Stand _Out

This daisy is Unique, not because of her colour or shape. The Truth is she Believes that she is wonderful and knows how to stand out

So:

You have to find out who you are, and be that.
You have to decide what comes first, and do that.
You have to discover your strengths, and use them.
You have to learn not to compete with others,
Because no one else is in the contest of *being you*.

Then:

You will have learned to accept your own uniqueness.
You will have learned to set priorities and make decisions.
You will have learned to live with your limitations.
You will have learned to give yourself the respect that is due.
And you'll be a most vital mortal.

Dare To Believe:
That you are a wonderful, unique person.

... :(

MY 12-YEAR-OLD daughter asked me, "Mom, do you have a baby picture of yourself?

I need it for a school project." I gave her one without thinking to ask what the project was.

A few days later I was in her classroom for a parent-teacher meeting when I noticed my face pinned to a mural the students had created.

The title of their project was "The oldest thing in my house."

a "V" formation

Next fall when you see geese heading south for the winter,flying along in a V formation, you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way:As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following.

By flying in a V formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

When a goose falls out of formation it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front.If we have as much sense as a goose we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way we are.When the head goose gets tired it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.

It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs ... with people or with geese flying south.Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.What do we say when we honk from behind?

Finally ... and this is important ... when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunshots, and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies, and only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their group.

" If we have the sense of a goose, we will stand by each other like that"...

.. .. .. the heart of a rose :)

Won’t you come into the garden?

I would like my roses

to see you.

** A House of Joy**

Thank you, for living with me and for inhabiting and making this house of joy, a home. You have helped me build this structure with wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Your words have filled it with rare and beautiful treasures _ Hearts Full Of You.

Neers, Mizfit, Prash, Sreejith, Eclipsed thoughts, seriously_frivolous, desperado, Lalitha, Usha, Preeta, Velu, Ram, Tarini, ALapana, Vibhor, Ekta, Random thoughts, Srijith.

Each of you have helped to fill this with your spirit of love , joy, and peace.
Thank you, for helping me keep this place spiritually fervent with joy and zeal.


A New Day Has Come ...

Good Wishes ...

I wish all my friends "the Brightest Deepavali and A Prosperous New Year".


Friends,

I wish to take a break.
I shall be back soon.
Take good care of yourselves.
Bye.

ok, I am weird ... but in a good sense .

While I was working on this post, I met Jack. Jack is my online friend. This conversation(chat) is between Jill(passerby) and Jack .. .. .. please read on.



Jack : Hola! how are u?
Jill : hi there. I am fine , thanku

Jack : so what’s up buddy
Jill : just a little busy, with my blog. I am tagged by two good blogmates srijith and neers.They both have asked me to list six weird things about me.

Jack : Oh ! I remember you tell me that you blog.
how is it going?
Jill : I seem to find nothing weird in me right now. can you help me find something weird about ...

JACk : Me?
Jill : ya, its better to know from your frds. They are the ones who know you better.

Jack : you are right there, but I never find anything weird in you, if you were weird why would you be on my frnd/list
Jill : may be weird in some good sense, did you observe anything weird but good about me.

Jack : let me think, oh ya do you remember, at one time I told you that you jump topics.
JiLL : jump in wht sense?

Jack : jump, like A Monkey , but in all good sense. We can then exchange a talk on variety of subjects you see.
Jill : (thinking in her mind) I am a monkey. (Wants to ask Jack to Pack and leave her alone).

Jack : yes, Jill one good weirdness about you is that you talk a lot.
Jill : you mean talkative in good sense

Jack : yes, I often wonder how can you talk so much?
Jill : you mean to say I talk non stop and that I should try to shutup!

Jack : hey, you jump to conclusions very fast , this is weird in you.
{Jill : thinking to herself..he could not count a single weird ness in me and now the whole of me seems weird ….JAck is so weird}...


Jack : I hope I am helping you find weird things in good sense.
Jill : {( in her mind) yes you have helped enuff}
Jill : Jack thanku, you helped me with this difficult tag.

