Self Help & Misc. Instresting Stuff.

[sumitalwar]

What is more important? To value what you have or to value what you do not have? Think about it for a moment. Gratitude is valuing what you have and ambition is valuing what you may or may not have in the future. If you drown the voice of gratitude in the roars of your ambitions, all you will be left with is a great deal of noise and no music. Why? Because often ambitions are endless, they are in multiple, they are not cohesive whereas gratitude is the collective response to everything life has given you, everything you already have.

Long, long ago on an island lived a group of emotions, both positive and negative. Their names were Pleasure, Sorrow, Grief, Insecurity, Anger, Fear, Compassion, Humility and Gratitude. That was not all though. The island was inhabited by other entities that governed a higher place in the society. They were Ego, Wealth and Time. Love was a resident too but it mostly lived with others, it never held onto anything, it owned nothing, it was mellow, kind and soft. All of the above were tenants at the houses of humans on that island.

With glaciers melting and the sea level rising, the island was gradually sinking. It was clear it would disappear before long. The residents called an urgent meeting and concluded it was time to leave the island. They decided everyone was responsible for making their own arrangements. They got to the task. Love thought differently though. It did not want to abandon an island that sheltered it for so long. It wanted to wait till the last moment, it was hopeful some might stay back. For Love, it was not a matter of trade or give-and-take, it was more a question of integrity and promise. The island was fast losing its dry ground to the obdurate ocean.

The humans were the first to leave the island. Some of the negative emotions like Sorrow, Grief and Insecurity left with them. Love had no boat of its own. It looked expectantly at the other emotions on the ship and pleaded, “Please, can I board your ship?” Humans did not even respond. They were too busy fighting among themselves.
“We’ve latched onto the humans ourselves,” the emotions spoke in unison, “we’ve no place for you here.”

Just then, Love saw Ego sailing his boat made of steel. It looked rather strong, heavy but sturdy.
“Can I join you?” Love said, “I take very little space.”
“No!” Ego yelled, “Anger and Fear have taken the other two places I’ve on my boat. Besides, I have only met you occasionally whereas they are my bosom friends. I can’t let them go.”
Water was rising fast and at a short distance Love saw a magnificent yacht. It was owned by Wealth.
“Can you please let me on board?” said Love.
“I’m sorry but I already have Pleasure,” Wealth responded, “I can’t part company with him.”
Love looked at the dismal state around. Just then a voice called out, “Come, Love, come. Hop in.”

As soon as Love got on the boat, it saw Compassion, Humility and Gratitude exuding brilliant radiance. They were on board already. Love thanked them.
“Oh, it’s not our boat,” Gratitude said, “you need not thank us.”
“Whose boat is it then?” Love was surprised. “Who has saved me?”
“It belongs to Time,” Compassion answered.
“But, I was worthless in everyone else’s eyes. Why has Time saved my life?”
“You see, Love,” spoke Humility, “Time alone knows your real value.”

If you reread and reflect on it, this anecdote has the wisdom of life. In our fast-paced world, you can be so focused on getting to the destination, in crossing the finish line, that priceless things appear worthless. The worth of anything is not determined from its price but value.

Imagine you sacrificed your health and your family to make ten million dollars faster than anybody you know. The price of that sacrifice maybe ten million but what about the value of that ten million? Is it worth the price, the sacrifice? When gratitude fuels your ambition, it becomes an effortless journey but when ambition drives gratitude, a sense of lacking never really leaves you. When you have compassion, gratitude, humility, what you have is love indeed. These three are the primary constituents of love. Every other variation may just be an attachment or an obsession.

It is when we lose what we have, when Time separates us from what we take for granted, do we really understand the value of what we had.


source--- the internet

 

[Catch22]

Just great!!! Thanks for posting.

You guys have imbibed so much more , a little may have rubbed off on the likes of me.. And yes ,It is very encouraging to read positive remarks from you.Thanks a lot DSM !!

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http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bezos_a_life_lesson_from_a_volunteer_firefighter

Back in New York, I am the head of development for a non-profit called Robin Hood. When I'm not fighting poverty, I'm fighting fires as the assistant captain of a volunteer fire company. Now in our town, where the volunteers supplement a highly skilled career staff, you have to get to the fire scene pretty early to get in on any action.

