Eventful year it was....

Time ran faster than usual for me in '05 as if in persuit of something....I wondered about it all along until the reason surfaced a few days back. If what transpired is any pointer, the year '06 would indeed be a ball. So here is to that period ahead...
Here is wishing you all too a great year ahead!

Its Snowing once again

 
 

Snow!

Its pristine white once again!
Within an hour the cold, gloomy and nasty German winter has transmuted into a carpet of white with a soft and inviting glow. There is something fresh and comforting about the first snowfall. Maybe because it sets in the mood for Christmas - the best time of the year! It calms down everything....casts a spell of friendship and warmth.
Each year, I have waited for this first day of snow as much as I used to wait for the first rainfall and the sights and sounds associated with it.....
In 2001 November, I saw snowfall the first time in my life. I was amazed and awestruck by its serene beauty. Excited as we were, we played until midnight till fatigue brought us back to bed. Since then, each year has been an encore of those few hours of childish joy once again....(I just got back from one a while ago!)
Having enjoyed four snowy decembers, I have come to love "White Christmas" and appreciate Bing Crosby's number "I am dreaming of a white christmas...." evermore. Somehow snow brings a spiritual flavour to christmas, although I wonder if the Son of God ever actually got to see or play in snow!
Tomorrow we plan to build Frosty the Snowman...

Its all there....only that we need to reach for it!

There is the sun, there is the sea....both represent the infinite to us. Ever stood on the beach and watched the sun rise? The beauty inspires and has a calming influence....We feel safe and happy as if in the mother's lap. The majesty is celestial...divinity silently telling us "Here I am, my child, take from me, for I am ever full..."

I walk back to my vehicle to drive home. God, I'm late! Need to reach home in time to collect water! two hours per day is all that the municipal water supply offers. I need to rush back in time to fill all the huge containers we have, run the washing machine...wash clothes...I wish it were simpler! As I start my vehicle, I realise that the damn thing does not start!! No petrol...fantastic! ouch!kicking the bike does not help...

Now thats not a good way to wind up after a fantastic walk on the beach on a sunday morning. I am not going to bungle my holiday by running up and down!
ok I decide to take it easy...I am going to cool off. To hell with the water supply and petrol...I walk back to the roadside tea shop, buy myself a cup of chai and sit back on the wall....back to my thoughts...looking at the sun on the beach now, no longer soothing and soft but a fiery ball of scorching heat shining down rays of warmth sparkling on the crashing waves on the sea shore.

What an irony!! One moment I experience infinity, energy and a life sustaining power. The next moment I am helpless due to the lack of energy (petrol)! Irony indeed!!!
Its there all around us shining to glory as if to announce "hay I am available always-Use me" We have not learnt to use it! We as humans ignore the largest power source of creation and struggle, dig and pump out the bowels of earth instead! (Do you know?More energy comes from the sun in 1 h each day than is used by all humankind activities in 1 year!!!). And of water? I'd rather not even talk about it!
Why has mankind decided to choose a finite distructive souce of energy rather than the infinite one? Did we run away from the task of solving a difficult problem and choose a shorter way out?

If all mankind were to be one human being, we could easily list his character. A highly talented, gifted guy, capable of great tasks, does not know his own power...is leading a happy-go-lucky kind of life totally oblivious of what the future holds, happy if he gets what he wants today. Lets think of tomorrow later...shoves problems under the carpet...wants it easy and quick...

To me it looks like a divinely intended eternal bug ( bug as in programming)in a divine algorithm in man. Or is it just man's stupidity? In all matters big and small, we seem to be searching for solutions in wrong places. The problem of energy is maybe only one such example. Consider this...We want eternal happiness. We are asked to seek it within but we go without (pun intended).

But I am sure its all there to change. Now "Change" is a system tool that comes very handy you see...Its time we use it!

Ring! ring!...oops "Hello? Hi mom.. ya...I am ....on my way,...ya... actually my bike ran out of petrol and......ya! I know..... I'll be home soon.... Ok...., I'll take an auto and come back quickly.

Left handed, right brained but even footed

I am a left hander......I never felt out of the flock though.
Oh yes, there were times when I felt being "sinister" or "gauche". (no! I did not learn latin or french in school!)I vividly remember my exasperation on being left handed when I bought my first calligraphy set! Not to forget the very uncomfortable classroom chairs with an extended table customized for right-handers. Very few schools are thoughtful enough to cater to the poor "leftys" who have to lunge foward in an odd conformation to write. Could that be the cause for my very shabby handwriting? Well...I am comforted by the fact that very many great people were indeed left handed. Have a look for yourself at this site
A while ago I read some stuff on brain lateralization, and its relation to creativity vs practicality.
For whatever it is worth I took a test for my "right brained-ness"
Here are the results. You can try it too....

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (48%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (38%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Pluck this little flower and take it, delay not! I fear lest it
droop and drop into the dust.

I may not find a place in thy garland, but honour it with a touch of
pain from thy hand and pluck it. I fear lest the day end before I am
aware, and the time of offering go by.

Though its colour be not deep and its smell be faint, use this flower
in thy service and pluck it while there is time
(Gitanjali - Tagore)

The many facets of me....I am not three but five...(dont ask me what they are, I am in the process of discovering them myself! how could I tell you!!!

Would it not be great to defy gravity ! just lie suspended in air! YOu could do this too given that you have a mirror big enough!

Life! A roller-coaster
There are two ways to ride a roller coaster once we sit on one (remember we CHOOSE to sit on one!!!)
One is to enjoy the ride, look up into the sky, feel the speed, its curves, dips, the slow upward run, the crashing downwards fall....live those few moments to the fullest, scream, enjoy and laugh out the dangerous rolls...knowing that no matter what happens, we are in (his) SAFE HANDS

The other is to hold tightly to the rods, see the rocks that we are going to dash into, feel the stomach churn as we roll, count the dips we take and wait for this whole thing to end.

Actually the time of the ride would be the same...we take the same curves, same stomach churning rolls at crashing speeds....At the end we get out of it together....feeling safe on steady land once again.....

Who made the most of it??? Well this needs some thinking is it not????