The Yin & Yang in Life

The most destructive habit........................Worry

The greatest joy......................................…..Giving

The saddest loss.....................................…. Self-respect

The most satisfying work.........................Helping others

The ugliest personality trait.....................Selfishness

The most endangered species.................Dedicated leaders

The least tapped natural resource..................The Human Mind

The greatest "pick me up"..................Encouragement

The greatest fear to overcome..........Fear itself

The most effective sleeping pill...............Peace of mind

The most self degenerating disease.........Excuses

The most powerful force in life................Love

The most dangerous individual..............A gossiper

The world's most incredible computer...The brain

The worst thing to be without..................Hope

The sharpest organ in our body .............The tongue

The two most power-filled words............"I Can"

The greatest respect we bestow upon God …...Faith

The most worthless emotion......................Self-pity

The most beautiful attire............................A smile!

The most prized possession...................... Integrity

The most powerful channel of communication.......Prayer

The most contagious spirit.........................Enthusiasm

The most expandable room in our living space …. The room for improvement

"Here we Grow again!"

Don't worry if you have problems! Which is easy to say until you are in the midst of a really big one, I know. But the only people I am aware of who don't have troubles are gathered in little neighborhoods. Most communities have at least one. We call them cemeteries. If you're breathing, you have difficulties. It's the way of life. And believe it or not, most of your problems may actually be good for you!

Let me explain. Maybe you have seen the Great Barrier Reef, stretching some 1,800 miles from New Guinea to Australia. Tour guides regularly take visitors to view the reef. On one tour, the guide was asked an interesting question. "I notice that the lagoon side of the reef looks pale and lifeless, while the ocean side is vibrant and colorful," a traveler observed. "Why is this?" The guide gave an interesting answer: "The coral around the lagoon side is in still water, with no challenge for its survival. It dies early. The coral on the ocean side is constantly being tested by wind, waves, storms & surges of power. It has to fight for survival every day of its life. As it is challenged and tested it changes and adapts. It grows healthy. It grows strong. And it reproduces." Then he added this telling note: "That's the way it is with every living organism."

That's how it is with people. Challenged and tested, we come alive! Like coral pounded by the sea, we grow. Physical demands can cause us to grow stronger. Mental and emotional stress can produce tough-mindedness and resiliency. Spiritual testing can produce strength of character and faithfulness. So, you have problems? No problem! Just tell yourself, "Here I grow again!'

A day in a life or a life in a day?

“All things will come to past.”

“Time changes everything.”

“The future is not guaranteed.”

What is the one word in each truism that connects with one another as a common factor?

It is “time”.

Our life on earth is measure in time. We can use it to our advantage or we can waste it. Once we loose it, it is gone forever (We cannot say we will store time and use it later). It is all up to us.

The 3 truisms are universal truth or certainties of life (as certain as the sun will shine in the morning and sets in the evening). No one can deny it or say it is not true.

Truth No.1. Time does not stand still. It keeps on moving. That’s why we cannot manage time. We can only manage our activities. Today will soon becomes yesterday and tomorrow will soon becomes today. It will come to past. History will take place.

Truth No. 2. Nothing stays the same. Nothing is permanent in life. Time changes everything. The only constant is change itself.

Truth No. 3. No one knows whether he or she will live to see another day. Only God knows.

Taking the 3 truths into consideration, what should we do? What should we do to live a quality life? To live a quality life ultimately means being happy.

Well, we have a choice. We can make happiness a destination or we can make happiness a journey.

If we make happiness a destination, it means we won’t be happy until something happens. It is just like saying “We will be happy when the weekend arrives. We will be happy when we got our bonus. We will be happy when we got promoted. We will be happy when we got married. We will be happy when we have a car, a house, etc?” But the day may not come as the future is not guaranteed.

Our better bet is to make happiness a journey. A journey we decide to take on a daily basis. In other words, make happiness a daily decision. If we die abruply today, we die with full accounting of each day well lived!

A rich man can still be sad if he decides to be sad, if he decides to see the negative side of things.

A poor man can still be happy if he decides to be happy, if he sees the positive side of things.

A Postcard to Mother Nature

Dear Mother,

I am sending this postcard to you from Earth. I have a bit of bad news to tell you. We have been experiencing erratic weather patterns this year. In fact, the weather man has reported unusual warm weather last Christmas and apparently, the snow man was a bit reluctant to show himself. We are having rain and drought at odd times of the year and the duration and severity is getting more pronounced. Come to think of it, we are having more natural calamities like floods, hurricane and Tsunami since the turn of this century and the frequency is alarming. To tell an inconvenient truth, we are desperate for a solution!

Brother Al Gore is going around telling everybody who care to listen that we are running short of time. Unless we pay attention to his plea and take proactive measure to heal the earth, we will pay the price of apathy and suffered the consequences of nature’s attrition. I am so sorry mother. We have been too busy exploiting the earth’s resources and not doing enough to re-generate, replenish and recycle the waste we have accrued to the extend that it depletes the environment. What should we do mother?

UN scientist delivered yesterday their starkest yet about the global warming, saying that fossil pollution would raise temperature this century, worsen floods, droughts and hurricanes, melt polar sea ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come. It further declared that the temperature rise over the past 50 years had “very likely” been caused by human activity. The signs of this happening can be seen from the drought in Australia to record high winter temperatures in Europe.