I remember my first fire. I was the second volunteer on the scene, so there was a pretty good chance I was going to get in. But still it was a real footrace against the other volunteers to get to the captain in charge to find out what our assignments would be. When I found the captain, he was having a very engaging conversation with the homeowner, who was surely having one of the worst days of her life. Here it was, the middle of the night, she was standing outside in the pouring rain, under an umbrella, in her pajamas, barefoot, while her house was in flames.

The other volunteer who had arrived just before me -- let's call him Lex Luther -- (Laughter) got to the captain first and was asked to go inside and save the homeowner's dog. The dog! I was stunned with jealousy. Here was some lawyer or money manager who, for the rest of his life, gets to tell people that he went into a burning building to save a living creature, just because he beat me by five seconds. Well, I was next. The captain waved me over. He said, "Bezos, I need you to go into the house. I need you to go upstairs, past the fire, and I need you to get this woman a pair of shoes." (Laughter) I swear. So, not exactly what I was hoping for, but off I went -- up the stairs, down the hall, past the 'real' firefighters, who were pretty much done putting out the fire at this point, into the master bedroom to get a pair of shoes.

Now I know what you're thinking, but I'm no hero. (Laughter) I carried my payload back downstairs where I met my nemesis and the precious dog by the front door. We took our treasures outside to the homeowner, where, not surprisingly, his received much more attention than did mine. A few weeks later, the department received a letter from the homeowner thanking us for the valiant effort displayed in saving her home. The act of kindness she noted above all others: someone had even gotten her a pair of shoes.

(Laughter)

In both my vocation at Robin Hood and my avocation as a volunteer firefighter, I am witness to acts of generosity and kindness on a monumental scale, but I'm also witness to acts of grace and courage on an individual basis. And you know what I've learned? They all matter. So as I look around this room at people who either have achieved, or are on their way to achieving, remarkable levels of success, I would offer this reminder: don't wait. Don't wait until you make your first million to make a difference in somebody's life. If you have something to give, give it now. Serve food at a soup kitchen. Clean up a neighborhood park. Be a mentor.

Not every day is going to offer us a chance to save somebody's life, but every day offers us an opportunity to affect one. So get in the game. Save the shoes.

Thank you. (Applause)
Source -ted talks.com

 

[Catch22]

‘Get Present to your Presence’
From the beginning of time women have been multi-tasking. We built the houses, tended the livestock, cooked the meals, gave birth and raised the children, kept the fire burning, made the clothes, repaired the hut - never mind washing the clothes by hand down at the riverbank. If we were to go back in time and ask Ms. Cavewoman was she 'stressed or busy' she would probably grunt and walk away.
In the 21st Century we have become overly attached to our busyness. If you're not busy or stressed then you must not be doing enough. Your job must not be that important, you are probably not taking care of your family properly, your health must be suffering and we won't even discuss the state of your relationship. Busy and Stressed have somehow become inextricably linked with Success.
In order to be really successful in 21st Century terms we need to let go of these antiquated attitudes. Think of it as carrying a wagon behind you, the more that is in the wagon is the harder it is to pull. The harder it is to pull is the more tired you will be and the less distance you will cover.
We are luckier than women at any other time before us. Yes we have a lot to do but we have more help, information and labor-saving devices than anyone could ever have imagined possible. We can do our grocery shopping from the comfort of our living room and have it delivered to our door. We can put food in a slowcooker before leaving for work and come home to the perfect meal. Many of us have partners who are willing to participate in the running of the house in a way that other generations didn't.
Yet so many of us refuse to Let Go. We want to be martyrs. We almost enjoy saying repeatedly to anyone who will listen 'I'm exhausted'. What is that all about? You owe it to yourself to be calm, strong, and efficient and the only way to do that is to take care of yourself.
If you have a piece of equipment that is very important to you chances are you take good care of it. You have it serviced, if it breaks down you get it repaired, you value you it and know that to get the best out of it you have to be kind to it. Why do we not apply that same logic to ourselves?
Take a look at your life. When was the last time you put a Do Not Disturb sign on the bathroom door and climbed into the bath for a long soak? When was the last time you sat on a park bench for even ten minutes and did absolutely nothing. No searching through your emails on the phone. No playing games. Nothing. Looked at the sky, or as the saying used to be 'stop and smell the roses'. You owe it to yourself and the ones you love.
People remember the moments that you create with them not the things that you give them.
'Get present to your presence'. Take a long hard look at yourself. Is there a sparkle in your eye? Is there still a slight skip in your step? How often do you find yourself laughing at absolutely nothing? If you met yourself at a party would you think 'Oh I'd like to be friends with her!' If you don't like the answers to those questions then maybe it's time for a rethink. Time to look and see what you can do, or stop doing that will take you back to being that person. It's in your hands. No one else can do it and funnily enough most of it isn't about things you need to do it is more about things you need to let go of thinking you need to do.
TOT (TURN OFF TIME)
Turn off your phone and or tablet for 30 minutes per day. You can divide the time if you'd like but nothing smaller than ten minutes each time and it must be off. Not on silent
USE YOUR COMMUTE TIME AS YOU TIME
Read a frivolous book, crochet a scarf. Look at holiday brochures. Meditate. Do NOT plan your next work day. Do NOT worry about the kids’ homework. Do NOT read celebrity gossip stories and worry why you’re not managing like Gwynnie.
Gillian Fuller in Women

