Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I Still Believe in Miracles


They’re everywhere,
And they happen all the time.
They spring from the deep well of the heart,
Maybe uttered in whisper, lost in the noise of the world.
Maybe flowing with a teardrop, kissed away by the wind.
Or contained in a deep breath of expectation.
Unnoticed. Unrecognized. Unseen.
And yet… Unfolding.
Let’s find the miracles. :)

Saturday, July 28, 2012

When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple – Jenny Joseph



WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Just sharing! Love the message!
[Found this here.]

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Finding Our Dreams


Are your dreams truly yours?
Of course, you might say. After all, they’re your dreams. Not necessarily so.
Not all of our dreams are truly ours. How many of us have dreamed of being a doctor when we were young just because our parents have been telling us since childhood that we will be a doctor in the future, or a teacher, or a lawyer? How many of us have dreamed of living abroad because most of the people we know have already migrated there and are enjoying the so called greener pasture?
Being a doctor, being a teacher, being a lawyer, or living in a foreign country are valid dreams. I have dreamed of being a teacher (in fact, my bachelor’s degree is Education), and working abroad is also one of my dreams. However, there’s a certain difference between our true dreams and what we perceive as our dreams.
Our true dreams are ours, and ours alone. It’s something that is not dependent on the people and the world around us, something that we desire regardless of what people say, something that we’re willing to defend against the world. It can originate and spark from the smallest encounter and from the most unexpected circumstance – inspired by someone we’ve met or something we’ve read about – and its real significance to our life, only us can understand and measure fully well. Sometimes, we want it so badly that our desire is almost irrational. It’s something that we covet and something that we can be selfish about without feeling guilty.
We all have a lot of dreams. They change as we change and grow – some disappear and some remain. But which of our dreams have the characteristics mentioned above? Which of our dreams are we most passionate about? Which of our dreams have the capacity to make us smile, make our heart beat faster, and make us all excited and restless, just by thinking about them? They’re our true dreams. These are the dreams that are worth pursuing, because these are the dreams that originate from the deepest corners of our hearts.
All our dreams, we need to examine and re-examine to determine whether they’re really OUR dreams.
Before we can start fulfilling our dreams, we need to find them first. We need to know whether what we’re pursuing is a dream that’s truly ours. Once we know this, we can be sure that we’re pursuing something worthy, something meaningful, something we can truly devote our entire life to.
Have you found your one true dream (they can also be two or more)? If you have, then

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Classroom


The classroom should be a safe place for making mistakes. It should not promote an atmosphere that hails only what is correct. Because in the real world, whether we like it or not, we’ll make mistakes. We’ll fail. But what’s important is how we handle those mistakes and failures. The classroom should be an environment that will train us not how to avoid mistakes, but how to handle them gracefully.
The classroom should also be a place that respects and promotes individual differences. It should be an environment where students learn that it’s okay to have an opinion different from the opinion of everybody else. Because in the real world, it doesn’t matter what our stand is – what’s important is that we know why we are taking that stand, and that we know we can defend that stand to the very end.
And lastly, the classroom should be a place that recognizes the fact that the world is not black and white – there are gray areas. That the answer to a question is not always a solid yes or no – there will always be “buts”. That the best route is not always a straight line – there is learning in every curve and detour that we take. And that it’s not always the answer that matters, but the process by which we arrive at that answer.
Real life is a playing field that demands a lot from its players. Let the classroom serve as the training ground.
[Also posted in my Facebook page.]

Thursday, July 5, 2012

To Be Right


Not all customers are right. 
And not all bosses are right. 

They're also humans 
- just like you and me.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Let’s All Sing!


Do you sing? I’m not asking whether you’re a singer, or whether you have a good voice – I simply want to know if you sing. You know, the kind of singing that you do when you’re inside the bathroom, or while you’re accomplishing your household chores, or those times when you simply hum a tune in your head while you’re doing something else.
People who sing are generally happier about life.
There are many individuals who attest to the fact that singing is a therapy. And why not, singing helps a person let go of his inhibitions. It makes a person accept things more easily (it takes courage and confidence to sing even though you know you don’t have a good voice, mind you). And it makes a person appreciate beauty even more.
Remember the “last song syndrome”? You hear a song in the morning and it’s got so retained in your head that you find yourself singing that song the whole day – until all your friends tell you to shut up! Or, remember the term “song stealer”? You hear someone singing a song, then you find yourself singing that song, too. Good thing there’s no law against singing a song that’s not originally ours, or many of us will go to jail. :p
We sing because we find a song beautiful, and maybe subconsciously we want to preserve that beauty, so we sing the song over and over and over and over again.
People who sing are generally happier about life.
There’s something in a song that is charming, something that’s divine, something that touches and reaches the soul. In fact, a song can make anything beautiful – even sadness, even pain, even suffering.
And to sing with all of one’s heart (even without the good voice) gets a person in touch with the deeper part of his soul and see everything there – the positive and the negative – in their rawest form. And acknowledge that even the ugliest things about us and about our life, need to happen for a reason – and that they are needed to make the beauty that is us.
So let’s all sing together – with or without the voice – and enjoy life!