Clock of life

The clock of life is wound but once, and no one has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, late or early hour.  I do today that urgent task; I do it with a will, I wait not for tomorrow, my hands may then be still.

Life is mostly froth and bubble, two things stand like stone; Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own.

Man has but three events in his life:— to be born, to live and to die.  He is not conscious of his birth, he suffers at his death and he forgets to live.

Life is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel.

It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; It’s one damn thing over and over.-We live, we breathe, we die:—-somewhere in the middle, we have fifteen minutes of fame.

Crossroads are choices that intersect our lives.  They happen at every phase—-expectedly or unexpectedly.  Perhaps, life’s biggest irony is that, one never appreciates crossroads, till one is standing smack on them.

People go about their tasks without weariness, if they have a goal and a belief in what they are doing.  The survivor’s life-jacket is made up of imperishable things with which he surrounds himself——BOOKS, MUSIC, SPIRITUAL FAITH, PURPOSE and A DREAM.

Watchfulness

Watchfulness is the master-key that unlocks all the inner and outer doors.  Here are a few cues how watchfulness can change our day-to-day living.

(a) WATCH YOUR FACE FROM WITHIN————When we do this regularly, the FEATURES will disappear; THOUGHTS will disappear;; EMOTIONS will disappear and a SILENCE WILL SURROUND YOU..  You will be like an island in the middle of the ocean………….JUST A WATCHER. 

(b) WATCHFULNESS KEEPS PURITY.  When we get attached to small things in life, you become miserable.  If you are only a WATCHER, nothing will affect you.  This UNAFFECTEDNESS will keep you pure. 

(c) RADIATING WATCHFULNESS———As your watchfulness grows, you will radiate it through your body and the rays will reach others.  Just walk behind somebody, watching yourself, and the person will turn and look back suddenly for no reason. 

We all send out or emit vibrations, and that energy has touched the person ahead of you.  Have you ever felt this way?  I have felt thus, many a time.  The person, who feels the vibrations and looks back at you, could be a total stranger.  Age and gender doesn’t make any difference.  Your calm and serene face may help that person to get through the day which, perhaps got off on the wrong note.  He will smile at himself and maybe, light someone else’s life——A colleague, an unhappy person, a child.  It could be anyone, a stranger or anyone known to him.  It is within our power to spread a little sunshine as we go along life’s way.

The colors of life…

It is a remarkable circumstance that the most brilliant colours of plants are to be seen on the highest mountains, in places that are most exposed to the harshest weather.  The brightest lichens and mosses, the loveliest wild flowers abound up on the bleak, storm-scalped peak. 

One of the richest displays of organic colouring was near the summit of Mount Chenebettaz, a hill about 10,000 feet high, immediately above the St. Bernard Hospice. The whole face of an extensive rock was covered with a most vivid yellow lichen which shone in the sunshine like a golden embattlement of an enchanted castle. 

There, in the lofty region, amid the most frowning desolation, exposed to the fiercest tempest of the sky, this lichen exhibited a glory such as it never showed in the sheltered valley. So one lichen from St. Bernard and the other from the wall of a Scottish castle, deeply embossed among sycamore trees; and the difference in point of form and colouring between them is most striking.  The specimen nurtured amid the wild storms of the mountain peak is of a lovely primrose hue, and is smooth in texture and complete in outline, while the specimen nurtured amid the soft airs and the delicate showers of the lowland valley is of a dim rusty hue, and is scurfy in texture, and broken in outline. 

So it is with the person who is afflicted, tempest-tossed and not comforted.  Till the storms of God’s Providence beat upon him again and again, his character appears marred and clouded; but trials clear away the obscurity, perfect the outlines of his disposition, and give bright-ness and blessings to his life—————-Remember, when God puts a burden upon you, HE PUTS HIS OWN ARM UNDERNEATH. 

Simplify your life…

How to save time!

(1) Start the day right——Do everything possible the night before to prepare for the next day, for example: decide what to wear, check for spots, missing buttons, items to carry to office.  Put keys in the same place.  An average adult spends 16 hours/year searching for lost keys.

(2) De-clutter your house——-Freeing yourself from unnecessary possessions, frees time.  You cannot save everything you might need someday.  To de-clutter, start small. Do one drawer, one shelf at a time.  If its broken, fix it or throw it away.  If it doesn’t fit, alter It or give it away.  Don’t put anything down ‘for now’, for example, jackets, glasses, etc. Don’t put it down, PUT IT AWAY.  To do otherwise, means handling every-thing more than once. 

(3) Gently say NO——NO is a two-letter word that can free many hours a week.  Say it gently, but immediately, offering a brief explanation, such as, “I just don’t have the time”.  Avoid giving detailed excuses.  The other person is likely to see a way you could actually fit in the request. 