Relax, Breathe & #LetGo - Find Your Sanctuary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltVPj6-5xpo

 

[DSM]

Two stories of Karma and Dharma :

https://www.quora.com

One day Krishna and Arjuna were taking their usual walk, when they came across an old Brahmin begging, taking pity on his condition, Arjuna gave him a bag of gold coins. The man was overjoyed and went home. On his way he was robbed by a thief in the forest. He cursed his fate and the next day set off to beg again.

Arjuna and Krishna saw again and when Arjuna got to know of his story, once again took pity and gave him a large diamond. The man took it home and kept it in an old pot which had been unused for many years in order to keep it safe and went to sleep. The next morning before he could wake up, his wife went to fetch water from the river and on her way back, she slipped and her pot broke. She immediately remembered the pot at home which lay unused and brought it to fill it with water. Just as she dipped the pot in to the river the diamond escaped the pot and went in to the river. When she returned home the Brahmin was desperately searching the house for the pot and when he saw it in his wife's hands, he got to know what had happened. Dejected with what had happened, he once again left home to go begging.

Once again Arjuna and Krishna saw him and when Arjuna heard of the unfortunate incident that had happened, he told Krishna ," I don't think this man is destined to be blessed at all, I don’t think I can help him anymore". Krishna then gave the man two pennies and the man took them and walked away. Arjuna then asked Krishna," My Lord, if gold coins and diamond could not change his condition, what good can two pennies do to him?". Krishna smiled and replied, "let us see".

As the man walked home he was cursing his fate when he saw a fish that had just been caught by a fisherman and was struggling for its life, he took pity on it and thought to himself," these two pennies cannot fetch me food anyway, let me at least save the life of this creature" and he purchased the fish and was about to throw it in the river when he saw that the breathlessness of the fish was caused due to some large obstruction in its mouth and when removed it , it was the very diamond he had lost in the river. He was overjoyed and started shouting "Look what I found! Look what I found". At this very time the thief that had robbed him in the forest was passing by and heard the Brahmins shouts, he recognized the Brahmin and thought that the Brahmin too recognized him and was thus shouting. Fearing that the Brahmin may take him to be executed, he rushed to him and begged for his forgiveness and returned all the gold coins he had stolen from him. The Brahmin was happy and walked away joyfully with all his wealth. He went straight to Arjuna to narrate the turn of events and thanked him for all his help and went away.

