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Frequently remind yourself that God is with you, that He will
never fail you, that you can count upon him. Say these words,
"God is with me, helping me."
- Norman Vincent Peale
I have read two of his books "Power of Positive Thinking" and "The Amazing Results of Positive Thinking", In his writings he us teaches how to live life,despite failure, to look beyond the ditches and pot holes to train ourselves to think positive not as a means to fame or power but as the practical application of faith to overcome defeat and live a full and happy life.
Many of us believe, we are invincible, indestructible and along the way we forget-GOD that we have to remind ourselves that if not for HISpresence, we would be nothing.
Whilst we are having goodtimes, nothing matters, like an advertisement jingle that goes..let the goodtimes roll. It is only when dark clouds gather and we see a storm brewing that we turn to HIM, bribe him, pleading to give in to our way. But things do not happen as we wish But as HE does.
Back to the above quote, We must keep reminding ourselves that God is with us and he will always be by our side, so many heartaches may seem much smaller than one really sees them. In my own life I have witnessed several such wonders, an"Angel" comes along telling you something that you would realise later that saved you from something grave, and all the time knowing well. HE was there, walking side by side, Believe in him,acknowledge HIM, and have faith, as little as the mustard seed, and you will see wonders before your eyes, doors opening, and seas parting to let you pass through.

Nora Roberts
If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

There I was sulking away, and the mother was in no mood to ask me why, I guess with having to look after three kids, who were just two years apart, was a tough task. My brother who is the youngest and my sister the eldest I was the " middleman",shall we say middlegirl, besides I was always seeking answers to orders that the "Authorities" gave out, which in most of the cases, I got a telling off or sometimes just a case of the wind blowing on their ears kind of a situation.
I remember my sister and brother coaxing me to go and ask for the permission to go to the party.We nearly always lent support to each other, I was mortified. Not so much at encountering my mother who in turn would ask the "Higher" up my Dad in this case, but it was my inability to hear a "NO" from them that was pulling me back.
After so much of debating and brooding ... I mustered the courage to ...ask,
I tried strategy at first went around the house and cleaned it up dusted, folded placed everything in an order and then was step two..wow ! this surely was looking good"Why oh, why did I go through so much when all this was so easy?" was the thought that came to my head.
Like all mothers, mum saw thru my ploy and asked me straight off"What is it you want? ( " "'Here, here quickly open up mother earth swallow me" )I stammered and fumbled "Oh nothing Mom, just doing my share of good deeds," she went about her business like she did not know anything, but was it so ? Mothers have that uncanny sense and a million eyes placed all over them so they "see" every wince of pain, or every snigger, that happens, it was no different here with my Mum, a truimphant sign of victory to my siblings, signalled that I was drawing closer to my goal.
Just then the phone rang and Mum picked it up "Hello, blah, blah blah, more blah blah and there I was my ears placed to get the maximum coverage of the sound waves, 'Ah thank goodness it was the opposite neighbour and her regular downloading on Mum about the milkman and the paperboy and ... and .. and she was gone for a long while.Mum looked at me and said,"Can you please give a hand to Aunty S, she needs help with her shopping," before mum could finish I had dressed up and thought this is the moment ... "You know mum I wanted to know if I could go to M's party on the week end ? She turned around like she had been struck by lightning and said "Why not ?" "Oh, er.. I was taking your permission," "Surely you can but I have to ask Dad, if it is fine with him" ... do you know what it feels like to be an inflated balloon thats just got pricked by a pin? well I did......
To cut a long story short, I did get my permission and I did enjoy myself ... and so many years later now a mother myself, I know that if I did not ask the answer would have been No , and if I did not go after my goal, I would have been just there sulking and brooding, This is a simple example, but many a times have applied to the larger picture in life.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.
Kahlil Gibran
To physically witness what Kahlil Gibran has "quoted" one must visit the Mahim Church on wednesdays, which is the day of the week when the novena is held.
People, of different denominations all together in prayer ! standing cheek to cheek,
It is truly an experience that one must.....
We try to go for the weekly novena, sometimes circumstances force us otherwise.
During my many such novenas, I have witnessed people crying their hearts out by just touching the frame of the picture of Mother Mary, people walking on bended knees down the main aisle says so much !
Coming back to the quote, every religion calls for peace and forgiveness and love. We are all hurt at one point of time or another, but is it so easy to forgive as our religion teaches us,? it is tough, and we have to train ourselves to do so, in any way we can, motivation, reading similar type of books or maybe the scriptures which every religion abides by.
Is it so easy to love all whom you come across ? again that is a tough call, but that does not mean you have to embrace everyone that you meet. You just have to live peacefully and love will follow ... peace and love have always gone hand in hand, And every religion teaches us to be good human beings, truly we are sons of one religion.