(4) Don’t save coins and waste hours———Most of us are taught to watch money, but not to value time.  As a result, we may not even think about how much irreplaceable time we waste to save a little cash.  Rather than dismiss the idea with the words, “I can’t afford that”, it may pay to think twice. 

(5) Encourage others to help——In your work, divide the chores into bits, and assign small bits to your co-workers, so that it doesn’t interfere in their schedules and you get your work done too. 

(6) Turn off the tube——It would be simpler for a lot of people, if they could reclaim even a third of the time they spend, semi-hypnotised, in front of the tube.  Consult T.V. guides and sketch out the programs you want to watch on that day, or in the coming days/weeks.  Make sure to watch only those programs and not more than you scheduled.

Of old ships and old people…

A gentleman writing about the breaking up of old ships said that it is not the age alone which improves the fibre in the wood of an old vessel, but the straining and wrenching of the vessel by the sea, the chemical action of the bilge water, and of many kinds of cargoes.  Some planks and veneers made from an oak beam which had been part of a ship eighty years old were exhibited a few years ago at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway, New York, and attracted general notice for the exquisite colouring and beautiful grain. 

Equally striking were some beams of mahogany taken from a ship which sailed the seas sixty years ago.  the years and the traffic had contracted the pores and deepened the colour, until it looked as superb in its chromatic intensity as an antique Chinese vase.  It was made into a cabinet, and has today a place of honour in the drawing-room of a wealthy New York family. 

So, there is a vast difference between the quality of old people who have lived flabby, self-indulgent, useless lives, and the fibre of those who have sailed all seas and carried all cargoes and have been the helpers of their fellow men.  Not only the wrenching and straining of life, but also something of the sweetness of the cargoes carried get into the very pores and fibre of character.  When the sun goes below the horizon, it does not set; the heavens glow for a full hour after its departure.  And when a great and good man sets, the sky of this is luminous long after he is out of sight.

When such a man goes, he leaves behind him much of himself.  Being dead, he speaks.  LIVES OF GREAT MEN ALL REMIND US, WE MUST MAKE OUR LIVES SUBLIME; AND DEPARTING, LEAVE BEHIND US FOOTPRINTS ON THE SANDS OF TIME.

A few sayings…

(1) Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile; but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy———-Thich  Nhat  Hann. 

(2) It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. 

(3) Good ideas are a dime a dozen; bad ones are free. 

(4) Little faith will bring your souls to Heaven, but great faith will bring Heaven to your souls. 

(5) Every one is kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven———-Yiddish proverb. 

(6) We ought as much to pray for a blessing upon our daily ROD as upon our daily BREAD.———-John Owen. 

(7) Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.———-Van Gogh. 

(8) He who smiles rather than rages, is always the stronger.———-Japanese proverb.

(9) A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal———-Oscar Wilde. 

(10) Those that watch for Providence, will never want a Providence to watch for. 

(11) Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.———-C.S.Lewis. 

(12)  A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our souls——-Frank Kafka. 

(13) Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. 

(14) Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, GIVE HIM POWER.-Napoleon Bonaparte.

Strange…but true…

Strange, but true.   Ants are able to sense earthquakes before they strike.  They prefer to build their colonies along active faults, fractures where the earth ruptures, in Germany.  Ants would carry out their usual activities during the day before retreating into their mound at night.  But before an earthquake, they would stay awake and remain outside the mound during the night, leaving them vulnerable to predators.  The researcher suggested, that the ants only changed their behaviour when the earthquake was over magnitude 2, the smallest that humans can feel.  The ants are able to predict the earthquakes b picking up changing gas emissions or shifts in the earth’s magnetic field.————(2)The world’s oldest romantic novelist—Ida Pollock, released her 124th book at age 105.  Her other novels (a) White heat; (b) Mountain of dreams; (c) Love in the afternoon; (d) The man who came back.  She used 10 pseudonyms———Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell.———-(3)  Dog T.V. was launched in the U.S. last year(2012).  It is now available in Israel on Channel—39.  The programs on the channel run up to 6mins. in length and are scientifically designed to keep dogs stimulated, happy and comforted when they are left alone at home. 

In one of Ralph Connor’s books he tells a story of Gwen.  Gwen was a wild, wilful lassie and one who had always been accustomed to having her own way.  Then one day she met with a terrible accident which crippled her for life.  She became very rebellious and in the murmuring state she was visited by the Sky Pilot, as the missionary among the mountaineers was termed.  He told her the parable of the canyon. “At first there were no canyons, but only the broad, open prairie.  One day the Master of the prairie, walking over His great lawns, where were only grasses, asked the prairie, “Where are your flowers?’, and the prairie said, “Master, I have no seeds”.  “Then he spoke to the birds, and they carried seeds of every kind of flower and strewed them far and wide and soon the prairie bloomed with crocuses and roses and buffalo beans and the yellow crowfoot and the wild sunflowers and the red lilies all summer long. 