Arjuna then asked Krishna,"My Lord, how is it that my gold and diamond could not help him but your meager two pennies did?. Krishna replied," when he had the gold and diamonds he was only thinking of himself and his needs, but when he had the two pennies he put the needs of another creature before his and so I took care of his needs. The truth is O Arjuna when you think of the pain and needs of others and work to help them, you are doing God's work and hence God Himself takes care of you"

*******************

A hunter during his rounds in the forest accosted unfortunately a ferocious tiger, who is not known for kindness or nonviolence! Obviously, the tiger badly needed its dinner and was determined to make a mince-meat of the hunter. The man ran in fright, and the only thought he had then was to somehow survive! He ran and ran, almost falling dead by fatigue. As luck (for him) would have it, he found a huge tree and started climbing. The tiger was not to be left behind and the hunter barely managed to climb finding a big branch as refuge. The tiger, no doubt ,was very disappointed in missing its prey by a hair's breath-so to say! It persisted and did not leave the tree. Watchful, hungry and angry, it came round and round the tree-fretting, fuming and cursing. It threatened the man, vowing to get him the moment he came down. The hunter ,exhausted that he was, clung to the branches . Soon, he heard a kind(but gruff) voice imploring him to rest without fear. There it was, a big Bear seated comfortably on the branch. He was scared to his bones but the bear assured him that he was its guest and have no fear! Very soon, the hunter was sound asleep on the fur-body of his bear-host! The tiger, waiting on the ground, seized this as its moment of triumph and pleaded with the bear: ''My dear friend, don’t you realise that we are both animals. The human being is our common enemy and hunts us relentlessly. It's but fair that we join together and get rid of this menace! All that you need to do is to push him down. I'll take care of the rest. He's my dinner, you are my friend and, in future too, you need not fear from me! Please understand, be wise and give the sleeping man to me!''

But the bear said: “My dear friend, you are wrong. It's not Dharma to refuse a life who had sought refuge in you, Whoever he might be. Even an enemy cannot be abandoned if he surrenders to you. I cannot oblige you. It's best you leave us in peace and search for some other prey! The tiger was angry and muttered ''You fool, you fool'' but continued its vigil on the ground.

Time passed and the man woke up rested and free from fear that gripped him earlier. The bear was tired too and started to sleep while the man kept awake. The tiger, persistent in its attempts to get the better of the two, found now a new opportunity. It called the man and implored: “My dear friend, I'm no enemy of yours nor a friend of bear. All I need is my dinner. If you provide me that, I shall go home and you are free too.” The man was surprised and asked how he can help tiger! The clever tiger said:

''All you need to do is to give a slight nudge to the sleeping bear. I shall have him for my dinner. After all, he is your enemy too, in a bad mood! Better protect yourself and push him down. The ungrateful hunter indeed did so in a selfish manner but the alert bear caught another branch and perched itself safely from the tiger! The tiger -true to the adage ''Never say die'' -now turned to the bear and pleaded again; Did I not warn how ungrateful human beings are? At least now, listen to me, teach the man a lesson by pushing him down!''

The bear refused, saying that you don’t do things that are wrong, just because others do such things. You stick to what you know as Dharma, come what may! Thus admonished and tired of waiting, the tiger at last had to leave without his prey! Thus a man was saved by a bear who stood by Dharma.

 

[sumitalwar]

A story of faith and surrender, of destiny and divinity. This incident happened when legions of troops from all over the country were being mobilized to fight one of the bloodiest battles in the history of India. The great war of Mahabharata between the Kauravas and Pandavas that would last eighteen days.

The battlefield of Kurukshetra was being prepared to facilitate movement of mammoth armies with large cavalries. Areas were marked for rival camps. Huge bundles of wood were organized to cook food for a sea of army. Trees were being felled by elephants to clear the ground. On one such tree lived a sparrow, a mother of four young ones. As the tree was knocked down, her nest landed on the ground along with her offspring — too young to fly — miraculously unharmed.

The vulnerable and frightened sparrow looked around for help. Just then she saw Krishna scanning the field with Arjuna. They were there to physically examine the battleground and devise a winning military strategy before the onset of the war. She flapped her tiny wings with all her might to reach Krishna’s chariot.
“Please save my children, O Krishna,” the sparrow pleaded. “They will be crushed tomorrow when this battle starts.”
“I hear you,” said He, the omniscient one, “but, I can’t interfere with the laws of Nature.”