Jack : my pleasure, Jill

Jack : bye, got to hurry now. I have a meeting to attend.
Jill : byebye ,, see ya soon.
( I wonder did Jill come tumbling after or did Jack push her).

So I am talkative, I rush through topics , and I jump to conclusion, but all in a good sense ... *smiles*… Let me quickly push (pass I mean) this tag to a few here …

ajay, wild reeds, contended, Seriously_frivolous, alapana, random thoughts please take up this tag, if you have not done it before.

... On the bridge between people

Unless we can hear each other singing and crying, unless we can comfort each other's failures and cheer each other's victories, we are missing out on the best that life has to offer. The only real action takes place on the bridge between people.

Abe was fiercely independent, even at the age of 85, but after a mild stroke his son insisted he move in with him. Abe missed going to the park near his old apartment, and one Saturday he set out to find it.

When he became disoriented, he asked a young boy where the park was. The boy, named Timmy, said he’d like to take Abe there, but he didn’t have time because he was looking for God. He needed to talk to him about why his parents were getting a divorce.

"Maybe God is in the park," said the old man. "I’d like to talk to him, too, about why he’s made me useless." They set off together to find God.

At the park, Timmy began to cry about the divorce, and Abe lovingly held the boy’s face in his hands and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Timmy, I don’t know why bad things happen, but I know it’s not because of you. I know you’re a good boy and your parents love you and you’ll be okay."
"Are you sure?"
"I’m sure."

Timmy gave Abe a big hug and said, "I’m so glad I met you. Thanks. I think I can go now."
From across the street, Timmy’s mother saw them hug and when the boy came up, she asked in a worried voice, "Who was that old man?"
"I think he’s God."

"Did he say that?" she demanded.
"No, but when he told me I’m going to be okay, I felt better. Only God can do that."

When Abe got home, his son in a scolding voice asked, "Where were you?"
"I was in the park with God."

"What makes you think you were with God?"

"Because he sent me a boy who needed me, and when the boy hugged me,

I felt God telling me I wasn’t useless."

Yet Tagged Again ...

I am tagged by Preeta. A few months ago, after i first read her I wrote a post on it. The link to that post is here

1..Are you happy/satisfied with your blog with it's content and look? Does your family know about your blog?
I am happy with my blog, My entire family does not know about my blog. I have already written a post about my entry into the blogworld. The link to that post is here .

2.Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?

I enjoy this world of blog exclusively with my blogmates. My friends outside the net are not into blogging, so I never discuss my blog with them.

3.Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?
I enjoy interacting , reading and commenting here. Blogs make me feel positive, and they do influence my thought process.

4.Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?

I do open blogs of those who comment and also love to explore and discover new blogs. I explored to find Usha's blog and that was one great discovery.

5.What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?

I don’t have a visitors counter. Well, maybe I shall learn to put one soon.


6.Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

No, I have never tried to imagine my fellow bloggers, but when I read some good post by my fellow blogger. I do feel I should have been close to wish and thank him/her for posting one. Well, i have given a real picture of myself to my fellow bloggers through my posts.

7.Admit. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?

Yes, I think it is beneficial to blog. Surely, who I am now is only because of all that’s gone before, It seems wrong not to be able to recall even the important events in their wholeness…I may look back one day, to read all and say “THIS was me,This is me"

8.Do you think that bloggers society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?

I think good bloggers are never isolated from the real world, infact they try to portray the real world out here through their experience.

9.Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it's a normal thing?
Healthy criticism is food for the thought and I feel it should be encouraged. I invite all kinds of comments.

10.Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?
I don’t fear political blogs. I don’t mind interacting with healthy politics.

11.Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

Social evils a good blogger should never write to encourage. I have read about one blogger who was punished for promoting racism. I think that was right.

12.Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?

My son knows about my blog, I think it will remain with him. I am giving it to him in MY will. …. My spirit may write after I am gone….boohoo.

13.What do you like to hear? What's the song you might like to put a link to in your blog?

