Tag: post2011

The step.

step backTaking a break from what you are doing—a new approach.

Sometimes it helps to step back.

There was this time when everything seemed like  that snake that bit its own tail. I was so distracted, not really accomplishing much. I was so into what was happening externally that my inner self went for a toss. Then I was forced to take a step back and connect to my inner self giving my mind, body and spirit the time needed to re-energize and heal.

Initially the break did seem as productive as I would have liked it to be, but a healthy hibernation period let me discover aspects of myself and my potential. I called it a date with myself, small things like going for a walk dancing whatever. I never realized how much I missed swimming until I pushed myself to swim. Gradually the general direction that I wanted to take in life became quite clear.

One of the sessions at the Landmark forum, my buddy Ravindra told me, “maybe you are not keeping in pace with your companions because you hear a different drummer. If you step to the music you hear, however measured or far way you might sync.” Wow that was profound. Coming to think of it, everything about prioritizing, taking stock and assessing before we go ahead. It is quite important to know when something has reached its end. closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters whatever we choose to call it what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life are over. This will be possible only when we step back and look for the blind spot.

In my case only when I could look at the blind spot, let it go, and forgive myself, the situation and understand that the situation was over i could not move forward.

The step back and assessment of the situation clinically, matching it with my goals was very essential.

support system

Behind every successful man is a woman whatever is a well known quote.
But each one us is at least one supporter. Once upon a time it was the woman who nurtured the home, and rendered support to her spouse to go win the world. But the scenario now is vary variant. We have all kinds of support.
The support from people helps us to handle our obligations or pursue our dreams. In some people who help us through the challenge of life by offering us help and bolstering our spirit.
The support system could be anything, family, friend, hired help, gardeners, healers, therapists or adviors. Our supporters may be the mentors who listen to us and help us by sharing our thoughts and feeling.
They need not be present with us all the while, they can even be a voice from the past. We have always had supporters around us whether we notice them or not.
As we take time to acknowledge every we cannot help but feel grateful. Understanding our place in our human support helps us as there are people that support us we are a supporter to many people, we consciously and more easily build a life that we love. by gratefully accepting the expertise and assistance of our supporters we consciously build a life that we
Thanks to our staff groups, friends and loved ones for all their support we all need each other’s support to thrive this world.

poetry as meditation

When see poets i feel humbled to me its also a form of meditation.
Sculpting that poem could take you on a journey where your conscious mind is momentarily cast adrift.
All creativity is form of divinity particularly if they are vehicles of self expression, from splashing of colours on a canvas, to singing high notes can be catharsis. Dancing can vent out all those emotions from you. Just that way sculpting thoughts into poetry would mean a journey into the inner universe.
Creativity demands that we stay fully present in the process than focusing on the outcome. Just the way meditation does. One needs to shed ones inhibition. when creativity is a form of self expression then we are able to see reflections of selves in it in poetry this is more tangible.
If your curiosity would like you to experiment with this then
• Set aside 20mnts to be alone in a quiet place
• You may want to look at poetry written by others or you may like to venture into your own path.
• The poem actually gets revealed to you the way it wants to emerge.
• Just pen it, to hell with grammar, spelling and logic focus on descriptions, visual precision, rhythm and lyric.
Somewhere along the way you will uncover repressed feelings within you. Appreciate your work and release the emotions.
The best thing about this form of meditation is that it lets you relax, take the environment in. it sensitizes you to nature. Your soul gets release from the oppression of emotional stress and you are free to face your deepest yearnings.

Autum of life

Why do we insist that senior citizens should withdraw from life?

