Malala is back in school...
How much we have to learn from this child....
21 March 2013
18 March 2013
A flash of understanding...
If a person hits you physically, or verbally, or emotionally (as in emotional blackmail) then that person has no authority over you--ever--he/she forgoes that right to make decisions for you...
It puts you in the driver's seat of your life...
and you totally lose all fear then...of everything and everyone...
It puts you in the driver's seat of your life...
and you totally lose all fear then...of everything and everyone...
16 March 2013
While...
Independence of spirit is something that has to be preserved if you have it, and achieved if you don't have it....
It must be without being hurtful to anyone.......................... Independence is not saying what you want or doing what you want or being what you want......first, the saying-doing-being has to be in tune and vibrate with your inner being...once that resonance starts, then it is living it. Being hurtful will put in a discordant note and cause the vibration rhythm to change...then it is not independence of spirit....
Independence of spirit will also not allow any hurtful barbs to spoil the inner rhythm or tune....
So, for all women
Here's cheers to preserving/achieving/striving to realize the independence of our spirit...
It must be without being hurtful to anyone.......................... Independence is not saying what you want or doing what you want or being what you want......first, the saying-doing-being has to be in tune and vibrate with your inner being...once that resonance starts, then it is living it. Being hurtful will put in a discordant note and cause the vibration rhythm to change...then it is not independence of spirit....
Independence of spirit will also not allow any hurtful barbs to spoil the inner rhythm or tune....
So, for all women
Here's cheers to preserving/achieving/striving to realize the independence of our spirit...
Strangely, when we read the word...
fall...
What usually comes to mind is the action of falling because of a wrong action or decision, or because we failed in something we set out to do, or because someone tripped us up in the thousand ways those who want to harm us can do......
and the words of Confucius are used to pick ourselves up: Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
but falling, also, to my mind, includes every tear that falls because someone was thoughtless, or used harsh words that cut right to the core of the heart and being, or put us down to prove us wrong, or made us feel small...
It is so difficult to even think of picking ourselves up when all we want to do is to crawl into some corner and just hide, or curl up in bed with the coverlets pulled up right over the head...
And so, at times like these, to wipe the tears every time they well up, or painfully lift the head, or once again force the eyes to start looking at the world is the 'rising' and there lies the glory too...
What usually comes to mind is the action of falling because of a wrong action or decision, or because we failed in something we set out to do, or because someone tripped us up in the thousand ways those who want to harm us can do......
and the words of Confucius are used to pick ourselves up: Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
but falling, also, to my mind, includes every tear that falls because someone was thoughtless, or used harsh words that cut right to the core of the heart and being, or put us down to prove us wrong, or made us feel small...
It is so difficult to even think of picking ourselves up when all we want to do is to crawl into some corner and just hide, or curl up in bed with the coverlets pulled up right over the head...
And so, at times like these, to wipe the tears every time they well up, or painfully lift the head, or once again force the eyes to start looking at the world is the 'rising' and there lies the glory too...
14 March 2013
A relationship...
any kind of relationship--with your children, parents, family members, friends, colleagues, bosses, whoever...is always built...and has to be constantly renewed and fixed and rejuvenated...made vital...
A relationship is like a bridge:
Never believe that once a relationship has been created, or is there because of birth or necessity, it will remain as such forever. Even the closest relationship has to be worked on and repaired and strengthened - quite constantly. For any relationship to be sustained it has to be worked on....and never, ever, ever, taken for granted...for even the strongest relationship will fade with time unless it is kept revived...unless we keep the bridges that link us in top condition...
A relationship is like a bridge:
Never believe that once a relationship has been created, or is there because of birth or necessity, it will remain as such forever. Even the closest relationship has to be worked on and repaired and strengthened - quite constantly. For any relationship to be sustained it has to be worked on....and never, ever, ever, taken for granted...for even the strongest relationship will fade with time unless it is kept revived...unless we keep the bridges that link us in top condition...
12 March 2013
We need...
closure for the hurts, sorrows, and gut-wrenching pains that others have caused us. That will happen only if there is forgiveness...
For a long time I was not ready for this....didn't even want to start on this road of forgiveness towards those who had so unflinchingly and unhesitatingly caused pain. Reading various works by wise people and people who had been on that road made me realize that closure would come only by forgiveness - by my forgiving them.....completely contradictory but there it was staring me in the face. My next question was how will I know that I have forgiven them.....and today after so many days and years of trying, my meditation gave me this....
You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.
~Lewis B. Smedes
It is going to be difficult but it is something we all, those of us who want closure, need to do....
I realize that now I have a guiding star to take me on that road...
For a long time I was not ready for this....didn't even want to start on this road of forgiveness towards those who had so unflinchingly and unhesitatingly caused pain. Reading various works by wise people and people who had been on that road made me realize that closure would come only by forgiveness - by my forgiving them.....completely contradictory but there it was staring me in the face. My next question was how will I know that I have forgiven them.....and today after so many days and years of trying, my meditation gave me this....
You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.
~Lewis B. Smedes
It is going to be difficult but it is something we all, those of us who want closure, need to do....
I realize that now I have a guiding star to take me on that road...
10 March 2013
A book picked up...
randomly...
because something about it appealed to you, reaches out and chooses you for its reader.