“All I know is that you are my savior, O Lord God. I rest my children’s fate in your hands. You can kill them or you can save them, it’s up to you now.”
“The wheel of Time moves indiscriminately,” Krishna spoke like an ordinary man implying that there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“I don’t know any philosophy,” the sparrow said with faith and reverence. “You are the wheel of Time. That’s all I know. I surrender to thee.”
“Stock food for three weeks in your nest then.”

Unaware of the conversation, Arjuna was trying to shoo away the sparrow when Krishna smiled at the bird. She fluttered her wings a few times in obeisance and flew back to her nest.

Two days later, just before the conchs were blared to announce the commencement of the battle, he asked Arjuna for his bow and an arrow. Arjuna was startled because Krishna had vowed to not lift any weapon in the war. Besides, Arjuna believed that he was the best archer out there.
“Order me, Lord,” he said with conviction, “nothing is impenetrable for my arrows.”

Quietly taking the bow from Arjuna, he took aim at an elephant. But, instead of bringing the animal down, the arrow hit the bell around its neck and sparks flew off.

Arjuna couldn’t contain his chuckle seeing that Krishna missed an easy mark.
“Should I?” he offered.
Again ignoring his reaction and question, Krishna gave him back the bow and said that no further action was necessary.
“But, why did you shoot the elephant, Keshav?” Arjuna asked.
“Because this was the elephant that had knocked down the tree sheltering that sparrow’s nest.”
“Which sparrow?” Arjuna exclaimed. “Plus, the elephant is unhurt and alive! Only the bell is gone!”

Dismissing his questions, Krishna instructed him to blow his conch.
The war began and numerous lives were lost over the next eighteen days. Pandavas won in the end. Once again, Krishna took Arjuna with him to navigate through the ruddy field. Many corpses still lay there awaiting their funeral. The battleground was littered with severed limbs and heads, lifeless steeds and elephants.

Krishna stopped at a certain spot and looked down thoughtfully at an elephant-bell.
“Arjuna,” he said, “will you lift this bell for me and put it aside?”
The instruction, though simple, made little sense to Arjuna. After all, in the vast field where plenty of other things needed clearing, why would Krishna ask him to move an insignificant piece of metal out of the way? He looked at him questioningly.

“Yes, this bell,” Krishna reiterated. “It’s the same bell that had come off the elephant’s neck I had shot at.”
Arjuna bent down to move the heavy bell without another question. As soon as he lifted it though, his world changed forever.

One, two, three, four and five. Four young birds flew out one after another followed by a sparrow. The mother bird swirled in circles around Krishna, circumambulating him in great joy. The one bell Krishna had cleaved eighteen days ago protected the entire family.

“Forgive me, O Krishna,” said Arjuna. “Seeing you in human body and behaving like ordinary mortals, I had forgotten who you really were.”
I’ve always held that faith doesn’t mean life will go according to you. Instead, it means that you learn to get along with life. You recognize that life must run its own course. That your individual life is a tiny, albeit an integral, part of a grand play of nature. An immensely grand play, actually.
Krishna had left the sparrow in the battlefield for it was destined to be there. The bird might have wished to be at a safer place with her children. It might have argued Krishna to take it with him. She might have begged that three weeks of food be provided to her. It didn’t do any of those. She simply followed the instruction and left it in the hands of the one she believed in. She didn’t forego the effort expected from her.

Many people see faith or surrender as a way to have their dreams come true. They believe that they’ll pray to some god and their wishes will be granted. This is not how nature operates. It can’t afford to, for we often wish for the wrong things. We keep desiring certain outcomes without realizing or understanding the cost of those desires. We forget that our choices are intricately linked to our fate, they shape our destiny. In wanting the “good” stuff alone, we only see what we want to see.

