Are we sane?

During a visit to the mental hospital, the visitor asked the Director 'How do you determine whether or not a patient should be admitted to the hospital.' 'Well,' said the Director, 'we fill up a bathtub, and then we give a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him to empty the bathtub.'

'Oh, I understand,' said the visitor. 'A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.'

'No.' said the Director, 'A normal person would pull the drain plug.      
Well.......  Do you want a bed near the window?

Live with harmony and respect for all

I read about this massive explosion in space. The US space agency's Fermi telescope has detected this massive explosion in space which scientists say is the biggest gamma-ray burst ever detected, in a report published Thursday in Science Express. The spectacular blast, which occurred in September in the Carina constellation, produced energies ranging from 3,000 to more than five billion times that of visible light, astrophysicists said. Thank GOD that this huge gamma-ray burst occurred 12.2 billion light years away.

This only made me think how great our GOD is? I want to share this with you all so that once again our view of GOD would be expanded at the end of reading this post. Our GOD is greater than anything we can imagine or perceive. He is a huge massive GOD of grace and mercy,  that is why we are here today. Look upwards towards the sky and awe at the work of HIS hands. GOD created the Milky Way, the home of our Solar System. Our solar system is situated in the outer regions of this galaxy, the center of which is at about 28,000 light years from where you are reading this post.  Light travels 180000km/sec, so if you are traveling at the speed of light it would take you many billion years to get there. There are at least 200 billion other stars their planets, and thousands of clusters and nebulae in this galaxy and it is one of the millions of galaxies that our GOD has made.

Compared to all these sizes we are smaller than dust. But since we look at everything from our perspective and not GOD’s we feel all our situations are too big for anyone to handle. We tend to be too self centered and blow our egos to the sizes of these galaxies. Take a minute to think. Our Star, the sun is 10,000 degree Fahrenheit on the surface. GOD has placed us at the exact distance away from the sun so that we receive the right amount of light and warmth. HE who loves you so much also loves every being around you. So let’s show love and concern for all around us and live with harmony and respect for all.

Think abt it

All can say how many seeds are there in a mango, but can anyone say how many mangoes are there in a seed?

Vanity

Easter bunnies and eggs made of chocolate sits welcoming in a decorated basket on the table on an Easter morning. A child runs up to the table and picks up one of the chocolate eggs and takes his biggest bite. Once he eats the piece of chocolate he finds nothing in the egg. Many a time life is like this. Everything thing seems so hollow and vain. You can have all the money yet have no peace of mind. You can have a hundred people on your address book yet you are lonely inside. Everything you see around feels like vanity. Don’t take this as a statement of pessimism. Every one sooner or later introspective will bring to mind a sense of futility. What do we do in times like these?

Here's an important lesson that I learnt. Past negative happenings that cannot be changed are a definite reality that must be squarely faced. These are the might-have-beens and could-have-beens of our lives. We all tend to embrace fantasizing about possibilities that never happened. This type of mythical thinking is an ego defense to loss or perceived loss. We project our defeats onto unfavorable circumstances, acts of nature, or people who we perceived blocked our way on the road to success.

Looking at the big puddle in your driveway you wish it weren't raining. Yet, no matter how much you wish it were gone, it isn't. A wish is no more than a thought. It has no power to bring about a change in reality unless it is acted upon. And even then there are circumstances in which no wish, desire, dream, or faith can change the situation. However, this doesn't mean you should necessarily stop wishing or hoping. Here a balance is needed: wishing, remains a thought unless it is brought into reality.

Change and accept situations or we're bound for a life of unhappiness and regret. Keep changing, keep flowing like the river. The problem is only with those who become ponds. To be a pond is to commit suicide, because there is no growth anymore, no new spaces, no new experiences, no new skies, just the same old pond becoming muddier. Become a seeker changing from this muddy pond to a flowing river. It does not matter when you reach the ocean, but the beginning is the end.

Think abt it

Use every letter you write, every conversation you have, every meeting you attend, to express your fundamental beliefs and dreams. Affirm to others the vision of the world you want. You are a free, immensely powerful source of life and goodness. Affirm it. Spread it. Radiate it. Think day and night about it and you will see a miracle happen: the greatness of our own life. --Robert Muller

Around the World in One-Two hours

We paid our yearly visit to the Global Village yesterday. We went into the many pavilions set up by the different countries, taking us into the glimpses of the beauty and uniqueness of the heritage of each. In each of these pavilions, one will find the merchandise and food items related to the country. One of the major attractions this year was the Venice like Canal which was worth taking a boat ride. The weather was very pleasant and the people all went around with harmony and joy.