Mother, ever since the Kyoto Protocol which set a limit on emission of greenhouse gases until 2012 was abandoned by Uncle Sam, the top source of greenhouse gases, emissions by many backers of Kyoto are far over the target. An official report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change predicts that temperatures would rise by between 1.8 degrees and 4.0 degrees in the 21^st century and the 10 hottest years since records began in the 1850s have been since 1994.

I am so sorry mother. We are now living on borrowed times and the longer we wait to make nothing less than a revolutionizing change, we will live to see hell’s fury on earth and possible melting of the Arctic sea ice by 2100…

Love

Your Under the Weather Son.

Living Your Life And Loving It - 3 Enabling Steps To Happiness

All of us, I am sure, wish for a life of abundance, health and wealth, relationships and what have you. There are those who are born with a silver spoon and blessed with good fortune throughout their lives. Luck seems to go with them wherever they go,well at least most of the times. Others are not so lucky and have to put up with challenges after challenges in their embattled lives and problems keep cropping up from time to time. To them, life is nothing but suffering.

To quote the revered and his holiness, the Dalai Lama, “Life is suffering. Our purpose in life is to seek happiness”. What if there is a choice that we can make to turn things around?

What if the unpleasant events and circumstances that wefaced in the drudgery of living can be mitigated, lessened or dissolved with efforts on our part? Is hardship and adversity seems insurmountable? Can destiny be altered in our favor?

Yes!

The answer to all the above may shock you but just thing for a minute – Why is it that God made us the way we are? Each of us is unique and yet we are all the same – nobody’s perfect! Do we wait for divine intervention or some miracles to happen before we hope to see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Not if we can help it!

At birth, we are given a set of pillars to be our foundation and it is up to us to build upon them. Our destiny code is ingrained in these pillars but the power to steer the hands of destiny is within our control albeit measured.

Herein unfolds the 3 steps to strengthen our pillars.

Get Empowered!

We empower ourselves by knowing our

- strengths and weaknesses

- affinity and detachment

- characteristics and eccentricities

Our pillars of destiny contain the hidden factors that govern our success in life and how the above are played out depends on how we make use of these factors:-

- Self

- Output

- Wealth

- Influence

- Resource

All the above factors are interdependent on one another and how we use them holistically is the key to maneuvering destiny in our favor. This is the concept of the Chinese metaphysical science of Astrology known as the Four Pillars of Destiny.

Energized Yourself!

We are all affected by our living environment. The place we live, the location our house is sited, the landscape in our vicinity and the internal space within our home are channels where energy or life force known as “Qi” flow. This energy gives life to all living things and is dispersed by the wind and gathers at the boundary of water. The Chinese called it “Feng Shui” which simplymeans wind and water.This energy wax and wane through time and is inclined towards certain compass direction and location. If properly tapped, it gives prosperity and harmony to the inhabitants of a property in terms of health, wealth and relationships. The secret is in identifying, locating, containing and tapping into this energy using the Chinese compass known as the “Luo Pan”.

Be Proactive!

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." This is the quote by the British Statesman and literary figure, Benjamin Disraeli.How true! Everything that happened to us is a result of the actions taken by us or by others. If we want something in life, we have to take action, without it nothing happen. We can sit around and bemoan the sad state of affairs we are in or we can be proactive and start making positive changes to our lives. The choice is ours to take.

If destiny hands us a raw deal, we can make lemonade out of a lemon!!!

Sex and the Professions - How do they do it?

Accountants do it with Double Entry
Acupuncturists do it with a small prick
Ambulance drivers come quicker
Australians do it Down Under
Bach did it using the organ
Bankers do it with interest
Bartenders do it on the Rocks
Batman does it using his Robin
Bookkeepers do it for the record
Bosses delegate the task to others
Chess players check their Mates
Cops do it with cuffs
DJs do it on request
Deep-sea divers do it under extreme pressure
Dentists do it orally
Detectives do it under cover
Don’t do it with Bankers, most of them are Tellers
Elevator men do it up and down
Engineers do it to specifications
Firemen do it with a big hose
Flight Attendants do it in the air
Frank Sinatra does it his way
Garbagemen come twice a week
Gardeners do it on the bushes
Gas attendants Pump all day
Golfers do it in 18 holes
Landlords do it every 1st of the month
Managers make others do it
Salesperosns do it on commission
Scientists come shouting "Eureka! Eureka! Eureka!
Pizza delivery man comes in 30 minutes or it’s free
Politicians make empty promises
Postman always ring twice at every stop
Waiters and waitresses do it for tips
Zoologists do it with animals

Animal Magnetism or Leap of Faith ?

I came across an interesting bit of news from a local paper the other day. It was about a two year old calf that made its escape from an abattoir in Mumbai, India by attacking its owner and bolting out into a scrapyard, remaining there until help arrived. Apparently, it was due for slaughtering by its owner to celebrate the Muslim Holy Day which happened to fall on January 1st, 2007. Somehow, it instinctively new that its life was about to come to an end and through a leap of faith, took destiny into its own "horn" and miraculously saved its own hide. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals came to know of it and adopted the calf which now found a new home in the comfort of the animal shelter. It kind of reminds me that destiny can pan out differently if we took the bulls by the horn so to speak and make the plunge when the odds seems stacked against us. Miracles do happen just when we thought our fate is sealed if only we take actions despite the worst of circumstances. Sometime an attacking strategy is the best defense strategy! You know what? The new caretaker of the calf has even found a nickname for its new charge - George W. Bush! Do you see any familiar connection?