What a smile can do

Smile!  With a slight sore muscles and sniffles, I forced myself to trek down to the local post office and do few errands.  Then I had my usual coffee in one of my favourite muffin break shops. Going back home I was carrying an awkward bag coming from the supermarket. I'm still recovering from a medical issue and haven't been to the shops on my own lately.

Halfway home I felt the first drops of rain I was unprepared for.

Suddenly I saw this little girl coming my way. As she drew near I heard her singing softly to herself.  When she saw me, she looked up with those lovely blue eyes and gave me a smile of such complete happiness. What pure delight I felt.  That was my blessing for the day.

A smile from a happy little girl I happen to meet on the street.  Just a smile, that made me forget my day's cares, about the rain and my somewhat heavy bag for my load to carry.

I eventually reached home but with a far lighter pace.  I even forgot about my recovering body discomforts.

Falling in love with life

Being Happy with life --- Being Present

Guest writer:  Jo Rosee

"Most people seek to fall in love with life and the people in it." Humans are complicated and, unnecessarily, make life much more complicated. Since we first started living, all we really want is to fall in love with life and the people in it.  We abbreviate the truth, don't reflect, don't commit, or don't make appropriate changes, even when opportunities are in front of us to keep us slotted into our chosen path. Most often we get sucked into other people's agendas, unnecessary situations and humiliations because we fail to live our own life appropriately, that is, what it has been meant for us.

[Reflections after attending a funeral of a loved one...]

The eulogy was about the 'dash' between the date one is born and the date one dies. The 'dash' represents the life of the person.

If our whole life's span depended on the measurement of the 'dash',  it would be true to say, we could make our life up as we go. It's after all ours, not anyone else's,  isn't it! Therefore, we can feel proud of every micro achievement we make in that 'plan of life,' be it big or small. Why? Because we only need to measure up to ourselves. Since each person is unique, if we know that the dash represents what we do - decisions we make daily, hourly, and by the minute - we can easily 'fall in love with life' to achieve our plans. That is not saying, we should not help others, or share in commitments, or not take responsibility seriously.

'Falling in love with life' is about being happy with our life. It is about our commitment to ourselves and to our plans first, before others. Being happy with life and being alive allow us to 'fall in love' with who we have or want to interact with us (little or greatly), along the way.

Being in love with life may not always give us the desired result. Consciously or not, we might anticipate, calculate and manipulate, but we cannot dictate others and their reactions to life. We should not. We do, however, need to find time to reflect and to give ourselves the opportunity to change what we don't want to accept, and what works well for us, in order to continue to 'fall in love with life and the people in it'.

Shaping our 'dash' is a self-commitment and a love of life. It also makes physical age immaterial. Our life journey should not be judged or based on other people's opinion. As individuals, we should set aside a time and a space for reflection, a breather, to pave way for that needed mind-clearing decision, if only to honestly fall in love with life.

Sometimes we need a reminder - to stop - to be present.

Initially published from my Life Sparklers, September 2008.  / Tel

(c) September 2011. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 
 

Growth and Pain

The pain that comes along as we grow.

Spring wind has caught up in this part of the world where I live. Sad to say that last night's incident finds me annoyed and even angry. My friend's car was burglarised whilst parked in the  space area with security gate where I live. The left car window front seat was smashed to pieces.  Increasing crime even in supposed safe areas is simply alarming.Even spring rain occasionally abuse grass the past days...

To know enough, to remind ourselves, and to accept discomfort that pain, disappointment and annoyances is a part of our natural life... we should.  But not too much pain though...

Come to think of it, I'm astounded to discover the countless of moments I've spent trying to minimize and avoid pain.  Sensible or at times self-made. How about you? I mean pain from a love lost, rejection, betrayal, illness, and all other kinds we experience in the byways of life.  Or other times we are afraid to admit and face our own anger, our self-denials of who we really are.

Empathy. Have we become that senseless and indifferent? How we treat the people we live with - family, friends, neighbours, affects relationship and well-being of everyone.

Just as a breath can blow out a flame, a careless remark or body language of indifference can cast a shadow of hurt across another heart.

Yet time does wonders, and acceptance of things that are. There comes a point in life when we no longer fear it nor avoid it. We accept it as part of life.  Then we can live life more fully, to seize the day.  Carpe diem!

Water Music, An Inspired Poem

"Water Music"

By Dennis Metcalf, Guest writer

The world has grown colder,
The winter seems to come more often and stays longer
The wind is wet with threat and grass is now slippery underfoot
As you skid and slide and skate down the long embankment
That leads to the little stream at the bottom of the garden.

The leaves stick to the soles of your shoes
Like fellow travellers who have no better place to be
A broken gate is rusted open, inviting you to enter
You wade through thick and sickly weeds
That cling weakly to your legs for a moment
Only to fall away with a wet slapping sound.

