The journey

A friend sent this to me early in March this year:


God doesn't give you the people you want. He gives you the people you need
- to help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you and to make you into
the person you were meant to be.

Distinctions

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others. That is nice but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement - success will follow.
- Helen Hayes

These words from last week's email have stayed with me. Some tenets go straight to the bin, but those which inspire, are carefully filed to be read and re-read.

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One warm afternoon..the words, the words, the words

The elation of words
The inspiration
And The beauty
Oh the words - the words - the words






Words by Jose Rizal etched in a section of Fort Santiago where the hero of the Philippines nation was put to death.

Life, one day.

One day you will ask me which is more important? my life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.
-- Khalil Gibran


Something I read last week, and have read and re-read, simply because these words are just so beautiful, strung together the way they are.

Of courage, conviction and fortitude

Two of my favourite poems by Rabindranath Tagore. Lines which impart strength and courage. Here are the English translated versions of the originals in Bangla:

Where the mind is without fear
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

Walk alone
If they answer not to thy call, walk alone
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall
O thou of evil luck, open thy mind and speak out alone.
If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness
O thou of evil luck, trample the thorns under thy tread
And along the blood-lined track travel alone.
If they do not hold up the light when the night is troubled with storm
O thou of evil luck, with the thunder flame of pain ignite thy own heart and let it burn alone.

I am change. I am hope.

The Gate
- Imagine never having to lock me up.
The Door
- I do not know colour. I do not know creed. I am hinged on opening to knocks of understanding.
The Room
- My size is measured by the warmth of hearts. Sometimes I look much bigger in homes for the old.
The Roof
- Even today, for innumerable poor people in the world, I am just stars in the sky.
The Wall
- I am the bulwark of life, the canvas of joys.
The Window
-Many visions of empowerment await reality in my frame.
The Floor
-I like that part of me best, which resounds with the footfalls of healthy children.
The Kitchen
-I wish my fire could feed the last child on the street.
The Steps
-I believe that to reach up, we must put our foot down strongly at places.
The Courtyard
-Along with all the chit-chat, I hope I will always hear the chitter-chatter of birds too.
The Balcony
-I love the sights that I see from here, especially the little school beyond the pond.
The Fence
-I wish I had not grown. From a hedge against the elements to barbed wires dividing nations.

Words which I have read again and again. Wise, encouraging and hopeful. Simply put, a brilliant piece of work.

Where? On the 2009 calendar on my desk.

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Sailing to Byzantium

Lines for the Tuesday gone.
And the Wednesday which started.


"That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,...

....A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing...

..And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium."


My favourite lines from the W.B.Yeats poem. Other lines I choose to ignore.