opinion – Page 28 – Sugar And Spice… Among Other Things

Life, Personal Musings, Reflections, Stories Around the World

Alta Alatis Patent

Posted on October 9, 2018September 24, 2018 by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

Last night being movie night for my husband and I, it felt pretty good to be watching “The Pursuit of Happyness” again. There are some movies which never fade in time and this is one of them. Based on the life of Chris Gardner, the C.E.O and founder of Christopher Gardner International Holdings ; it is an essentially an biographical film. The story revolves around a troubled childhood, failed marriage, monetary problems and difficult times; which I guess is a little of something that has happened to everyone at some point of time. But what makes the film adorable is that despite all the hardships, you find your own happiness. There may be many movies along similar lines, but to put them down from ‘reel’ to ‘real life’ may be difficult. Yet some of the real stories show us that although it’s difficult, it’s possible to rise from the ashes.

In fact, there are many more real-life people who have echoed similar times in their lives. The creator of Mickey Mouse was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of imagination and good ideas. Years later, many animation pictures and other movies start off with “Walt Disney” logo. Even Steven Spielberg was rejected from his university of choice. Nevertheless that never affected his talent nor skills, and he rose to become one of the greatest directors and producers of all time.

There are many more people who have gone through similar struggles. Some of them we may have only seen in papers, some heard of while others may be there who live in our own neighbourhood. If we look up our old high school friends or seniors and even juniors, we then realize how some of them have risen from their roots and have found their own happiness.

Although all these people have become legends today, at one point of time they have gone through the struggle and the toil. Immense courage and faith in oneself is required to rise from the ashes and build the dream. As said in Latin, “Alta alatis patent”, i.e. the sky is open to those who have wings.

We all have our own set of wings. We just need to find them, strengthen them, train them then look ahead with keen foresight and fly sky high.

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Source: https://quotefancy.com/quote/757535/Henry-Ford-When-everything-seems-to-be-going-against-you-remember-that-the-airplane-takes

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Family and Society, Reflections, Stories Around the World, Work

Plant the Worry Tree

Posted on October 3, 2018October 2, 2018 by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

In the present day, almost everyone holds a job. For instance, in a family of four, many a time both the husband and wife may be employed (or sometimes just the husband) or teenagers would be working part-time in order to contribute to their college fund. Even stay-at-home mothers have enough and more on their plate. Which or how ever may be the scenario or the reason, most of us hold jobs for certain hours everyday, after which we each return to our respective homes, either back to our families or shared quarters. The pressing question is how many of us bring our work with it’s own share of problems, back to our home ?

If we honestly answer, it would be an affirmative reply for many of us. Some of us may bring back our physical or actual work, others may bring back the problems and the mental as well as emotional difficulties faced that day, back with them while others may bring back both. Either way we lose out in our time at home with the family or our relaxation time for a whole load of stress again. The worst part is that we get up the next day to start the whole cycle of “work-stress-work” again. For those of us who work in the areas that we like or have a keen interest in may disagree with the stress, by saying that work for them was never stressful. However, the fact is by bringing the work with or without the problems home; we are losing “family time” or “me-time” to recoup.

In my early days of college, there was a story told in one of my lectures, which I would like to share.

The carpenter who was hired to help a man restore an old farmhouse had just finished his first day on the job and everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. First of all, on his way to work he had a flat tire that cost him an hour’s worth of pay, then his electric saw broke, and after work his old pickup truck refused to start. His new boss volunteered to give him a lift home and the whole way to his house the carpenter sat in stone silence as he stared out his window. Yet on arriving, he invited his boss in for a few minutes to meet his family. As they walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When he opened the door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was one big smile as he hugged his two small children and kissed his wife.

Afterwards, the man walked his boss to his car to say thank you. Now on their way out of the house, the boss’ curiosity got the best of him so he had to ask the man about the tree on the front porch. He said, I noticed when you came up on the porch before going into your house you stopped and touched the tree, why? “Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” he replied. “I know I can’t stop from having troubles out on the job, but one thing’s for sure – my troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up again.” “Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick ‘em up, they aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

We all have encountered our own share of troubles and struggles, some of us deal with it by bringing them with wherever we go, some might ignore it hoping it would go away somehow while others try to deal with their problems while their heads are still above water. The idea of hanging the problems on a “worry tree” or a ‘‘trouble tree” outside the door isn’t a bad one, in fact we can find our own modifications on dealing with the stresses. I have been successful in dealing with my own share of problems and worries by laying them down at the feet of the Lord. “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)”

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Life, Reflections, Stories Around the World

The Price of Over-Thinking

Posted on September 28, 2018September 26, 2018 by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

One of the drawbacks to man is that we over-think a lot or to put it simply, we do a lot of speculations. The biggest disadvantage to this is that we unnecessarily work ourselves up, creating a whole lot of stress; not just to ourselves but even to those around us. Some of us may heard about the story “Want to borrow a jack ?”. It tells about over-speculation and the trouble it had created. For those of us who haven’t heard of the story; it is as follows.

