Category: Reflections

Posted in Christian, Daily, poetry, Reflections

Comfort of His Grace

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

On some mornings, the vivid recollections of the dreams of sleep hours stay behind. While some may hold the most bizarre sequences, images or forgotten faces and details; others may be of the nagging worry depicted in the subconscious mind. Regardless of the details, the unsettled moments of waking up can be calmed down by watching the early rays of light.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)

Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547

There is something about dawn, that helps one to face the uncertainty of the day. Yet to experience it, one has to spend some time with His Gifts as He helps us calm our souls and settle the restless thoughts lurking in the mind. Each of us needs those few moments to do nothing, but experience His Peace and His Grace, so as to know that through Him all things are indeed possible.

“You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think. When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing – just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?” Nigel Finn

His Peace and His Marvellous Works are shown in the quiet of the world, be it the in the dawn or the setting rays or the light of the day. Unless one learns to appreciate the quiet, the tires soul, though weary of the travels, would be in still in a constant state of restlessness. Being in the latter phase isn’t a pleasant feel. On the other hand, embracing the quiet of the day, helps the soul stay happy as well as experience His Grace and infinite Mercy.

Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547

Quiet

Quiet, quiet, feel the morning breeze,
Quiet, quiet, listen to the whispering trees.
Hear the mourning dove coo upon the wire,
Let the quiet, quiet your heart inspire.

I hear the bark of a faraway dog,
Smell the dew from a fallen log.
I let fleshly feelings fall limp from me
Now I ask my God His will to speak.

And in His love and quiet and peace,
He stills my soul.
By Sunlite Wanter, 2019

Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Posted in Life, Personal Musings, poetry, Reflections

Balance in the Wind

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

“ You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” Cayla Mills

Juggling through home and professional life is never easy, especially with family, kids and pets. In most situations, if the two adults and kids do their bit of the share, things fall into line. Yet what happens when the children are too small or physically challenged or here are not two, but only one pair of adult hands. Initially one may be able to tackle the situation, but later, one may feel quite defeated. This was experienced by a close friend of mine, with her husband transferred to another project for two weeks, a toddler with a cast (courtesy of a misjudged jump), one child sick with chickenpox and a deadline project on her work front. Like these, many similar situation may be experienced by us at certain points in our lifetime.

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

During those initial parts of the difficult days, it may be mentally and physically possible to cover all aspects alone. But when the going gets more tough, taking a step back and moving ahead may help things work out in the long run. While circumstances may get more trying, cribbing would never help. Instead deal with what ever is possible, as for the rest get help or prioritize the more important aspects at that point or course of time. Remember that the trees survive through the cold of winter as well, the hot rays of summer and the cold winds laced with thunderstorms of autumn. Though they may lose their leaves, flowers and branches; they still stand tall with their roots going deep. As the start of spring rejuvenates them, thy grow back. Likewise we too need to go deep into the roots of support system of friends, family and neighbourhood (we all have them for no one is an island), the tough times will gradually fade and life gets back to the normal (if not the same) footing.

“ Life is, at times, tough. And all we need to do is to prove that we are tougher than it.” Sanhita Baruah

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

The Oak Tree

A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree’s leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke.
How can you still be standing Oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs, and make me sway

But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You’ll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn’t sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I’ve found, with thanks to you
I’m stronger than I ever knew

– Johnny Ray Ryder Jr

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

Posted in Daily, Family and Society, poetry, Reflections

Change of Play

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

With the sun slowly shining through the cold winds and drizzling rain, the ground slowly breaks forth as new shoots spring to life. As the daylight hours slowly lengthen, the little feet scamper around in the courtyard and the garden. Leaving aside the numerous indoor toys, the bicycle and even the bright coloured remote controlled terrain toys vehicles, these little feet and hands found the fun and happiness in playing with twigs and building a tower with sticks and pebbles. As the household chores got done on an early evening, the yard play brought back memories of the simple days of the yesteryear.

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” Alan Cohen

Source:https://vk.com/monahos
Source:https://vk.com/monahos
Source:https://vk.com/monahos

As one catches up with the fast paced modernism of today, with the methodology of work as well as projects get more complex, so does the hours of relaxation. From the busy office or work schedule of around eight to twelve hours (more or less in certain scenarios), the unwinding takes a complex route at times, like indulging in the favourite video-games, Netflix shows, movie reruns or even catching up on the social networks. Minus the gadgets or a power outage, the “leisure hours” go “ka-boom”. What has happened to the simple joys of spending “quality time” with family and friends, or just a little quiet time with the self to rejuvenate, recuperate and recharge.