Then the Master came and was well pleased; but he missed the flowers he loved best of all, and he said to the prairie, “Where are the clematis and the columbine, the sweet violets and wind-flowers, and all the ferns and flowering shrubs?”  “And again he spoke to the birds, and again they carried all the seeds and scattered them far and wide.  But again, when the Master came he could not find the flowers he loved best of all, and he said, “Where are those my sweetest flowers?” and the prairie cried sorrowfully, “Oh, Master, I cannot keep the flowers, for the winds sweep fiercely, and the sun beats upon my breast, and they wither up and fly away”.  Then the Master spoke to the lightning, and with one swift blow the lightning cleft the prairie to the heart.  And the prairie rocked and groaned in agony, and for many a day moaned bitterly over the black, jagged, gaping wound.  “But the river poured its waters through the cleft, and carried down deep black mould, and once more the birds carried seeds and strewed them in the canyon.  And after a long time the rough rocks were decked out with soft mosses and trailing vines, and all the rocks were hung with clematis and columbine and great elms lifted their huge tops high up into the sunlight, and down about their feet clustered the low cedars and balsams, and everywhere the violets and wind-flower and maiden-hair grew and bloomed, till the canyon became the Master’s favourite place for rest and peace and joy.”  Then the Sky Pilot read to her: “The fruit——-I’ll read ‘flowers’——of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness——-and some of these grow only in  the canyon”.  “Which are the canyon flowers?” asked Gwen softly, and the Pilot answered, “Gentleness, meekness, longsuffering; but though the others, —-love, joy, peace—bloom in the open, yet never with so rich a bloom and so sweet a perfume as in  the canyon.”  For a long time Gwen lay quite still, and then said wistfully, while her lips trembled: “There are no flowers in my canyon, but only ragged rocks.”  “Some day they will bloom, Gwen dear, the Master will find them, and we, too, shall see them.”  Beloved, when you come to your canyon, remember!!!!!!!!!!!  

PERFECTION

 

Aristotle (Greek Philosopher) gave perfection three meanings:  (1)  that which is complete (has all requisite parts ; (2) that which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better ; (3) that which has attained its purpose. 

Lucilio Vanini (Italian free-thinker) came up with the concept that the ‘greatest perfection is imperfection’ since there would be no scope left for progress.  Philosophers found a duality in this definition———-Something that is complete by itself is not the same as something that is perfect for a certain purpose.  The search for perfection is as old as human history. 

Sir Thomas Moore’s coinage of the word UTOPIA meaning a SOCIETY or COMMUNITY with highly desirable qualities, created yet another ideal to be aspired to.  What is perfect to you may not be perfect to another. 

According to Aristotle, all human actions have one or more of these seven causes————chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and reason.———-No one is perfect.  Total perfection itself is an imperfection.  We are all flawed in one way or the other——-physically, mentally or emotionally.  We have hidden handicaps hidden from the outside world.  To the outside world, we may look perfect, but our hidden flaws are known only to God and us.

Prayer

Here are a few words on,” The Benefits Of Daily Prayer”, That was sent by Chitra Ramaswamy to the TOI on Friday the 23rd of Feb, 2001.

Prayer is man’s way of conversing with God.  During this exchange, man confesses his limitations and weakness as a human being and resigns himself to Him.  By means of prayer, man reaches a domain where reason doesn’t go.  It is a calm and spiritual area where man finds himself after spending a few minutes in worshipping his Maker. .Thus prayer is a very subtle force. 

The troubled mind turns to God for refuge and protection.  A true devotee prays with all the devotion in his command expecting nothing in return.  Prayer is just not something recited aloud.  But, before that, man must cleanse his heart of all ill-feelings, sins and wrong thoughts.  Only then his communion with God can begin.  Payer can be in any form——physical, verbal, silent.  It can also be personal, unpremeditated and the words used informal.  Prayer purifies the mind, cleanses the soul. It helps a person to become detached enough to view pain and pleasure with equanimity.  Good health is bestowed on one who makes it a point to pray for sometime every day.  This is because during that period of meditation, all the cares of this world are set aside.  Man gains spiritual strength.  We don’t have to use high-flown words. 

It is what is said from the bottom of the heart that matters.  In your busy life, set aside a few minutes everyday and pray with all humility.  Choose the time that suits you.  It can be early in the morning or in the evening at dusk.  Let it become a part and parcel of your life.