Differences

Buddha, “there’s no fire like passion, no shark like hatred, no torrent like greed”. Indeed hate and greed are powerful motivators and there are times we are caught in the incessant waves of hatred from feeling entitled to something we shouldn’t even be looking at. We want what we shouldn’t want with a desire that is unhealthy and a little crazy but we think we know best and don’t want to listen to the voices of reason. We are so caught up in certain situations that we cannot pull free, we are tangled up in a web of greed which in turn brews hatred the longer we don’t get what we want and only love can pull us out of this self destruction. Passion is this all consuming fire that will no be put out even by torrential rains because its determined to burn strong, come what may!
Is there more to people that what meets the eye or are we all really basic and at the core no different from the next person?
Do circumstances determine what picture we paint with our actions, speech and general behavior or do the people around us influence that more than we’d like to admit?
Is there something special that makes people the same or unites them in such a way that they really are one and the same man?
Shakespeare, “Life is a stage on which every man must play his part” we might regret some of our past actions but thank God that we still have a chance to rectify things along the way and do things we are proud of, come tomorrow.
Is there a way to reduce the disparity in the multitudes?
What discriminates us from each other?
What distinctions are there to identify one as greater or lesser than the other?
Is it just the choices we make from birth, from our parents making them for us, to taking over and making similar choices due to the way we were raised and after that having our children make those same choices?
Life is indeed a cycle, one circle of similar people meeting and marrying each other.
What is the magnitude or degree by which we are so different that nothing could ever bring us together?
There must be a deviation from what we consider the norm, for people to always be at cross points or are we digging too deep and not looking at the baser insticts in man?
Are there really irreconcilable differences?
Ingersoll said that anger blows out the lamp of the mind, have you ever been consumed by an anger that is indescribable that makes you a whole new person that cannot listen to reason because all you see is a haze of red and like an angry bull, you just charge without thinking?
These actions are the ones that brew differences that will never be forgotten, scars so deep that even when the repairs are made, the wound will still throb under the skin.
There is a certain inequality that somehow finds its way into our hearts and is so deeply ingrained that its harder to change who we are than we think.
What are those factors that affect the congruence in such a way that there is no harmony and disagreement thrives amongst men!
What creates this space between people, from thoughts to the consequential actions?
I sometimes think that we are remote from each other, removed from the emotions other men have, unable to be understanding or sympathetic at times, why?
Aloofness certainly doesn’t help build the society as one big home, we always end up leaving someone behind!
Is that what helps us stand apart and when did that become our number one goal?
Everywhere we look, the environment is cut throat and only the strong or sly win, is this so much a part of us that we’ll walk all over our brothers trying to get ahead?
Suppression reigns and at the end of the day whew we have a winner, nobody particularly cares how they got there!
And that my dear brethren, is the complexity of one of the facets of life!
I cannot help wondering how long such moments will last, like all other moments in the past, they come and they go as surely as the sun rises and sets each single day. There are times I want to hold on longer than I am supposed to and times I just want the day to pass as quickly as it came.

Happy October peeps :-)

Pessimist Vs. Optimist BY William Arthur Ward

The pessimist finds fault;
The optimist discovers a remedy.
The pessimist seeks sympathy;
The optimist spreads cheer.
The pessimist criticizes circumstances;
The optimist changes conditions.
The pessimist complains about the apple seeds;
The optimist plants them.
The pessimist imagines impending peril;
The optimist sees signs of prosperity.
The pessimist disparages;
The optimist encourages.
The pessimist creates loneliness;
The optimist finds friends.
The pessimist nibbles at the negative;
The optimist is nourished by the positive.
The pessimist builds barriers;
The optimist removes roadblocks.
The pessimist invents trouble;
The optimist enriches the environment.

By William Arthur Ward

Hidden Message :-)

Nick Bollettieri said, “the recipe for happiness is an insatiable curiosity, a joy of discovery, quickness to forgive, holding no grudges, loving without condition, staying loyal to the death, seeing the best and ignoring the rest”.

What is a mistake? Do we all at one point or another make mistakes that we don’t want to consider mistakes or ones that we actually enjoy and cannot bring ourselves to admit that they are wrong? Do we often walk away from the path we had chosen because we have been enticed by the glamour and glitz out there even when we know no good will come out of it?
What’s that magic that drives us to the edge of madness where there are no mistakes because we are not in a position to acknowledge them? That place where no matter what, we are living for the moment and although the consequences will come with the dawn of a new day we are ready to face them? It’s a beautiful day indeed when one of the mornings fate decides to save us by changing the rules or simply giving us the strength to live with our mistakes. Coming to our sense is not always peaceful but we sigh with relief when the guilt is gone, when we have been saved and different cards have been dealt to us and this time we promise to obey the rules!
Games, games, games, everywhere we turn a spin on the game, everybody trying to get theirs…. Does it matter who’s way we stand in or who we step on to get to the top?.
Lies, facades, half truths, call it what you may, is it really necessary? If only we could live in our own cocoon and not have to deal with all these people around us that are not even genuine!
Hiding behind half closed doors and trying to peek out without being seen and the endless whispers that are just everywhere around like a buzzing insect that will simply not die!
What’s with maintaining the illusion? Can’t we just be who we are, no pretense and co exist peacefully no matter what the differences are? Or simply stay out of each others way if coexisting is not possible?
There are certain degrees of separation but at the end of the day most can be ignored if we don’t take things personally or give them more credit than is due to them!
Granted, certain people just rub us wrong, that is life but we have to learn to let such things go and move on to more important things!
Do we all wear masks at different points of our lives and are all those masks different depending on what it is we are hiding from or what we are hiding behind the mask?
There is something about anything that's framed that really cries out to me. The frame holds whatever is inside captive, do you wonder if at any time it wants to be free? But its kept in there for its own safe keeping, the frame supports and protects it because once its outside the frame, harm and damage can come to it. At least there’s a glass to see through?
Many days I am reminded that we all fall and we all have our days when we need an extended hand to help us get up, when the touch of another person expressing their good thoughts and the warmth from their hand to ours creates that magic that breaks the evil spell cast on us.
Best wishes for more warm days even with the beginning of fall, may we find that magic that makes our hearts glow and makes our smiles brighter and joy & love that cannot be described.