and do without fear of competition, jealousy, criticism, whatever...

It's also the same in your own very personal space - you have the freedom to think the thoughts you've never had the guts to think before, and the freedom to live the way you want...

Lovely, isn't it? getting old, that is??

Adding to...

my post 'As always happens' of 31 January...

I came across this article this morning and it's been playing on my mind. It's from the newspaper, The Hindu, on Mita Vashisht who is 'an actor, singer, director, writer and teacher, all rolled into one.'

Check this out:

.....she is in sync with herself and happy, as opposed to trying to synchronise with the world and roles it tries to impose.

Reinvention seems to come easily to her. That is because, she says, “Push yourself out of your comfort zone, shed your old skin and grow a new one."

I would go a step outwards from this....very often we make the zones we find ourselves in, comfortable, even if they are, in fact, quite difficult to bear at times, and fraught with fear, tension, and worry, simply because we feel more afraid of stepping out of it....wrongly believing that the outside would be worse, and we don't have the skills, or indeed have it in us, to face the unknown. And so we make both happy and unhappy zones (whichever we find ourselves in) our comfort zones.

This is the only thing actually, that keeps us from reinventing ourselves and making life more interesting for ourselves......In truth life has equipped us with enough skills to face any unknown....it's just that we don't delve into ourselves even a teeny bit to find the strengths and talents that we are capable of.

And so, new mantra for living----------Reinvent myself over and over and over...........

Dewey Bozella...

This is for all of us who need that periodical boost...especially those who are clinging to a straw...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AsxLuvHepk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Some of his words that have stuck in my head:

1. The only thing to do after a knock-down was to get right back up.

2. I had to take myself from a bad position to a better position because if I hold on to it, I'm just going to burn with hatred.

3. My attitude was: I had to make myself happy.

He decided that his life would be defined by how he lived it and not where he spent it