Rather than aiming to be the person who could keep his or her partner happy, we wish for a person who will keep us happy, for example. And as we change, things that made us happy earlier no longer do so. We then wish for another person, a better partner or something like that. Rather than being content with what we have, we crave for more things. To acquire more things, we work harder, often at the cost of our health and relationships. The quality of living may go up but the quality of life stands compromised and then we wonder that how come more things are not making us happy.
Yes, you can grow a seedless melon but not a skinless one. Nature puts a protective covering on everything. Removing that layer can be sometimes tedious or messy, but without it the fruit will perish before it even ripens. Some part of our life will inevitably go in laboring to peel the coconut before we can enjoy the tender inside.

Faith is not a tug-of-war between your desires and His grace (both of which are endless) hoping that one day you’ll lure God into playing unfair. On the contrary, it is letting go. It is raising your hands in surrender without giving up on your action. Faith is knowing that not every day out there will be sunny. And that’s okay. It is realizing that dawn will follow dusk. Faith is awareness that a cloudy sky doesn’t mean the sun has set.
To work on everything that you can and to let go off everything beyond your control is faith in a nutshell. Such faith, made up of action and surrender, is the most potent antidote of all fears.

As Blaise Pascal said most beautifully, “The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a thousand things.”
Faith is heart’s wisdom. It’s what your mind can’t grasp but your heart knows. Give it a place in your life and you’ll fly with a thousand wings. Higher and swifter. Across the seas, beyond the skies.


SOURCE -- THE INTERNET

 

[Catch22]

Source-
http://bruni.blogs.nytimes.com/
Quality time-
EVERY summer for many years now, my family has kept to our ritual. All 20 of us — my siblings, my dad, our better halves, my nieces and nephews — find a beach house big enough to fit the whole unruly clan. We journey to it from our different states and time zones. We tensely divvy up the bedrooms, trying to remember who fared poorly or well on the previous trip. And we fling ourselves at one another for seven days and seven nights.

That’s right: a solid week. It’s that part of the ritual that mystifies many of my friends, who endorse family closeness but think that there can be entirely too much of it. Wouldn’t a long weekend suffice? And wouldn’t it ward off a few spats and simplify the planning?

The answer to the second question is yes, but to the first, an emphatic no.

I used to think that shorter would be better, and in the past, I arrived for these beach vacations a day late or fled two days early, telling myself that I had to when in truth I also wanted to — because I crave my space and my quiet, and because I weary of marinating in sunscreen and discovering sand in strange places. But in recent years, I’ve showed up at the start and stayed for the duration, and I’ve noticed a difference.

I used to think that shorter would be better, and in the past, I arrived for these beach vacations a day late or fled two days early, telling myself that I had to when in truth I also wanted to — because I crave my space and my quiet, and because I weary of marinating in sunscreen and discovering sand in strange places. But in recent years, I’ve showed up at the start and stayed for the duration, and I’ve noticed a difference

With a more expansive stretch, there’s a better chance that I’ll be around at the precise, random moment when one of my nephews drops his guard and solicits my advice about something private. Or when one of my nieces will need someone other than her parents to tell her that she’s smart and beautiful. Or when one of my siblings will flash back on an incident from our childhood that makes us laugh uncontrollably, and suddenly the cozy, happy chain of our love is cinched that much tighter.

There’s simply no real substitute for physical presence.

We delude ourselves when we say otherwise, when we invoke and venerate “quality time,” a shopworn phrase with a debatable promise: that we can plan instances of extraordinary candor, plot episodes of exquisite tenderness, engineer intimacy in an appointed hour.

We can try. We can cordon off one meal each day or two afternoons each week and weed them of distractions. We can choose a setting that encourages relaxation and uplift. We can fill it with totems and frippery — a balloon for a child, sparkling wine for a spouse — that signal celebration and create a sense of the sacred.

And there’s no doubt that the degree of attentiveness that we bring to an occasion ennobles or demeans it. Better to spend 15 focused, responsive minutes than 30 utterly distracted ones.

But people tend not to operate on cue. At least our moods and emotions don’t. We reach out for help at odd points; we bloom at unpredictable ones. The surest way to see the brightest colors, or the darkest ones, is to be watching and waiting and ready for themThey’ll be lucky: Many people aren’t privileged enough to exercise such discretion. My family is lucky, too. We have the means to get away.