I generally don’t like to hear to a song when I read or write. I would not mind some light music that would enthrall me.

Now I tag LiL mizfit and pradeep . Will you both please take up this tag.

?? ...

Is Love the best healer? Or is Pain the best teacher?

A Different Perspective ...

One day a father and his rich family took his young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be.

They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?

"Very good, Dad!"

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Yeah!"

"And what did you learn?"The son answered,

"I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden,they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden,they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard, they have a whole horizon.

"When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.

His son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!"

Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family, health, good humor and a positive attitude toward life, you've got everything!You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!

"Pious Portrait" ...


A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's artwork.

As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

The teacher paused and said, "but no one knows what God looks like". Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

More than a Sister ...

I trust,we remain learners all our life. At the same time we also get an opportunity to teach another. We teach our children, our brothers and sisters, many give tuitions to the neighbours.

Some want to earn pocket money and some want to remain in touch with knowledge and books. Each of us definitely gain respect for teaching.

I am a teacher to my son though my very first student was a naughty girl, two years younger to me. She had no interest in her books. She was in love with everything around her, except her books.. School was only fun for her. Books and homework were only meant to be carried in school bags. Schoolbooks were not to be read and home-work was never to be done.

Her class was on the first floor, while mine on the second . The staffroom was beside her classroom. I was often send by my class teacher to collect the corrected class books from the staff room. There, outside the class I would spot my first student. She would either be standing or kneeling down outside the classroom. .

She must have not done her history homework, I would guess.. She would smile at me. What a shameless girl! I felt ashamed, angry and guilty all at the same time. Homework is ones own responsibility . Why does she neglect it? I will complain to mom . I knew Mom would say, oh! she is beyond repair, forget her.

One day, my class teacher who was her science teacher said to me, " why don’t you teach her” . I said, "mam, she won’t listen to me".
"She will dear, you can become her teacher, then you will never be ashamed of her". Personal responsibility and respect for my class teacher laid the foundation of my teaching the most adamant student under the sky.

After my studies, I would take her school bag and find out what she had to study. Help her and make her do her homework. She was weak, but she was sweet. I hated her for not taking studies seriously , but I knew I will always love her all my life.

She was neither intelligent nor did she want to work hard, but she was always promoted. My parents thought I would make a good teacher. But destiny had something else in store.

Today, my sister is a teacher in one of the best schools, in India. She teaches English. She is loved and a respected teacher. She is doing well in this profession for more than ten years now. I think this is the gurudakshina I get for teaching her, and somewhere my class teacher will be proud. I obeyed her and respected her faith.

Happy teachers day to all the teachers and this one teacher who is my sister, a naughty student and a good teacher, "Thankyou".. You taught me what is learning, while you teach.

Feeding Time ...

.... And I told you the snow would melt, the passionate love o' the sun does it. The leaves of the trees, will fall with the wind, and look that great, gray cloud will vanish now ... it goes on and on until the child finishes his/her bowl of cerelac.

When a young grandchild feeds his grandparents, gladness finds its old home, and that sorrow at length departs. Feeding your dear ones is a happy moment shared.

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, "Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."The Lord led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.But the people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.

They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful, but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.

'They then went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, "I don’t understand.""It is simple" said the Lord, "In this place the people have learned to feed one another."

Cheers!

Bring What You Can Carry

Every dream a child sees is made of golden sight, Every day the sun rises to spread its golden light ....

Once there was an old rich man who was afraid of dying and leaving all his wealth behind on earth. So, he took up the matter with God. He pleaded day and night to be able to take all his earthly possessions with him. Finally, God conceded. He said the man could take as much as he could fit in one suitcase. The old man immediately went out, bought a huge suitcase, sold all he owned and filled the suitcase with gold bars. Shortly after that, the old man died. Awkwardly dragging the big, heavy suitcase, he approached St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.

St. Peter stopped him, asked him to open his luggage, and then told him he couldn't bring his gold bars into Heaven.The man was irate. "You don't understand," he said. "I got permission directly from God himself for this. He told me whatever I could fit into one suitcase, I could bring with me.