This is what happened to me when I went to my local library....after picking up a book on Hyderabad, I was browsing for a book to offset the seriousness of the one on Hyderabad....looked and looked...thousands of books all looking at me from the shelves, and all of a sudden I lighted on this one - Young Wives by Olivia Goldsmith. I've never ever even come across her name.....but this book chose me....and I couldn't put it down.....of course a lot of it went straight to my heart, some to my head, and some to me as a person......and i know that in some ways, or many ways, my life has changed.....become clearer...and definitely, most definitely I'm surer about a whole lot of things...
Going to read the others!!
because something about it appealed to you, reaches out and chooses you for its reader.
This is what happened to me when I went to my local library....after picking up a book on Hyderabad, I was browsing for a book to offset the seriousness of the one on Hyderabad....looked and looked...thousands of books all looking at me from the shelves, and all of a sudden I lighted on this one - Young Wives by Olivia Goldsmith. I've never ever even come across her name.....but this book chose me....and I couldn't put it down.....of course a lot of it went straight to my heart, some to my head, and some to me as a person......and i know that in some ways, or many ways, my life has changed.....become clearer...and definitely, most definitely I'm surer about a whole lot of things...
Going to read the others!!
05 March 2013
Concrete and..
do-able...
We know what we are, but know not what we may be, or what we might have been. The dogmatism of science expresses the status quo as the ineluctable result of law: women must learn how to question the most basic assumptions about feminine normality in order to reopen the possibilities for development which have been successively locked off by conditioning.
The first exercise of the free woman is to devise her own mode of revolt, a mode which will reflect her own independence and originality. The more clearly the forms of oppression emerge in her understanding, the more clearly she can see the shape of future action. Women will discover that they have a will; once that happens they will be able to tell us how and what they want.
------Germaine Greer
We know what we are, but know not what we may be, or what we might have been. The dogmatism of science expresses the status quo as the ineluctable result of law: women must learn how to question the most basic assumptions about feminine normality in order to reopen the possibilities for development which have been successively locked off by conditioning.
The first exercise of the free woman is to devise her own mode of revolt, a mode which will reflect her own independence and originality. The more clearly the forms of oppression emerge in her understanding, the more clearly she can see the shape of future action. Women will discover that they have a will; once that happens they will be able to tell us how and what they want.
------Germaine Greer
04 March 2013
There are two theories...
of going down memory lane, or going back to your alma mater, whether school or college.
In 2006, writer Ann Patchett gave the commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater.
Patchett urges these new graduates to be sure to return at some point — this, she argues, would let them reflect on the series of small choices which, as William James put it a century ago, “[spin] our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone.”
Patchett writes:
Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected, how one decision leads you to another, how one twist of fate, good or bad, brings you to a door that later takes you to another door, which aided by several detours — long hallways and unforeseen stairwells — eventually puts you in the place you are now. Every choice lays down a trail of bread crumbs, so that when you look behind you there appears to be a very clear path that points straight to the place where you now stand. But when you look ahead there isn't a bread crumb in sight — there are just a few shrubs, a bunch of trees, a handful of skittish woodland creatures. You glance from left to right and find no indication of which way you’re supposed to go. And so you stand there, sniffing at the wind, looking for directional clues in the growth patterns of moss, and you think, What now?
Borrowing in part from great scientists and in part from great poets, Patchett advocates for embracing uncertainty as a positive force:
Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.
(and again when you look back, you see this 'not-having-any-idea-where-i'm-going' path was meant for you...)
In 2006, writer Ann Patchett gave the commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater.
Patchett urges these new graduates to be sure to return at some point — this, she argues, would let them reflect on the series of small choices which, as William James put it a century ago, “[spin] our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone.”
Patchett writes:
Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected, how one decision leads you to another, how one twist of fate, good or bad, brings you to a door that later takes you to another door, which aided by several detours — long hallways and unforeseen stairwells — eventually puts you in the place you are now. Every choice lays down a trail of bread crumbs, so that when you look behind you there appears to be a very clear path that points straight to the place where you now stand. But when you look ahead there isn't a bread crumb in sight — there are just a few shrubs, a bunch of trees, a handful of skittish woodland creatures. You glance from left to right and find no indication of which way you’re supposed to go. And so you stand there, sniffing at the wind, looking for directional clues in the growth patterns of moss, and you think, What now?
Borrowing in part from great scientists and in part from great poets, Patchett advocates for embracing uncertainty as a positive force:
Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.
(and again when you look back, you see this 'not-having-any-idea-where-i'm-going' path was meant for you...)
01 March 2013
I had the privilege...
of hearing Germaine Greer talk. I don't think I'll be able to describe the impact. It's taken me all this time, from September 2012 to be able to talk about her and share her....have been just ingesting her ideas and her thoughts.
The first of her sayings that I want to share is this:
“In the struggle to remain a complete person and to love from her fullness instead of her inadequacy a woman may appear hard. She may feel her early conditioning tugging her in the direction of surrender, but she ought to remember that she was originally loved for herself; she ought to hang on to herself and not find herself nagging, helpless, irritable and trapped. Perhaps I am not old enough yet to promise that the self-reliant woman is always loved, but she cannot be lonely as long as there are people in the world who need her joy and her strength, but certainly in my experience it has always been so."
The first of her sayings that I want to share is this:
“In the struggle to remain a complete person and to love from her fullness instead of her inadequacy a woman may appear hard. She may feel her early conditioning tugging her in the direction of surrender, but she ought to remember that she was originally loved for herself; she ought to hang on to herself and not find herself nagging, helpless, irritable and trapped. Perhaps I am not old enough yet to promise that the self-reliant woman is always loved, but she cannot be lonely as long as there are people in the world who need her joy and her strength, but certainly in my experience it has always been so."
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