You sit by the stream
Listen to the voices of pebbles as the water ripples and whispers on
Your bones ache with pain
You now know how as reality
And you softly scream into the back of your hand as it reaches its
crescendo,
All cymbals clashing and kettle drums rolling.

Looking back, you can see the trail
Each sodden footstep printed on the grassy slope above you.
You have smudged your presence on this corner of the world
And now sit contemplating the music of the waters
Trickling through the reeds and weeds
At the bottom of a garden in winter.

(Provided by Jo Rosee, for D. Metcalf, originally published 13.9.08.)

Reprinted September 2011 / Tel

(c) 2011. Tel Asiado. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

Thoughts on life and living

 

 

Quotes and sayings I've kept through the years. Many of them come from my own thoughts, readings, conversations with friends, oh, anywhere and everywhere really, as the quotes warm and uplift, or strike a heartfelt chord. /  Tel 

 

"Life is no brief candle to me. 

It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, 

and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible 

before handing it on to future generations." 

~ George Bernard Shaw ~

 

Life and living.  

Life isn't always what we like. But if I speak and act pure thoughts, happiness might follow me like a shadow. 

If I want to change my live, I may just need to change my mind. 

 

Life is an open book, with no particular limit.Things happen; they come and go. It's how we deal with it. It's how we respond to it. 

We mellow down with years. I've been greatly chastened learning a lot from my experiences, perhaps from hardened scars of pain. I've even started to treat others with exaggerated respect.

(c) September 2011. Tel. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved. 

When Loneliness Creeps In

Although what others do to us can make us lonely at times, loneliness is something really inside us. We can be alone but not lonely, instead, we can enjoy our solo moments – listening to our favourite music, drifting to our favourite beaches, reading our favourite author’s current bestseller or simply watching an exciting TV show. I always have my Sudoku handy. It helps when my music is no respite or my Muse isn't inspired to write.

Loneliness is when we feel as if nobody cares or wants to be with us. When we feel lonely, we often ignore what others say or do if it disagrees with what we think is true. 

When loneliness creeps in, as occasionally it will, we should try to turn inwards and be a healthy company to ourselves. It's a big challenge to pep ourselves up when we are alone all the time, bereft with any communication from people who profess to be friends or our emails unresponded to by almost everyone all at the same time and for a lengthy period of time. There are always moments when loneliness will creep in again.

The process starts all over... to do something we love to do and simply try to enjoy our solo moment.  Before we know it, our loneliness is dispelled. We might even forget why we feel lonely in the first place.

Why we need to encourage children to read and how to motivate them

Some of us have been blest that reading has been built as part of our lives since childhood. I consider it one of my greatest blessings.

Why encourage children to read

Children widen their horizons and perspectives when encouraged to read. Aside from the more clinical reasons that reading improves concentration, develops a child's imagination and exercises the brain, the most practical reason I can think of why children should be encouraged to read is that reading teaches about the world around them. They can be in faraway places that perhaps they may not even have the chance to visit in their lifetime. Also, through reading, children (even us adults) learn about people and events outside experiences.

Ways to motivate and stimulate children to read

1. Visit local library regularly, and other libraries.
2. Visit bookstores.
3. Get your child a journal to record thoughts, and to read them over later.
4. Inculcate in your child the love of classic books.
5. Watch movies of classics.
6. Listen to books on tapes.
7. Subscribe to magazines for children.
8. Read classic books aloud.
9. Act out stories together.
10. Plan or schedule a time for reading.
11. Introduce your children to series books.
12. Teach and help your child to write and illustrate his/her own book.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6

A Life in Balance

Inspiring speech from Brian G. Dyson

I trust you all had a lovely Christmas in whatever and however ways you celebrated it. As we look towards the coming new year, the feeling of hope and new beginnings pervades. Resolutions. Some of us have probably started planning for goals and goal-setting. All that. 

Once again, I'm reminded of an inspirational speech by Brian G. Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola company (1986-1991), which proliferated some years back. His message is as inspiring as ever. This speech was passed on to me by a friend some years back, March 2007. With many self-help books and inspirational quotes I have collected through the years, this speech remains to be one of my favourites. It touches on life in balance, in relation to work, family, health, friends and the spirit.

My take on spirit is that our spiritual growth is a process of inner awakening, realizing who we really beyond our ego and our mental faculties.(Thank you, Mr. Brian Dyson.)  As I understand, this speech was used as Georgia Tech's Commencement Address. (I don't have the actual date.) What a brilliant and inspirational speech!

A Speech by Brian Dyson (former CEO of Coca Cola)

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these; they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for Balance in your life.  How?

* Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

* Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

* Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

* Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.

* Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

* Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each together.

* Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

* Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find time.

* The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

* Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.

* Don't forget, a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

* Don't be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

* Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured each step of the way.

Wishing you all the best of the new year!

(Note: First published in my Life Sparklers, January 2007.)

(c) 2011.  Tel Asiado. Leaves from my Musings. All rights reserved.