What Makes You Happy?

A day of learning is a day of earning. Yes, indeed this statement holds a profound sense that has a great significance in one's life. Learning when meets consequences become an experience that's, as you all know, the unmatched mentor which is beyond getting replaced by even the best tutor. Experience, be it bad or good, has markedly immense impact on its bearer. It preaches a lot.

A person feels pity feeds a destitute and someone, on the contrary finds happiness in snatching off the bread, sufficient to eliminate the deadly hunger, from a beggar's hand. This is intended to facilitate the understanding of selfishness of a human being that seeks nothing but his happiness. Well, who does a thing that leads him to be unhappy? Possibly such a doer is mentally ill or viciously addicted to pain and sorrow. Well, what I want to lay emphasis on is that we do what we find happiness and satisfaction in. This is a bare presentation of selfishness that is probably inherent in all living specie on this earth. A teacher impart knowledge as it makes him happy, a social worker revamps the society in a way he wants everything to be set up for betterment, a politician makes himself happy by gaining over power; sometimes forgetting the purpose behind the power, a robber robs, a rapist rapes to vent out his uncontrollable wrongly channelized sexual drive. All the performers can be seen as character of drama who wants to outwit other one by gaining over happiness. Probably, they forget that happiness dwell within that demands the capability to discover and defeat his/her own noisy mind. Some repent and some rejoice after having performed his deed.

I would like to mention an incident while I was in overcrowded bus. It was all packed. People were raising their heads to breathe, probably everybody had become two inch taller :). After a while a girl with her guardian boarded the bus. She looked scared; she was palpitating and was behaving as if she was going to be hunted soon. She was mentally retarded. She looked sweet. Yes, she was beautiful. A gentleman offered her his seat. I was delighted. I was just standing in front of her. A feeling prevailed my heart strongly, I just wanted to hug her and cure her anyhow. At the very next moment, I saw a woman handing over her luggage to that child. I swallowed hard as I was not able to take that luggage off her lap. I flew in rage but thought that everything what happens that happens for good. I just observed the love that was biased in the lady who handed over her heavy luggage to that retarded girl, who couldn't even sit well. That lady had her own child who enjoyed the biased love. If love is profound then how it becomes biased, is it a true love, or what it is then....?

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What is a perfectly free person?

While sitting in the balcony in a serious and contemplating mood I happened to behold two contrasting events that stole my attention away into an abyss where there were many questions that rattled my mind. I saw a person, weak, shabbily dressed and quite old carrying a heap of wooden scraps on his shoulders. Yes, he was a laborer who was supposed to be paid in return of his work. I failed to conclude whether he was the slave of his need or was the slave of the master or whom he did the work. At the same time, through a opening in the window, I saw a person lost in deep slumber lying comfortably in his room. Now, he was also a slave who enjoyed his slavery…

What is a perfectly free person? Evidently a person who can do whatever he likes, doesn’t do what he don’t like. However, this is quite impossible thing. No one can be so free. No one has ever led his life in such a freedom as some necessities enslave him. A person is always a slave of his necessities for he cannot get rid of himself and is ought to attend to his own demands. Whether we are a monarch or a slave we are the slave of our needs which we cannot shirk off. For half of the day we are busy attending to our whim which gets defined as our comfort… yes, we are the slaves of the comfort that seems too lucrative.

Some necessities have to be fulfilled and they give rise to yet other possibilities. As we have to eat as it lets us survive but before eating we must have food, we need to sleep but before really sleeping we need bed and a room, we need to walk on road and to walk we need clothes to cover our nakedness. Needs always give birth to an action that’s also necessary, thus, we become prisoners to our needs. Now, when food can be earned to feed ourselves, it may also be stolen. When we can employ several laborers to get us clothes and lodging they can also protest being so. Thus, it’s all about keeping one’s hand above in the midst of the war called “I want to be served”. So, I would let you all pondering about this said agenda.

Slavery to nature is quite natural and is completely different from the slavery of a man to man- unnatural. Slavery to nature is always enjoyable and very captivating. While, slavery to a man is really suffocating act that squeezes life out of the slave, at the same time slavery to nature bears a mirth that a slave is not oblivious about.

We need to eat and drink to survive; we would eat and drink a lot if it’s affordable. See, we voluntarily accept this slavery. We need to sleep or we will go mad; we would love to be sleeping always. Aren’t we the slave of the nature who accepts all sort of slavery that nature imposes on us? Whereas, the slavery of a man to another man is quite painful, in fact, no person is that good to be another’s master.

I am leaving this issue of ‘slavery’ in your minds and to contemplate on it further… I have a question, what is better- to work for eight to nine hours a day and get retired at the age of 45 earning the pension, or to work for four hours a day and keep working till one gets perished?

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Why Would I want to Live in the Now?

I always loved to listen to this song as a young teacher in Kamloops. It was a favorite and still is. But. To the question: Why Would I want to Live in the Now?

Because the Now may be all I have.