But we’re also dedicated to it, and we’ve determined that Thanksgiving Day isn’t ample, that Christmas Eve passes too quickly, and that if each of us really means to be central in the others’ lives, we must make an investment, the biggest components of which are minutes, hours, days. As soon as our beach week this summer was done, we huddled over our calendars and traded scores of emails to figure out which week next summer we could all set aside. It wasn’t easy. But it was essential.

Couples move in together not just because it’s economically prudent. They understand, consciously or instinctively, that sustained proximity is the best route to the soul of someone; that unscripted gestures at unexpected junctures yield sweeter rewards than scripted ones on date night; that the “I love you” that counts most isn’t whispered with great ceremony on a hilltop in Tuscany. No, it slips out casually, spontaneously, in the produce section or over the dishes, amid the drudgery and detritus of their routines. That’s also when the truest confessions are made, when hurt is at its rawest and tenderness at its purest.

I know how my 80-year-old father feels about dying, religion and God not because I scheduled a discrete encounter to discuss all of that with him. I know because I happened to be in the passenger seat of his car when such thoughts were on his mind and when, for whatever unforeseeable reason, he felt comfortable articulating them.

And I know what he appreciates and regrets most about his past because I was not only punctual for this summer’s vacation, but also traveled there with him, to fatten our visit, and he was uncharacteristically ruminative on that flight

It was over lunch at the beach house one day that my oldest nephew spoke with unusual candor, and at unusual length, about his expectations for college, his experiences in high school — stuff that I’d grilled him about previously, never harvesting the generous answers that he volunteered during that particular meal.

It was on a run the next morning that my oldest niece described, as she’d never done for me before, the joys, frustrations and contours of her relationships with her parents, her two sisters and her brother. Why this information tumbled out of her then, with pelicans overheard and sweat slicking our foreheads, I can’t tell you. But I can tell you that I’m even more tightly bonded with her now, and that’s not because of some orchestrated, contrived effort to plumb her emotions. It’s because I was present. It’s because I was there.

 

[Catch22]

Source- http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/jan/20/big-picture-homeless-lee-jefferies

Jeffries, an amateur photographer and accountant by profession, began photographing homeless people in 2008. Visiting London from his home in Bolton, he spotted a young girl living rough on Leicester Square. He tried to steal a shot from a distance, but she spotted him, so he went over and struck up a conversation. Since then, he’s photographed people in downtown Los Angeles, New York, Rome and Manchester.

Like strokes of a painter’s brush, every pore, wrinkle, scar and hair is accentuated in the faces of these homeless people. Some have kind, crinkly eyes, others seem wary, but most, with their weathered skin and intense gazes, tell of the hardship of life on the streets perhaps better than the subjects could themselves. →

Lee Jeffries’s portraits may be uncompromising, but they are also beautiful. A woman with exquisite cheekbones; an elderly man who resembles a medieval sage.

The images are highly stylised, and artistically enhanced afterwards. Jeffries lightens faces and deepens the shadows created by folds of skin. It seems as if they were shot in a studio, when in reality Jeffries had just a few moments to capture them in natural light, out on the street, before they got bored or changed their minds. A small reflector, held beneath their chins, is the only accessory he uses

 

[DSM]

It's the weekend. So some light reading :

Ek Train Main Bahut Bheed Thi, Bathroom Ke Paas Ek Bori Rakhi Thi, Ek Aadmi Us Bori Par Jaise Hi Baithne Laga To Ek Lady Boli :

“Us Par Mat Baitho, Ande Foot Jaayenge.”

Aadmi Bola: “Itni Bheed Main Aise Bori Mein ande Lekar Kyun Chalti Ho?”

Lady Boli: “Abe yede, Bori Main To Keel Hai, Ande Tere Foot Jaayenge“

:lol::lol::lol:

***

Precision in grammar is often important in English language. Compare these sentences :

Let's eat, grandma.

And

Let's eat grandma.

:lol::lol::lol:

***

And finally :

Came across this awesome quote : "Change is never painful, only your resistance to change is painful." — Buddhist Proverb

***

Have a great weekend guys.

 

[princy01]

Very very nice thread

 

[DSM]