Month: May 2019

Posted in Daily, Family and Society, Quotes, Stories Around the World, Work

Choose the “Focus”

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.” Paulo Coelho

As the new academic school year starts; curriculum is changed, new texts are bought as well depending on the school year, children are excited to join the tryouts for new school teams or plans are being made for the choice of subjects and career opportunities. During this entire process, the young minds are trying to focus on what they want to do and how they want to do, in the next academic session. Just like in the modern lives, these young minds are learning the art to focus and more importantly to “focus right”.

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” Aristotle Onassis

Source:https://vk.com/we_live_a
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source”https://vk.com/public138314547

Fast forward to the days of an adult, “finding the focus” has been the daily mantra or mode as we go about the grind. At the work arena, set the priorities, targets and goals, and focus which ones would be achieved. At the home front, one focuses on prioritizing the “daily task list” and deciding which work needs to be done first and at the right time is an art learned well over practice, patience and time.

“Instead of focusing on that circumstances that you cannot change – focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can.” Joy Page

Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000

During the “focus” , many things need to be done in the right manner, from finding the right direction, deciding what to shift our mind, balancing to find the realism of the circumstances and above all, choosing to move forward in the right way. “Which way is the right one?” That would be answered best when we learn from time, experience with the inherent knowledge, wisdom and perceptions that lie within us. The “right focus” is as equal as “finding the focus” for by targeting the “lone black dot”, we may miss the “white landscape” that awaits us to make the change.

“Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focus most intently. So choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful. Your life is always moving toward something.” Ralph Marston

Source:https://vk.com/we_live_a
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com

The black dot

One day, a professor entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin.
The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.
To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions–just a black dot in the center of the paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “I want you to write about what you see there.” The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task.
At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams, and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students.
All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet. After all had been read, the classroom silent, the professor started to explain:
“I’m not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot – and the same thing happens in our lives. However, we insist on focusing only on the black dot – the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend. The dark spots are very small when compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your the eyes away from the black dots in your lives. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a life filled with love!”

“Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.” John Carmack

Source:https://vk.com/we_live_a
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Posted in Daily, Family and Society, Quotes, Reflections, Work

Language or Jargon

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“It’s a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water.” Franklin P. Jones

Living in a house with teenagers still in the family, one becomes an expert with short forms and abbreviations. In fact, one of the advantages (or disadvantages) of messaging and texting in the present day, is the use of less words, more of “emojis” and short forms that enable us to “save time”. Ironically what has happened is that we have forgotten how to spell correctly, speak in complete sentences or deliver a message without sounding garbled or hunting for the right words midway.

“When you lose a language and a language goes extinct, it’s like dropping a bomb on the Louvre.” Michael Krauss

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Source:https://vk.com/comeshome

Running through the official emails as well as personal ones’, the distinct difference in the style of writing, expression of words as well as use of “emoticons” highlight the official from the personal. Yet sometimes on rereading the mail, one has to very often guess the meaning behind the emoticons. Shifting between “smileys” and “dancing girls”, everything can be classified broadly into good or bad. In a way, words like adjectives, adverbs and similes have become almost extinct. Looking at the initial days of man, I guess we are back into the language of “expressions, hand signals, sounds, mono-, bi-or tri-syllables and garbles” just like the primitive ancestors.

Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts

“Losing the language means losing the culture. We need to know who we are because it makes a difference in who our children are.” Dottie LeBeau

Moving with the times is important. Hence striking a balance between the “cool” and “official language ” is a must, for us to convey complete and whole messages, before we lose out completely on our own sense of language, speech and words.

“At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.” David Crystal

Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts

“… once upon a time there were synonyms: “good, beautiful, valuable, positive, outstanding, excellent, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, lovely, seductive, wonderful, cute, amazing, stunning, fantastic, magnificent, grandiose, irresistible attractive, fascinating, enticing, attractive, incomparable, unique, enticing, amazing, entrancing, divine “, and so on and so forth. And what? – left only “cool.” Less often – “cool” … ”  by T. Thick in “Hope and support”

Posted in Family and Society, Life, Personal Musings, Stories Around the World

“Doing Good”, From Within

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice)

One of the feelings that man is silently on the look out for, is the feeling of being  loved, recognized or appreciated. One tries seeking it many places, known or unknown to them. When one strives to do something good, kind or be generous by actions, words or thoughts; one secretly harbours the feeling and hope that these would be appreciated, whether those feelings come by knowingly or unknowingly.

“Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?” Epictetus 

SourcE:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
SourcE:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
SourcE:https://vk.com/slideshowarts

What one often forgets is that, “doing good” doesn’t come with a tag that says “thank me” but with a hidden code that reveals how much comes from truly within. We can do good or be kind; because we want to or, just because we hope that some one would do it for us when we need it or, for some one of our own who may need it. Whatever the reason may be, unless we do “good” from deep within our hearts, all these would be in vain. For the real meaning of “doing good” would be lost, if it never began from within first.

“Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.” Alexandre Dumas(The Count of Monte Cristo )

SourcE:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
SourcE:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
SourcE:https://vk.com/slideshowarts

One woman baked two tortillas every morning. One for family members, and the second, additional, for the casual passerby. The woman always put the second flat cake on a window sill, and any person passing by could take it. Every day, when a woman laid a cake on the windowsill, she offered a prayer for her son, who had left the house to look for a better life. For months, the mother knew nothing about her boy and always prayed for his safe return.

Soon she noticed that a hunchback came every day and took the second cake. But instead of the words of gratitude, he only muttered: “The evil that you do remains with you, and the good returns to you!” and went on his way. This went on day after day. Not receiving the expected words of gratitude, the woman felt deceived. “Every day this hunchback says the same thing! But what does he mean?”
And one day, being especially irritated, she decided to end this. “I’ll get rid of this nasty hunchback!” She said to herself and added poison to the second tortilla. But when she was about to put her on the windowsill, the woman’s hands trembled. “What am I doing?” – she thought. And immediately threw the poisonous tortilla into the fire, cooked another one and put it on the windowsill. The hunchback, as usual, took the cake, muttering the constant words: “The evil that you do remains with you, and the good returns to you!” and continued on his way, unaware of the emotions raging inside the woman.

That same night someone knocked on the door. When the woman opened it, she saw her son standing in the doorway. He looked awful: hungry, thin, weak, in torn clothes. “Mom, it’s just a miracle that I’m here! I was just a mile from home, but I was so hungry that I fainted. I probably would have died, but just then some old hunchback passed by and he was so kind to me that he gave a whole cake. And he said that this was his only meal for the whole day, but he sees that I need her more than he does. ” When the mother heard these words, her face turned pale and she leaned to the door so as not to fall. She remembered the poisoned morning cake. After all, if she had not burned it in the fire, her own son would have died! It was then that the woman understood the meaning of the words: “The evil that you do remains with you, and the good returns to you!”

Moral of the story: Strive to do good always, even if no one appreciates it now.

“Every time you do a good deed you shine the light a little farther into the dark. And the thing is, when you’re gone that light is going to keep shining on, pushing the shadows back.” Charles de lint

Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/public75290000
Source:https://vk.com/we_live_a