The longest of the school vacations have begun, and it is the sounds of the children who play in the compound that have always indicated if the schools have their tests, or exams or if they have a long week end.
The sounds of them playing on a school weekday evening indicate that they are relatively free, at other times, the silence can drive me crazy it makes the place seem so dull and quiet translated this could mean that they have an important test or maybe even an exam coming up.
This morning during our walk, we saw a parent taking a whole lot of enthusiastic, children all equipped with bats and balls, caps, and water bottles, all set for a long day of play. The children seemed oh! so cheerful, and even remarked about this to my husband. On schooldays these children would have been looking so dull and plodding their way to school.
Very soon the monsoons will be here and "WATER WELCOME" the flooded streets and inaccessible roads provides another legitimate holiday the children screaming in glee and playing around in the rain, little scamps deliberately jumping into puddles with ecstatic peals of laughter .. sounds that make me realise that happiness is all a state of ones mind and what we make of the situation we are in.

Actions speak louder than words, and we were witness to this . Last weekend we were invited to a neighbors 90th birthday, the 'Birthday Boy" in his tuxedo was looking good, with his beautiful, wife besides him.
Everything was well taken care of, the guests were welcomed at the door and the atmosphere was lovely, befitting one who has lived life and surely deserved a celebration of this grandeur,completing the circle with close family and friends.
Their children came in from different parts of the globe, and one could see the amount of time and thought and money that was invested into the celebration.
Going back to my opening statement, small acts of caring that I saw brought so much more energy into my recently renewed vows. His wife was helping her husband, explaining to him, "Mr and Mrs P are here to wish you," and helping him to have a lovely afternoon, you could see nothing...... Only love all around them,be it their children, or close friends, or even the bearers were so thoughtful.
There was a power point presentation and pictures of the past days were shown, together with the highs and lows in their lives, my husband was especially thrilled with a picture of their dog, they once owned as it seems his and their dog too, were buddies ! The food was the highlight of the afternoon .
The children gave their own versions of their days gone by and brought a tear to our eyes.
The little acts of love made by the family, his children who had left their homes, and jobs only for a few days to be with dad and mum was so beautiful, I could not help but think what their parting would be like. Quickly tried to focus on the delicious food.
Several thoughts were snaking in and out of my mind, but one of them I will surely write ........, it is nice to be with our loved ones during their lifetime,and treasure these "LIVE" memories instead of placing bouquets on a cold tombstone.
So lets get out and start loving and forgiving and live in this NOW moment.
Till you read again !

Truth Hurts! we have so often heard someone tell us this and know it is the absolute TRUTH. My husband and me were at the other end of the saying, we spent the last few days contemplating what it is that make people so wily, so cruel, so ruthless and in our experience shameless. All for a few pennies more.
It was a tough situation that we were in and things had to be told straight faced, with no compromises and no brokers.
There was an absolute halt in functioning as many people decided to walk out when told the truth, But sorry ! no roll backs on our values and principles instilled in us. Sad to add that sometimes even your own family disbelieves yr intentions. Many hurts and harsh words were said by all and sundry and to cut a sad story short, We walked away from it all ........
Why did we do this ? walk away from something that you so truly believe is a very hard thing to do but putting in so many fruitless hours of toil,( the family was absolutely on the backburner. We had to weigh the options and with both our feet on the ground.... will it finally work out ? Will the childrens growing years standstill for us in our quest for this ? will our health permit us to take on ? many a late night tending to various issues had made us forgo our morning walks, All these questions and more were something that came foremost to our minds and did what we did.
Just walked away ... I am glad as we are a few days into the new way and realise how important it is not to compromise on the values and your principles.
Thank my Mum and Dad who have been with us through this ordeal and have been the main support in our trying times.... Thank you all for the prayers that you have prayed too ! God Bless