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.” Alan Watts

Source:https://vk.com/monahos
Source:https://vk.com/monahos
Source:https://vk.com/monahos

One can’ escape the modernism of the world as the years mature from childhood to adult years. As the list of responsibilities, dreams, ambitions and goals grow, get prioritized or re-prioritized, the purpose would be to infuse a little of “gentle play” in the work as well as to recharge after the strenuous hours. We all have only one life to lead, that one is inherently aware of. Too much of focus of any one arena will result in the loss of another. The “play of life” has to be done in a gentle manner with the amount of “work”, “fun”, “relationships”, “relaxation” and the like to be done in healthy balanced or proportionate doses. One doesn’t need to get too fanciful, just the simple things in life in the right amounts would help in experiencing the gifts and blessings of life.

Playthings

Child, how happy you are sitting in the dust, playing with a broken twig all the morning.
I smile at your play with that little bit of a broken twig.
I am busy with my accounts, adding up figures by the hour.
Perhaps you glance at me and think, “What a stupid game to spoil your morning with!”
Child, I have forgotten the art of being absorbed in sticks and mud-pies.
I seek out costly playthings, and gather lumps of gold and silver.
With whatever you find you create your glad games, I spend both my time and my strength over things I never can obtain.
In my frail canoe I struggle to cross the sea of desire, and forget that I too am playing a game.

– Rabindranath Tagore

Source:https://vk.com/monahos
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/monahos
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/monahos
Posted in Christian, Daily, Family and Society, Life, Personal Musings, Reflections

The Truest Form

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

The morning fiasco was marked by the hunt for red crayons, golden hearts and lots of pink, green and blue colour pencils. En route to the routine drop to school, my kindergartener enlightened me on the activities planned for the day. The story of St. Valentine in English class, valentine cards to be drawn in art class and as for math  ” to count the stars, hearts, flowers and candy”!! With all these information occupying my immediate gray memory cells, coffee break was another discussion of valentine day’s special offers, discounts and reminiscences of past days.

“There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

As the mid-day of February approaches, there is a lot of activities around this. While the focus is targeted primarily on young love, one must remember that there are all sorts of love in this world. The joy of new parents on receiving their wrapped bundle in labour rooms, the joy of the first few lurchy steps of the toddler, quiet concern between friends on the announcement of exam results, celebrations over the first match win, sacrifice of sleep hours of a night shift nurse to babysit her niece and many more instances are there in the world around us. All these are different forms and sorts of love.

“Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.” Nicholas Sparks

Each of us is surrounded by love. It may be manifest in many ways. From the occasional hugs from our parents, help from our spouses, efforts of our family and friends when we face a tough day, the boss’ agreement for a work in from home when the kids fall sick or an aunts’ help in designing the fancy dress costume when mom is out of town or the warm circle of child arms around us when we are tired. All these acts of help, sacrifice, kindness and care involve an amount of love. Love doesn’t necessarily mean expensive gifts, date nights, trips out of the country and the like; though the above are all really lovely experiences.

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

As O’ Henry’s “Gift of the Magi” shows love doesn’t mind that extra mile. Whether it be sacrifice, more time, energy or sleep hours; love makes that extra miles of effort worth it. Such is the love that we all should strive to harbour close to ourselves. Such love should be cherished, appreciated and shared around; for this love lights up dreary hearts and brings ray of light to dull, dark dingy hours or even days.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Posted in Life, Personal Musings, poetry, Reflections

The Flashes, the Pain and the Past

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

“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” Haruki Murakami

Waiting in the queue for a break in the traffic, the eyes had wandered over to the playground where a couple of teens were busy with their mock football match at one end. At the far end, a few were playing throw-ball. In the midst of the latter game, a heated argument followed by a flurry of fists resulting in two players walking off. Seeing these scenes triggered off the memory of the middle school wherein peer gangs were rampant and gangs were the norm. Selection for sports as well as arts revolved around the factor of being in the know or the select few. If a art geek decided to enroll for the selection in the softball team, putting the name down would be like writing in the water and similar for a football defender who liked to indulge their culinary urge. Watching my nieces and nephews as they go through their middle school, the bite of those yesteryear still sting but lessons learnt were valuable for life.

“Memories are bullets. Some whiz by and only spook you. Others tear you open and leave you in pieces.” Richard Kadrey

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

All of us have our cache of “bad memories”. Some we tend to carry along through the childhood to the adult phase. While others we may bury them, only that they tend to surface intermittently especially when least expected. There are those days that no matter how hard one tries, they gray clouds linger and cast shadows in the mind. 

“I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesteryears are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance.” Beryl Markham

Dealing with those harsh memories requires one to acknowledge it, accept it and make the stern choice to move on. To forget them may be really difficult, but learning to deal with them is a must. Those cliches and gangs of middle school still exist in the adult world, albeit in a more subtle manner. The choice is to learn and then move on. Getting trapped in one phase for long, results in the soul being frozen by the rampant thoughts. While one can’t do anything about the passed years, the reaction and choice of the present lies in own hands and how deals with the circumstances. As the bad moments crowd, the purpose of the present would be to make new memories suffused with warmth, joy and laughter to live the hours of now as well as tide over the future.

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

Memory

Memory engulfed so much evil,
without a count or bounds.
All the time life lied and lied,
there is no more trust in life.

