The best news ever...

Malala is back in school...

How much we have to learn from this child....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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!!