10 things GOD won't ask on 'that day'

4. GOD won’t ask what your job title was. He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of your ability.

Am I with a right partner? (From Sudha)

During a seminar, a woman asked," How do I know if I am with the right person?" the author then noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so he said, "It depends. Is that your partner?" In all seriousness, she answered, "How do you know?" Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it's weighing on your mind replied the author. Here's the answer.

Every relationship has a cycle... In the beginning; you fall in love with your partner. You anticipate their calls, want their touch, and like their idiosyncrasies. Falling in love wasn't hard. In fact, it was a completely natural and spontaneous experience. You didn't have to DO anything. That's why it's called "falling" in love.

People in love sometimes say, "I was swept of my feet." Picture the expression. It implies that you were just standing there; doing nothing, and then something happened TO YOU. Falling in love is a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few months or years of being together, the euphoria of love fades. It's a natural cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts. The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship; you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry subsequent stage. At this point, you and/or your partner might start asking, "Am I with the right person?" And as you reflect on the euphoria of the love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when relationships breakdown.

The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the person you found.

People blame their partners for their unhappiness and look outside for fulfillment. Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is the most common. But sometimes people turn to work, a hobby, a friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this dilemma does NOT lie outside your relationship, it lies within it. I'm not saying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else. You could. And TEMPORARILY you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a few years later. Because (listen carefully to this): The key to succeeding in a relationship is not finding the right person; it's learning to love the person you found.

SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. You have to work on it day in and day out. It takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it demands WISDOM. You have to know WHAT TO DO to make it work. Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things you can do (with or without your partner). Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are also laws for relationships. If you know and apply these laws, the results are predictable. Love is therefore a "decision". Not just a feeling.

Remember this always: God determines who walks into your life. It is up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let GO!!!

Solitude

Every time I look at my mother in front of the TV, I wonder how many elderly people are sitting in front of the TV as if it were the last hope of salvation from this lonely world. Their children all grown up and busy with their work and families, hardly finding time to talk to them. The brief moments in the day that their son/daughter sits to chat, they do not have the patience to listen to the old stories or the worry of sickness and pain that their mother or father has to share and get a comforting word. Slowly they become a burden to their children. Forgotten is the love, the tender care, the sacrifices they endured.
They slide into the world of loneliness. I am talking about the loneliness that we do not choose, the loneliness that we are obliged to accept - it is as if we no longer belonged to the human race.

10 things GOD won't ask on 'that day'

3. God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet, He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.

Like a SALMON

Gleaming as it crashes against boulders along the banks, the river cascades towards the sea. The current grabs, pushes and tugs at leaves and logs carrying them along for the ride. Gravity pulls the water and the river pulls the rest downwards.

Suddenly a silver missile breaks the surface and darts upstream and then another, oblivious to the swirling opposition, the shining salmon swims upstream. They must go upstream and nothing must stop them from reaching their goal.

The current of the society’s flowing fast and furious, pulling downwards everything on its way. It would be easy to stay afloat and drift along, but God calls us to swim upstream against the flow. It may not be easy but it will be right.

10 things GOD won't ask on 'that day'

2. God won’t ask how big your house was, He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your house

10 things GOD won't ask you on 'that day'

1. God won’t ask what kind of car you drove. He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation

Change Anyway

Already a month advanced into the new year. Time to review those new year resolutions and checking to see if you are on track. My resolution this year was generally to 'Change';

Change?? whatever
But start slowly, because direction is more important than speed.
Sit in another chair, on the other side of the table.
Later on, change tables.
When you go out, try to walk on the other side of the street. Then change your route, walk calmly down other streets, observing closely the places you pass by.
Take other buses. 
Change your wardrobe for a while; give away your old shoes and try to walk barefoot for a few days - even if only at home.
Takeoff a whole afternoon to stroll about freely, listening to the birds or the noise of the cars.
Open and shut the drawers and doors with your left hand.
Sleep on the other side of the bed.
Watch other TV programs, read other books, 
Sleep until later. Go to bed earlier.
Learn a new word a day.
Eat a little less, eat a little more, eat differently; choose new seasonings, new colors, things you have never dared to experiment.

The list goes on…

But what matters most is change.
Only what is dead does not change - and we are alive.