Living in the past stagnates us. We cannot live in the past as if the things that have already happened will happen over and over. Why revisit all the hurts and deceptions? Why revisit the bad times? Then again, we have had good times too. So, why not revisit them? It is good to remember them, but we cannot relive them. Embrace the good memories and enjoy the good feelings they bring back. But don't live there either.

Just think about the things happening in our lives now. So much excitement, so much progress. If we stay in the past, then what are we gaining from Now? Nothing. There is so much out there to experience, make new memories with and have a wonderful time living and learning.

So what's wrong with living in the future? Apart from the fact that if it has not yet happened, it may never happen. We can look ahead to the future. I am not saying that we cannot have one. Far from it! We will all have a future. What it will be we will know when it becomes the Now! Sure, we make plans. Sure, we decide what we want from life and make all sorts of decisions on how we are getting there. Now is when we are making all these choices and decisions. Not in the Future. We live Now. We have a vision for our future. We make plans on how to get there. We make the decisions and choices Now that will get us to our future. Live in the Now with vision. Live in the Now with enjoyment. Live in the Now for life!

The deeper reason for me is actually somewhat traumatic. My family doctor confirmed that I have early onset dementia. It is a result of the same medical issue that has been the cause behind my heart troubles too. My vein and artery walls are weak. They collapse and sometimes stick shut. When that happens around my heart, I get angina pain or a heart attack. When that happens in my brain, I lose a little bit of myself. That is what is making it so much more important to live in the NOW.

I am missing some memories. Nothing really important as far as I can remember. But I know the others might go sometime too. There is no good reason to remain living in my past watching the memories maybe disappear, maybe change as the old pathways in my brain start to shut down.

I would rather enjoy what is left of my time here in this life. So, ... I live in the Now. Making new pathways in my brain by learning new things. Making new memories in different sections of my brain. Using creativity skills that I did not know I had to beautify my surroundings. Not giving in to living in the past or trying to live in a future that is not yet here. I will enjoy my grandchildren as much as possible Now. I am taking lots of pictures for NOW. I am not dwelling on what could happen tomorrow. Living in the NOW makes life fun again. I love life in the Now. Enjoy it with me.

When you are troubled, that is when you really need your friends and family. I have mine. It amazes me more everyday how my friends accept me today for who I am Now. Not who I was 10 years ago. Not who I might be 10 years into my future. NOW.

Living and loving life

Elouise

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FORGIVE

We mostly think of forgiveness as something that we do when the person doing the wrong asks of US. Instead let us offer to forgive the person who has done wrong to us.

To not forgive them is like taking the poison suffering for what they did or didn't do to us and expecting THEM to die.

Forgiveness is a gift we give to our-self. It is not something we do to someone else. It's really that simple. Simply identify the situation where you need to forgive and ask yourself: "Am I willing to waste my energy further on this matter?" If the answer is "No," then that's it! All is forgiven.

Forgiving is allowing another person to be human for faults, mistakes or misdeeds.letting them know that there is no grudge, hard feelings or animosity for any wrongdoing.Forgiving is giving a sign that a person's explanation or acceptance of blame for a destructive, hurtful or painful act is fully accepted.Forgiving is the highest form of human behavior that can be shown to another person.



The Amish School Tragedy

On Monday morning, October 2, 2006, a gunman entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. In front of twenty-five horrified pupils, thirty-two-year-old Charles Roberts ordered the boys and the teacher to leave. After tying the legs of the ten remaining girls, Roberts prepared to shoot them execution with an automatic rifle and four hundred rounds of ammunition that he brought for the task. The oldest hostage, a thirteen-year-old, begged Roberts to “shoot me first and let the little ones go.” Refusing her offer, he opened fire on all of them, killing five and leaving the others critically wounded. He then shot himself as police stormed the building. His motivation? “I’m angry at God for taking my little daughter,” he told the children before the massacre.

The story captured the attention of broadcast and print media in the United States and around the world. By Tuesday morning some fifty television crews had clogged the small village of Nickel Mines, staying for five days until the killer and the killed were buried. The blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor when Amish parents brought words of forgiveness to the family of the one who had slain their children.

The outside world was incredulous that such forgiveness could be offered so quickly for such a heinous crime. Of the hundreds of media queries that the authors received about the shooting, questions about forgiveness rose to the top. Forgiveness, in fact, eclipsed the tragic story, trumping the violence and arresting the world’s attention.

Within a week of the murders, Amish forgiveness was a central theme in more than 2,400 news stories around the world. The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, NBC Nightly News, CBS Morning News, Larry King Live, Fox News, Oprah, and dozens of other media outlets heralded the forgiving Amish. From the Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates) to Australian television, international media were opining on Amish forgiveness. Three weeks after the shooting, “Amish forgiveness” had appeared in 2,900 news stories worldwide and on 534,000 web sites.

Fresh from the funerals where they had buried their own children, grieving Amish families accounted for half of the seventy-five people who attended the killer’s burial. Roberts’ widow was deeply moved by their presence as Amish families greeted her and her three children. The forgiveness went beyond talk and graveside presence: the Amish also supported a fund for the shooter’s family.


CAN WE LEARN SOMETHING FROM THIS INCIDENT?

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