The evening of life...

As you grow older

The past slips in and out

And tries to trap you...

But you can walk on 

And leave the past behind

Regrets - hurts - highs - joys

Dark shadows

Foil for the bright colors...

Chords - discords - silence

Create the music of life

Frail yet strong

Nothing can hold back or bind

The freedom of a soaring mind...

There are no shoulds or woulds 

No fetters of tyrannical thought

When the shadows lengthen

And you live by the glow of your child's star

You know He is there, close at hand...

He has led you thus far

He will lead you through.

Sadness...

is like quicksand

It just sucks us in...

Write...

your hurts/sorrows/bitternesses on a piece of paper and burn it.

Then

Release the people who caused these
And free up the space in your mind
So that a fresh breeze can blow through and play about in it...

Mariane Pearl...

has always held a very special place in my heart and in my thinking.

I followed the gruesome events of Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and ultimately his terrible death, wondering and wondering who Mariane and Daniel Pearl were. Read the book - saw the movie - re-read the book and treasure it among my best...

These are not ordinary people. Really. And when they touch our lives, albeit through the written word and the movie world, our lives can never be the same. They MUST NOT be the same...


Of the many things Mariane said while dealing with her pain, was this:


I decided that if those who killed my husband were determined to show the gruesome side of humanity, I would display its integrity, beauty and resilience. That would be my true revenge.

How often...

we don't do things, because the lines that pop up in our mind are: What will they say??? How will what I say or do, be perceived??? What will they think???

So, we put the reaction of others first, not thinking of ourselves...We hold ourselves back from saying something we believe in, or doing something we like, or emulating someone we admire....because of...."What will others say/think??!!!"

And the moment passes and we are left with the bitter taste of regret in our mouth.

It's a long hard battle that we have to engage in with ourselves in order to think about ourselves first and to give importance to our feelings, our talents, our abilities, and all that we think we can do. It's certainly not an easy battle, because we have to sift through the mass of feelings and thoughts that come up, to pick out those which are really important for us and to us, which mean a lot, and which we need to pay attention to. There is only one way we can do this and that is through quiet awareness of ourselves....the totality of ourselves. Meditation helps in the sifting process because that is the only way we come face to face with ourselves. This is the only way we can then take the next step of stopping to give explanations for ourselves.....what we are all about and why we think and act the way we do....both to ourselves and to others. For us to be at peace with ourselves, to align our hearts and minds and bodies, to lead a fulfilling life, we have to stop giving explanations for how and what we think or feel; stop giving explanations for doing the things we like to do; stop giving explanations for every action; and most certainly stop giving explanations for how we want to live or how we want to be, or, indeed, for how we are...

My search for answers led me to this site - Power of Positivity.


You don’t owe anyone a justification for your values and your priorities.

You don’t owe anyone a yes when you want to say no.

You don’t owe anyone an explanation for your relationships, whether lovers or friends.

You don’t owe anyone assistance with their happiness journey at the cost of your

own.

You don’t owe anyone a debate around your political views especially when the other

person’s mind is made up.

You don’t owe anyone an apology when you are not sorry, and you would make the

same decision again.

You don’t owe anyone a rationalization about why investing in yourself is important.

You don’t owe anyone the meaning of what you believe in.

You don’t owe anyone a change in your appearance just to please them.

You don’t owe anyone friendship, especially when they do not share your values.

You don’t owe anyone a negative mindset so that you can commiserate with them.

You don’t owe anyone access to information about your life that makes you

uncomfortable.

You don’t owe anyone gossip material about other people just to fit in.

You don’t owe anyone your time for their projects or for things that matter to them

unless they matter to you too.

You don’t owe anyone the commitment to try something “new” just because you

were asked.

You don’t owe anyone a safe place for constant complaining and dwelling in their poor

choices.

You don’t owe anyone an answer other than the truth to prevent them from being

uncomfortable.

You don’t owe anyone your services as a crisis counselor unless you are actually a

crisis counselor.

You don’t owe anyone false compliments just to make them feel better.

You don’t owe anyone anything that doesn’t make you feel good and goes against

your gut instinct.

Thank God...

for these ads...

Absolute MUST-SEEs:

Anouk - Bold Is Beautiful / The Visit

The Visit - Bold Is Beautiful / The Wait

The Wait - Bold Is Beautiful / The Whispers

Tanishq started the trend when it came out with an ad showing the remarriage of a woman in which her daughter plays an important role. Add this to the three mentioned and we have an emerging class of aware youth that is trying very bravely to counter the hypocrisy embedded in our society. 

Kudos many times over to Avishek Ghosh, co-partner of Hectic Content, the production house that made the film conceptualized by ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore.

Silence and stillness...

have great meaning for me, and a very definite place in my living.

Here's a poem I came across. I think you'll love it - I do...

KEEPING QUIET

by Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,

let's not speak in any language;

let's stop for one second,

and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment

without rush, without engines;

we would all be together

in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea

would not harm whales

and the man gathering salt

would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,

wars with gas, wars with fire,

victories with no survivors,

would put on clean clothes

and walk about with their brothers

in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused

with total inactivity.

Life is what it is about;

I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded

about keeping our lives moving,

and for once could do nothing,

perhaps a huge silence

might interrupt this sadness

of never understanding ourselves

and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us

as when everything seems dead

and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve

and you keep quiet and I will go.

All of us...

tend to obsess about our personal beauty. However:

The quality that we call beauty ... must always grow from the realities of life. Our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows toward beauty's ends. Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.

We tend to forget that it is the reality of our past - painful, hurting, mad, bad, horrible....and present - painful, hurting, mad, bad, horrible, that etches itself on our faces. We don't need to hide it under layers of make up. We don't need to rationalize it in our speech. We don't need to pretend it never happened or is not happening. We don't need to resort to the knife or medical therapies to erase the patterns our past and present have created/are creating on our faces and bodies. We need to accept that our past and our present is our reality - our very own reality.......and......we move on. When we accept the reality of our past and our present, the lines and blemishes become beautiful. When we don't accept it, they look ugly even as our soul in not accepting our past and present realities is ever uneasy and fretful and unhappy and black.

Without steeping/pickling ourselves in the past, or stewing in our present, we have to realize that it is the shadows and the darkenesses that have etched/are etching our souls that find reflection in our faces.

Let's toast ourselves: 'To me'!!!! Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!