Maybe, there are no cities,
maybe no green gardens,
just lives instead the power of ice,
and the salted oceans.

Maybe, the world is just all snow,
and a starlit road.
Maybe the world is all taiga
in the mind of God.

Varlim Shalimov

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

Posted in Daily, Reflections, Stories Around the World, Work

Merge the Angles

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

“An ant can’t define shape of an elephant solely from its’ point of view. They have to unify all views. It’s a way for ant to understand elephant. In order to understand true realities, men need to do mental blending.” Toba Beta

Prior to starting off another major project, there was the brain-storming session in the office. As the ideas got exchanged, details considered and outcomes were contemplated; there were open disagreements on whether the said plan would work out. Although the fist fight had never happened, the flurried exchange of words was close to a verbal war. Eventually the project details were finalized and set in motion, though the entire discourse reminded one of the importance of bringing the different viewpoints together to bring a consensus to the decision.

“The most fatal illusion is the settled point of view. Since life is growth and motion, a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one.” Brooks Atkinson

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

Starting from elementary school, there would have been many similar scenarios wherein a squabble breaks out on who is right. The hard part is when both arguing parties are right but not in entirety. That is when reaching the middle ground is important. Finding a consensus and appreciating the other viewpoint teaches one that each person has their different set of experiences. These differences tracks help to bring out the common goal when different views are contemplated and merged together with the understanding that each perspective is important in its own right. As the different notes get harmonized, only then the play can be set to music. Life is never made of a single angle or plane, but an amalgam of varied panorama, angles and slants. Unless viewed as a whole, each of us may miss out on the compete picture.

“We don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note. Only notes that are different can harmonize. The same is true with people.” Steve Goodier

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

When I was in elementary school, I got into a major argument with a boy in my class. I have forgotten what the argument was about, but I have never forgotten the lesson I learned that day. I was convinced that “I” was right and “he” was wrong – and he was just as convinced that “I” was wrong and “he” was right. The teacher decided to teach us a very important lesson.
She brought us up to the front of the class and placed him on one side of her desk and me on the other. In the middle of her desk was a large, round object. I could clearly see that it was black. She asked the boy what color the object was. “White,” he answered. I couldn’t believe he said the object was white, when it was obviously black! Another argument started between my classmate and me, this time about the color of the object. The teacher told me to go stand where the boy was standing and told him to come stand where I had been. We changed places, and now she asked me what the color of the object was. I had to answer, “White.”
It was an object with two differently colored sides, and from his viewpoint it was white. Only from my side it was black.
Sometimes we need to look at the problem from the other person’s view in order to truly understand his/her perspective.
Author Unknown
(Source:vk.com)

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Posted in Life, Personal Musings, Quotes, Reflections

To own Beat

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

“To live is to be musical, starting with the blood dancing in your veins. Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music?” Michael Jackson

During the early years of college, there was the responsibility of holding a musical to commemorate the founding day of the institution. It was usually held along similar lines of a Broadway play, complete with music, drama and script. Consequently when it was turn of own class, the decision was to do something different. That alone, resulted in a simple play being scripted to be held on roller-skates. When a group of twenty year old, some of whom have never seen a roller-skate in their lives, decide to collectively act, direct, choreograph as well as sing; it involves plenty of learning along with “the aches and ouches”. As intended the show did go well. As years passed on, it is that one single musical that still keeps the class in fits, groans and fun memories.

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments

“What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow.
What are brief? today and tomorrow.
What are frail? spring blossoms and youth.
What are deep? the ocean and truth.”
― Christina Rossetti

To venture out and try something new is not in the daily routine. More than courage, it requires immense faith in own plan and the belief that something different can be made to happen if we put in an effort for the same. That entire musical mayn’t have happened, if not for a bunch of people, who designed, motivated and helped each other as well as the whole lot to put on their own skates and learn to move, sing and shout. As each one of us found our own rhythm and danced to the music, it was those couple of “game changers” who had turned the push to shove, to make the event happen.

Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547

All of us have our own set of wonderful, seemingly impossible, interesting or even crazy ideas. Some of them we foster and grow them, others we neglect. The same we do for others. It is these “crazy ideas” that bring a wide reckoning, forcing all to sit up, take note and add on tot the few drops to make a collective change for the better. We need them all. The rule-breakers, the game changers, the followers, the questioners, those with blinders on and off. For with all of them, like in a potpourri can the fragrance be released and music made.

Learn to appreciate yourself and the differences in and around us. It is the collective effort of all, that makes the next day brighter than yesterday, a change from the mundane and something new to learn and experience as well. Life is all about finding our rhythm. And let all those crazy ideas out. Somewhere along we will learn to dance to the rhythm and beat of our own music.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” Rob Siltanen

Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/pub_mdmas
Source:https://vk.com/slideshowarts
Source:https://vk.com/public138314547
Source:https://vk.com/thesemagicmoments