“Want to borrow a jack?”

“A fellow was speeding down a country road late at night and BANG! went a tire. He got out and looked but he had no jack. Then he said to himself. ‘Well, I’ll just walk to the nearest farmhouse and borrow a jack.’ He saw a light in the distance and said, ‘Well, I’m in luck; the farmer’s up. I’ll just knock on the door and say I’m in trouble, would you please lend me a jack? And he’ll say, why sure, neighbor, help yourself, but bring it back.’ He walked on a little farther and the light went out so he said to himself, ‘Now he’s gone to bed, and he’ll be annoyed because I’m bothering him so he’ll probably want some money for his jack. And I’ll say, all right, it isn’t very neighborly but I’ll give you a quarter.And he’ll say, do you think you can get me out of bed in the middle of the night and then offer me a quarter? Give me a dollar or get yourself a jack somewhere else.’

“By the time he got to the farmhouse the fellow had worked himself into a lather. He turned into the gate and muttered. ‘A dollar! All right, I’ll give you a dollar. But not a cent more! A poor devil has an accident and all he needs is a jack. You probably won’t let me have one no matter what I give you. That’s the kind of guy you are.’

“Which brought him to the door and he knocked angrily, loudly. The farmer stuck his head out the window above the door and hollered down, ‘Who’s there? What do you want?’ The fellow stopped pounding on the door and yelled up, ‘You and your stupid jack! You know what you can do with it!’” There are many variations of the same story, “borrowing the jack” but the essence is the same.

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This is what often happens to many of us. In our life, we often land into problems that we can actually easily handle. Instead of facing them with calm and patience keeping a positive attitude; we behave with blind anger thinking of imagined wrongs and make enemies of people who may actually help us. The sad truth is we don’t realize it until someone else asks us with what actually happened. It only then we realize that we having been making a mountain out of a molehill.

So at the end of the day, it’s easier to go with the flow than to over-think and end up being disappointed. In fact, less of speculations may result in us getting a lovely surprise instead.

Christian, Life, Reflections

Fleeing Essence of Time

Posted on September 26, 2018September 26, 2018 by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“Time is an illusion”-Albert Einstein.

From the physician who proposed the Theory of Relativity, Einstein had furthered the concepts of space and time. Interestingly, it is all conceptualized on relativity, speed of light and time. From time immemorial, man has been trying to understand time and its finer aspects. In our attempts to travel through time, innumerable theoretical concepts have been attempted, all to no avail. Unfortunately time doesn’t stick around long for it.

As we all travel down today’s path, how many of us pause to realize that all this can go in a flash, many a time beyond our control ? Unfortunately it is in man’s nature to plan a lot. Yet the purpose of planning waits to be seen. Some plan for the future, some to enjoy the present. No matter how concrete our plans go, sometimes we don’t even realize the fact that all these can be altered in a matter of seconds. Yet the beauty of human nature is that we still hope and pray that it happens the way we wish to see it go.

The human race is tied to time. Through all means, we try to keep account of time to fulfill our worldly dreams and desires. The concept of time has been problematical for scientists, philosophers, thinkers and even theologians. The theory and understanding of how “time” is employed in the divine scheme of things is also controversial.

Divine timing doesn’t follow the rules. Although we in our earnest prayers, hope and ask for the blessings; sometimes nothing makes any sense. And instead we land with another set of worries r problems as we see it. That’s when we should realize that true faith requires us to hand all our burdens over to the Lord and trust Him to do what’s best. True faith requires complete trust in Him and for that we have to fully follow the Christian path by His Word. Our time frame is set by our limits. Yet the Lord’s time frame is infinite. “8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)”

One of the greatest promises of the Lord, the gift of salvation doesn’t have a time limit. In the light of this fact, we have to realize that each day God gives is not for us to simply live it, but for us to become better. For if today there will be no time, tomorrow we may lack strength and the day after tomorrow there may not be us.

