Will you please someone you don't like,
Can you kill the one you would die for,
Should you make a world you cannot live in,
Must you say things you don't mean,
Is it correct to lie to hide the truth,
When it is the truth that can set you free,
Will it be easy to suffer the pain,
So that you can come back to sanity,
How many times will you walk down the same path,
When you know it leads to where you don't want to be,
Will you ever find out what you are all about,
When you are trying hard to be someone you're not,
Could it be real if you lived in a dream,
Would the sky fall down if you willed it,
Can you undo what is already done,
How do you give up something that wasn't yours,
Is it fair to say, "I can do it all",
When you know you cannot,
Can you start all over when you're at the end,
Does the sun rise to bid the night farewell,
Should you hope that you'll make it through,
Is it certain tomorrow will be anew,
For all the things that are not, there are things that are,
Not matter where you are, you're not that far......
Friday, September 18, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
A higher purpose
If there was something that I think about almost everyday of my life, something that is very close to what I believe in, it would be – what is my purpose in life? You might say that everyone has been put on this earth for a reason – I won’t deny that. Everyone has their role to play – absolutely! Each one of us must find their place in life – quite possible in relative terms. Each of us has a purpose in life – eh? What was that again? Purpose, you say. Funny, I was kinda thinking on those same lines :)
The moment I ask myself the above question, a series of things hit me. I have the purpose of being a good person, a noble human being, lead a honest life, love everyone I can (and needn't love the ones I simply cannot!), treat others with respect, live a full life, never be regretful of/for anything I have or missed having, be appreciative, confident, etc. etc. etc… the list just goes on and on and on. Other times when I asked myself the same question, I get one standard answer – "you have a higher purpose in life". And I must admit that I prefer the latter answer to the former, maybe because I have only one thought to deal with rather than a thousand others. Or maybe because it is left up to me to decide what that higher purpose should be and not something that is confined to already designed roles and responsibilities. And also because it means there is something higher = better, on the way up there.
Now, some of us are lucky to be well on our way to the fulfillment of that purpose or like other ordinary people like me, are struggling to understand what that purpose is in order to achieve it. I started reading this book that delves more into understanding not what people are or what they are like, but where they come from. Since I started reading it, I haven’t been able to put it down; it's THAT good! Everything that is written makes sense. And not just sense, it’s like a wholesome movie playing perfectly where I can see myself in bits and parts. If we thought that those lucky people who were on their way to achieving their higher purpose were lucky, that’s just partly the answer. They were blessed with opportunities to be able to put their wheels in motion.
Right from my childhood, to this day, my parents have always blessed my sister and me with the courage to put our wheels in motion. I can very well say that I am what I am today because of my parents, especially my dad. He always encouraged us to be what we wanted to be, whatever we could be – the best always. He never said – "be this, be that". He always said – "who says you can’t be this/that?" And that's why I won’t say or believe that I was not blessed with the opportunities to be on the path to achieving my higher purpose. I am blessed because I know I have a higher purpose and it can be whatever I want it to be. I know that what I achieve today is something that I need to - for now. But for later, there is something better at the end of that line. And when I get there, it won’t be my higher purpose, it will be my only!
The moment I ask myself the above question, a series of things hit me. I have the purpose of being a good person, a noble human being, lead a honest life, love everyone I can (and needn't love the ones I simply cannot!), treat others with respect, live a full life, never be regretful of/for anything I have or missed having, be appreciative, confident, etc. etc. etc… the list just goes on and on and on. Other times when I asked myself the same question, I get one standard answer – "you have a higher purpose in life". And I must admit that I prefer the latter answer to the former, maybe because I have only one thought to deal with rather than a thousand others. Or maybe because it is left up to me to decide what that higher purpose should be and not something that is confined to already designed roles and responsibilities. And also because it means there is something higher = better, on the way up there.
Now, some of us are lucky to be well on our way to the fulfillment of that purpose or like other ordinary people like me, are struggling to understand what that purpose is in order to achieve it. I started reading this book that delves more into understanding not what people are or what they are like, but where they come from. Since I started reading it, I haven’t been able to put it down; it's THAT good! Everything that is written makes sense. And not just sense, it’s like a wholesome movie playing perfectly where I can see myself in bits and parts. If we thought that those lucky people who were on their way to achieving their higher purpose were lucky, that’s just partly the answer. They were blessed with opportunities to be able to put their wheels in motion.
Right from my childhood, to this day, my parents have always blessed my sister and me with the courage to put our wheels in motion. I can very well say that I am what I am today because of my parents, especially my dad. He always encouraged us to be what we wanted to be, whatever we could be – the best always. He never said – "be this, be that". He always said – "who says you can’t be this/that?" And that's why I won’t say or believe that I was not blessed with the opportunities to be on the path to achieving my higher purpose. I am blessed because I know I have a higher purpose and it can be whatever I want it to be. I know that what I achieve today is something that I need to - for now. But for later, there is something better at the end of that line. And when I get there, it won’t be my higher purpose, it will be my only!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Cross my heart and hope to die…
Oh, I don’t intend to die on a cross or anything. I was just trying to think of a heading that would somehow make me conjure up something on those lines to write about. But since nothing seems to be coming out of that seemingly blank brain of mine (is it just me, or are we getting a little dumber each day? Hmmm… I think it’s just me!), I’ll just try to hover around hoping some brainwave will hit me… like those flights that have to hover around in airspace till they get the signal to land. So what can I possibly hover about? Well well …. lemme think….. still thinking….. still thinking…. thinking……………………………… Oh, forget it! Lemme do what I do best. Lament on something that I can’t do, something that I used to be good at or some inane trait that I find starting to get fainter everyday till I can no longer remember what it was all about.