"St. Peter, shrugged his shoulders and simply said, "Fine with me. But we've already got plenty of pavement here."

Happy weekend friends!

Advertainment ...

A church choir was putting on a car wash to raise money for a special trip to Bethlehem. They made a large sign that read:

"CAR WASH FOR CHOIR TRIP".

On the scheduled Saturday, business was very good. But, by two o'clock the sky clouded, the rain poured, and there were hardly any customers. Finally, one of the soprano singers had an idea.

She printed a very large poster with the words:

"WE WASH. GOD RINSES". (Next to the words was an arrow pointing skyward.)
Business boomed!

Myself ...

Tagged by
"Starry Nights"





I AM THINKING ABOUT :Just in case Tomorrow is too late.
(I keep thinking this many times in a day!)...

I SAID : I am already O.K.

I WANT TO: remove all the buts and whens from my vocabulary ( I mean LIFE)

I WISH : I always held my head high with a smile

I WONDER : why all my friends call me on the same day? why they remember me on the same day?

I REGRET : Nothing

I HEAR: My son telling me what happened on the playground yesterday.

I AM: Only a Human

I DANCE : when I hear music in the air

I SING: when I light a Candle of HOPE

I CRY : in the kitchen with a knife in my hand. (cutting onions)

I AM NOT : A reserved class(Person)

I MAKE WITH MY HANDS : Actions… (when in a conversation ). I am an expressive person.

I WRITE : Even on a tissue paper… * Big Grin*

I CONFUSE : All my son’s friends (girl friends!). They call him when I am not at home.

I NEED : “Surprises“. (I love to give and take surprises ). I also need to change the subject ...


"I Tag: The first person who comments here"
Starry Nights(she tagged me), Usha and Hip grandma are excused this time.

I'm tagged ...

I thank a good blogmate and a wonderful blogwriter
Lil MiZfiT to have tagged me.

One book that changed your life?
Every book I have read did convey something good.
Letter to a Teacher, Sieze the day, Mill on the Floss .... many more.

One book you have read more than once?
Alchemist ... there are a few more.

One book you would want on a desert island?
On a desert island I would want to write.

One book that made you laugh?
Uncle Fred in Springtime many of the PG Wodehouse collections.

One book that made you cry?
In recent times The Kite Runner .

One book you wish had been written?
"Mizfit Chronicles" by Mizfit ...

One book you wish had never been written?
All my mathematics textbooks in school.

One book you are currently reading?
One hundred years of solitude

One book you have been meaning to read?
The World is flat ... would want to read as many as possible.

Now I tag Starry nights, Usha, Hip Grandma and all my other blogmates who would like to share some good titles here .... Cheers!

two steps behind you ...

Walk away wherever you want to
If need be, you can run
hide you can never
I'm beside, behind
running

within you ...

Take your time, and think
You can't fight me
I'm the magic

within you ...

Turn around;

find me
just two steps behind you ...

Make time to live ...

A short story ...



Two friends were walking through the desert. At one point, both started arguing and one of the friends hit the other in his face. The one who was hit was hurt, without uttering a single word. He sat down and wrote in the sand,

"Today My Best Friend Hit me in the Face".

They carried on walking, until they reached an oasis, they wanted to freshen up and started to bathe. The friend who was hit in the face, got caught in the mud and was about to drown when his other friend saved his life. After he recovered he took a stone and carved into it,

"Today My Best Friend Saved My life".

Puzzled the other friend inquired, "why a stone, earlier you wrote in the sand?"

He looked up and smiled and said,
"When I was hurt, I wrote in the sand so that the wind can blow it, but when you saved my life I carved it on the stone. so that the wind can never blow it away".

We have to learn to write our pain in the Sand. The wind by blowing it away can help us to forgive. But the good moments have to be carved on the stone, so that we never forget them. Nature has given us many gifts,which are all around us. They teach us,
"Lets make time to live!"