This friend of mine, she is a friend because I have the luxury of being stupid in front of her. She is 60+ battled cancers once and battling it again, people do say is abrasive and aggressive, but I think she occasionally calls a spade a hatchet; else she is just as cranky as the next person. What is commendable about her is her openness to learning, her wonderment in experiencing each day. She is able to infuse that energy and radiate joy.
Great-Aunt Vimala, is all of 71, I have not heard her moan, “oh!—at my age” she does refer to arthritis as if it a new shoe that pinches, but she trekked up the Rwandan mountain because she wanted to see the mountain Gorillas. When she describes it, she talks of the scenery, the facial expression of the guide, and her excitement on spotting the gorilla and how she wanted to do the Tarzan act. My daughters can never say Vimala aunty without that smile and warmth they want to listen to her, they want her company they don’t realize that she is 70+ they feel she is a contemporary.
Aunt Tilaka and Uncle Nagaraj are again in their late 60’s and mid 70’s. Ask all the kids around them “thata-patti are the stars” with them it is the world of computers, books and they share it with all of us. We do turn to them for guidance, of course they are aware too that the advice is not all binding but they are there.
My grandfather Krishna Rao learnt computers attending classes at the age of 85, because my mother was a bad chess player and he wanted company.
My parents attended the computer course too, and my father was the living wonder to the other students who were teenaged or young adults. Papa was a legend and they found educating him both entertaining and flattering.
Aunt Jayalakshmi (my favourite person after my grandmother Parwati) she used to tell me, that she dreads the day when her brain accepts something new, because it means her faculty is giving away. She is forever experimenting with simple day-to-day things and they make so much of difference to everyday life. I learnt lot of traditional dishes by applying her methods of modification. She is so creative to the day.
Lakshmi the retired maths teacher from Green rosary goes trekking the Himalayas, a dream she nurtured for years, arthritis, fractured leg notwithstanding.
What makes these people ageless, is their zest for living, they are not bound by the arrogance that ages not it all, the wonderment of life is still alive, that is true spirituality, to experience joy and treat each day like a gift. There is no morbidity like”oh! At our age XYZ is not done.”
The world is their oyster.

Happy birthday scotland yard

Lestrade in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes,
Inspector Japp in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot series.
Both belong to that great Mecca of whodunits, the Scotland Yard, which is a metonym for the metropolitan police of London, and synonym with the CID of London metropolitan police.
The department was so called as it was located at the Scotland Yard.
Scotland Yard brings in a gush of romance, adventure, intrigue and the works. Every policeperson or forensic person would want to associate with it.
It was created in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, on this day in history.

Johnny Appleseed

The Quixotic envoirnmentalists.

September 26th 1774 is the birth of American environmentalists.
If our generation in India grew up with Amarchitra Katha the western folklore, legends and mythology came alive with Classic comics.
One of my favourite was the story of Johnny Appleseed. So profound was his influence that I wore Appleseed necklaces for awhile.
Born John Chapman in Massachusetts he is pictured wearing a saucepan for a hat and ragged clothes. When a missionary was delivering a sermon he demanded “where would you find a true Christian today who wore ragged clothes and walked bare feet” Johnny Appleseed popped up and said here I am.
Johnny Appleseed introduced apple orchards in the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois’. He would fence the apple trees he planted to protect it from livestock.
Occasionally Johnny preached the Christian teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
He passed away on March 18th 1845 and is buried at Fort Wayne.
The web site http://appleseed.net named after him is a junior ecology club.

dear diary

September 22nd.2011
Dear Diary,
Today is the day that world honours you. You are the conscience keeper of most of us. We document out happiness, sorrow, our growing ache and our secret fears. Many of us have recorded within you our observation of nature and our growth into our careers.
Dear Diary, incidentally today is also the elephant appreciation day. No, I do not ask to me appreciated despite of despite akined to the pachyderms. I am talking of the large gentle mammal found in Asia and Africa belonging to the family Elephantidea. This animal is a vegetarian and loves water. In Asian culture the wisdom, memory and intelligence. The srilankan elephants according the archaeological evidences showed 5 tusks and today they have mutated to single tusks. The Sanskrit text book Matanga Lila talks of the elephant, its myth, the biology, habit and health of the elephant. The book also deals with the medicinal implications of the elephant.
Did you know despite cute Ely the elephant and the elephant walk the Kedah hunting of the White Rajah’s lead to the depletion of elephant population.
I am sure someone in the year 1862 must have written within you the emancipation of the slaves. this was the day in history that the Proclamation of Emancipation was made. It was this day in 1862 that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the emancipation though it came to being on January 1st.1863 and slavery was totally abolished in December 1865 by the thirteenth amendment.
Dear diary today is also the day that the Band-aid was discovered. In 1920 by a Johnson and Johnson staff called Earle Dickson for his wife Josephine who cut and burnt herself often during cooking. Initially they were handmade and not popular. But by 1924 they were sterilized and packed well enough to be shipped during the 2nd world war. Today cotton embedded in nylon fibbers with thin film of plastic holed for ventilation is used. This coated with an adhesive called epoxy.
Good night
Thank for such wonderful memories.