Wow… that was one really good summarization of what my ‘usual’ thoughts are all about. Off late I have been thinking (no… not the hovering around thinking, but something that makes sense) if we don’t do the usual bit that we do everyday, what would we do? Especially with someone who likes routine as much as I do, can I even imagine to do something out of the usual? I may have touched upon such a thought in the past, but maybe my trail of thoughts then was for some other destination. And now that I am in this trail, let me see if I can see it through to its rightful journey.
So what I have been thinking about is something like this – if we did everything by the book, let things come as they may and take things as they come, are we being sane and playing the game the way it should be played? Or are we just plain lazy to get off our ass and do what is right? I was recently talking to someone I care a great deal about, and the topic varied from this and that and like it usually does.. started to proceed towards trying to know what they thought of you and vice versa. The advice I got was that I need to get out of things that are really worrying me, that are ‘rutting’ me in. I couldn’t agree more! Bring it on! – the truckload of happy thoughts, the optimism, the energy, the wisdom and any other superlative adjective of an emotion there is to get me out of my misery of pessimism, inertia, disappointments, and plain old laziness. Well, somethings are better left said than done! Not that I haven’t tried it… I have tried being out of the ordinary, out of routine, ‘spontaneous’ – that’s the word. And in being so, when things haven’t gone horribly wrong, I must say that I have enjoyed it! But then what? If you were spontaneous all the time, wouldn’t that become routine, wouldn’t that become over a period of time – boring? Oh… I get it! You need to keep switching between being boring and out of ordinary. eh? Man, don’t they have simpler solutions for these kind problems anymore?!
And what I am really trying to understand here is why is it that we are not ready to be who we really are – anytime or all the time?. Why don’t we want to yell out that we are the best at what we do, even when we know that everyone else knows that and they just won’t accept it? Why can’t we tell our best friend that we hate the way they do their hair, thinking we don’t want to upset them or be rude to them? Why is it that we can’t make up our mind about the 10 different varieties of coffee at the coffee shop, especially when what we really want is just a cup of black coffee? Spontaneity is only worth it when we go for it and come back feeling all goody goody about it, not when we fall face down to the ground and have to grope in the dark for a hand to pick us up. Ya… I know that was the meanest bit of pessimism that I can probably bring on at this point in time.
I like asking questions, even when I know what kind of answer I will get. And especially when I know that I will not be satisfied with that answer. Through many of my earlier articles I have kept asking different kinds of things, not to anyone in particular, but to make sure I get out all the questions that I know I already have the answers to. So, what do you do when you find that you know the answers to the questions you never asked yourself? I swear this will be the last of the questions I ask for a long time – cross my heart and hope to die :) Or do I?
Wow… that was one really good summarization of what my ‘usual’ thoughts are all about. Off late I have been thinking (no… not the hovering around thinking, but something that makes sense) if we don’t do the usual bit that we do everyday, what would we do? Especially with someone who likes routine as much as I do, can I even imagine to do something out of the usual? I may have touched upon such a thought in the past, but maybe my trail of thoughts then was for some other destination. And now that I am in this trail, let me see if I can see it through to its rightful journey.
So what I have been thinking about is something like this – if we did everything by the book, let things come as they may and take things as they come, are we being sane and playing the game the way it should be played? Or are we just plain lazy to get off our ass and do what is right? I was recently talking to someone I care a great deal about, and the topic varied from this and that and like it usually does.. started to proceed towards trying to know what they thought of you and vice versa. The advice I got was that I need to get out of things that are really worrying me, that are ‘rutting’ me in. I couldn’t agree more! Bring it on! – the truckload of happy thoughts, the optimism, the energy, the wisdom and any other superlative adjective of an emotion there is to get me out of my misery of pessimism, inertia, disappointments, and plain old laziness. Well, somethings are better left said than done! Not that I haven’t tried it… I have tried being out of the ordinary, out of routine, ‘spontaneous’ – that’s the word. And in being so, when things haven’t gone horribly wrong, I must say that I have enjoyed it! But then what? If you were spontaneous all the time, wouldn’t that become routine, wouldn’t that become over a period of time – boring? Oh… I get it! You need to keep switching between being boring and out of ordinary. eh? Man, don’t they have simpler solutions for these kind problems anymore?!
And what I am really trying to understand here is why is it that we are not ready to be who we really are – anytime or all the time?. Why don’t we want to yell out that we are the best at what we do, even when we know that everyone else knows that and they just won’t accept it? Why can’t we tell our best friend that we hate the way they do their hair, thinking we don’t want to upset them or be rude to them? Why is it that we can’t make up our mind about the 10 different varieties of coffee at the coffee shop, especially when what we really want is just a cup of black coffee? Spontaneity is only worth it when we go for it and come back feeling all goody goody about it, not when we fall face down to the ground and have to grope in the dark for a hand to pick us up. Ya… I know that was the meanest bit of pessimism that I can probably bring on at this point in time.
I like asking questions, even when I know what kind of answer I will get. And especially when I know that I will not be satisfied with that answer. Through many of my earlier articles I have kept asking different kinds of things, not to anyone in particular, but to make sure I get out all the questions that I know I already have the answers to. So, what do you do when you find that you know the answers to the questions you never asked yourself? I swear this will be the last of the questions I ask for a long time – cross my heart and hope to die :) Or do I?
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