So instead of banking on the future time, live the life of Faith for today first. Along with the intense planning for the day; take time off for yourself , your loved ones and your Faith. Above all, instead of trying to count the clock and get lost in the mundane, do try to live the hours and do something that makes it all the worth.

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Daily, Photography Art, Quotes, Reflections

Sweeten the Extra Lemon

Posted on September 24, 2018September 21, 2018 by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

As I was making lemonade yesterday, I was recalling the day I made it for the first time when I was in junior high. It was disastrous as I ended up adding almost five times the amount of lemon than needed and squeezed a bit too much of the lemons that it had a very sour taste. To save my face, I had to correct it somehow. I ended up adding lots of sugar and water, that lemonade for four turned out to be a lemonade for twenty. I still wish that day I could remove some lemon juice from water to make it taste perfect!

Unfortunately, life has taught that certain things can never be changed. Some mistakes cannot be undone. Likewise many a time, we may not be able to undo the things that have gone wrong in life. Certain choices which turned out to be disastrous like bad decisions, wrong actions, bad associations and above all, angry meaningless words; were situations that couldn’t be taken back. Besides some things do happen which are beyond our control.

While we cannot turn back the hands of time, what we can do is to move forward. So when what went wrong can’t be changed; wasting more time over it is like removing the extra lime. What we can do is to rectify and improvise, so that the wrong things are corrected by increasing the number of things that went right in our time.

Human nature has two sides – the positive and the negative. Although we strive to be more positive, occasionally negativity may arise. However if the proportion of positives that we surround ourselves is high, then the negative fades away. Life like human nature can’t be perfect, but what we can do is to live for the better days and store away the cherished moments and sweet memories in the cache that God has given us.

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Christian, Life, Personal Musings, Reflections

Freedom of The Spirit

Posted on September 15, 2018September 8, 2018 by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

“The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom ” (II Corinthians 3:17), New International Version

This message from the Bible has been haunting my mind for the past few days. Each time I review the verse, a persistent question is what is the freedom we are talking about here and whether I am free ?

To understand this better, I had to go into the chapter of II Corinthians, wherein St. Paul talks about the pursuit of Holiness. The Lord is the Spirit, St. Paul writes. He could be referring to the Holy Spirit is God or the Lord (Jesus) is Spirit, even as God is Spirit or St.Paul could be saying that Jesus is the true meaning of God’s law. St. Paul then speaks about the freedom that God’s Spirit gives us.

On reading the first letter to Corinthians (I Corinthians 11:2-16), he writes about misconception that because the Holy Spirit was working in their lives; they consider themselves free to do whatever they wanted.

It is here that we understand what “freedom” really is. True freedom is not the right to do whatever we want. True freedom is when we turn to Christ; the Holy Spirit frees us from our evil deeds and from the devil’s power. However, that is just the beginning of God’s work in our lives. By His Spirit, God has given his people the freedom to become his children, to understand His Word and removes the veils covering our mind. God’s spirit frees us from the sticky web of sin which entangles us, trapping and blinding those who live in it.

So, the answer to what is freedom is clear ? Now, to find it, we have to change so as to embrace the Spirit of the Lord and be free to serve God to our capability.

¹⁵Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.¹⁸And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate^[a] the Lord’s glory,are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. – 2 Corinthians 3:15-18, Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Christian, Personal Musings, poetry, Stories Around the World

God’s Rosebud

Posted on September 9, 2018September 5, 2018 by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

How many times in our life do we try to anticipate every situation, every event and every hour ? Very few of us are willing to entrust our waking minutes in His Hands. What we really need to do is to let go and let God unfold your life. For His shoulders can bear all our burdens.

This is a great story that I got through a Whats app forward. I don’t who is the author but I find it worth sharing; for it had made my day brighter and I hope it would make your day too.

A new minister was walking with an older, more seasoned minister in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was asking the older preacher for some advice. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of God for his life and ministry. But, because of his great respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact. It wasn’t long before he realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger preacher’s inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older preacher began to recite the following poem…

“It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God’s design;
But, I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.”

“The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so easily,
But, in my hands they die.”

“If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God’s design,
Then, how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?”

“So, I’ll trust in God for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance
In each step along the way.”

“The path that lies before me,
Only my Lord and Savior knows.
I’ll trust God to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.”