Journey to my reflections of Life.

Taste and see…

sangeethajames — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:14:31 +0000

I was on my way to drop my kids to the school and then reach work. We usually spend this time in listening to music, talk about school and learn bible verses. I started my day with an emptiness in my heart not knowing where I am going in life. I am sure everyone hit these situations. If you havent, please do a reality check and really figure out who you are. Else you are just pretending.

That day I told my daughter about the verse in Psalms “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” As a family we decided not to force our kids into religion, but allowing them to understand and go for it. We try our level best to teach about God and experience God. We do not want our kids to follow the religion blindfolded, but we really want our kids to get the real taste of who God is, How much He loves them and everyone in the world.

With this said, I asked her whether she understood the meaning of the verse. She didnt. Hence I mentioned to her that an apple might look very beautiful, delicious from the outside, but the real taste can be figured out from tasting the apple. Some apples might look old, ugly, but they are tasty… Likewise, we got to really taste who God really is by always praying/talking to Him, asking Him everything, loving Him.

I shared this just for making her to understand the bible verse. But, the reality struck me soo hard. Is it not that everyone has a pretending face? The people we see, talk to, be friends with everyone looks happy outside… I’ve felt bad so many times by seeing how beautiful, perfect, happy someone was and ended up being unhappy. The reality is almost all of us have an innerface that is so distraught, confused, rejected, looking for answers, love etc. From my experience only God can reveal our innerselves and show who we really are. That revelation is sometimes hard to accept. But, it can be transformed by His love.

I sometimes think that people dont understand this and run everywhere in the world to get the answers. All they have to do is just say a word “God if you are really existing, please change me and reveal me.” The journey should start with the search for the truth and Gods love. Apostle Paul did this and got the answer. Are you going to do this or just delay this so that you can get temporary happiness.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Prayers for Britney

sangeethajames — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:36:51 +0000

Hmmm… I came across this site http://prayersforbritney.com/ and felt happy that people started to look towards God for the answers in Life… Only God can make the impossible possible. I too join with the list and pray that God should touch Britneys heart and she should feel the love of Jesus… No matter what others had done to her, how she had misbehaved, let the blood of Jesus cleanse her and make her happy. Britney needs God…

Challenging God…

sangeethajames — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:29:53 +0000

Well I had a very busy weekend that ended up with me getting frustrated with so many pending activities. Everything looked bad. Life sometimes looks very difficult. With this perspective I started my day.. I stopped in almost 15 out of 20 red lights delaying in my commute. With the windchill feeling like -26 C, I literally told God “I had enough. I dont want to think about all those needy people who do not have anything and be happy and stay content”. I was so miserable…

I was so determined that unless God literally comes down and talks to me I’m still going to stay like this. Why was I this much miserable???

I think all of us experience this kind of situation where we cannot just pretend that everything is OK and life is good… Sometimes we just need to express ourselves and just stay away from everyone to become cool.

The rootcause of all my frustration was that I had so many tasks in my mind and I couldnt complete any of them… Added to this I had lack of sleep resulting in tiredness and frustration. If I have just realised that I have to take one step at a time and complete my tasks, I wouldnt have experienced this. All it requires is prioritization of my activities. But, I just overloaded myself with everything, ended up being tired and couldnt complete anything as planned.

Finally God didnt answer my prayer. He didnt come down to my desk at work and tell me anything that solved my issues. But, I learnt a very good lesson. I have to always prioritize my tasks and focus on the important ones. This is what life is about. I am planning to submit 2 or 3 articles related to planning and prioritization. I believe it will help you in your life too.

Till then God bless.

Being ON TIME for desis… Indian Standard Time.

sangeethajames — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:23:26 +0000

It was 11:00am in ABC Consulting Corporation, India. Clients from USA were visiting the offshore center in India and the meeting was scheduled to start at 11:00am. The offshore team was instructed to be ON time for the meeting. With great struggle the team members all gathered in the meeting room. Grrrrrrreat job! The onsite team managers, had a small chat with the clients and entered the meeting room at 11:15am. After all the formalities, the meeting successfully started at 11:30am. Great achievement in the history of ABC Consultancy.

Suman and Sumitha planned for a simple Bday party for their 1yr old Son Sumo. The party invitation was sent to 50 friends and 50 colleagues. The party was scheduled to start at 7pm. Cake cutting at 7:30pm. Only 2families were in the party room by 7:30pm. Almost 60% arrived around 8:30pm and the cake was cut at 9pm just because important families were present. The remaining turned up after 9pm.

Anita and Anand are newly married. They went to United States after marriage due to Anands work. They planned for a trip to Florida and the flight was at 5pm. Both Anita & Anand got ready and arrived the airport at 5pm. Whooo! Whooo! The flight wasn’t there… Anita and Anand learnt a lesson. They made sure that they were ON time for occasions resulting in financial impact or job loss and started late for personal events that arent causing any kind of financial loss.
Well! This concept of always being late happens in any kind of Desi gatherings. {Kudos to those who are ON TIME always. You are not targeted in this article ]. I think desis are late most of the time due to the following reasons…

1) Making assumptions: Most of the time, we tend to think that evryone else will be arriving late and the event/meeting/gathering will start lately irrespective of whether you are early or late. Stop thinking like that and start ON time. Change has to start from YOU.

2) Lack of effective planning: When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. When it comes to any personal gathering/event, desis tend to avoid all planning. They become lazy and end up late.

3) Wasting OTHERS time: Stop having the dont-care attitude when it comes to others time. Dont waste other peoples time. You end up wasting your own time too… When you have an attitude to start late, you are indirectly communicating to everyone around you that you dont care about the person or the event.

My friends family start from the house at 8:45am to go to the church whose service starts at 8:30am. When parents have this attitude, I am sure kids will pick up the same.

4) Waiting for Approval: Dont wait for everyone to start the event. When you are arranging an event, start the event on time. If the event is so personal, give grace time of 15mins for your friends to come. Else just START.

I am a desi and I disciplined myself to overcome this. You cannot achieve anything without hardwork… Start building this habit for your kids tooo as they learn from you. If not now, when?

What is your legacy after you die?

sangeethajames — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 05:05:42 +0000

Today my friend called and informed about her grandmas death. She was very close to her grandma and she felt like sharing this with me. But, I really didn’t know what to tell her so that she becomes OK… No matter what I say to my friend, nothing is going to change the fact that her grandma had died. Nothing is going to bring her back…

This made me to really think about how short our life span is… We run around so many things in life that are lost like a morning fog. I have seen people running in life for money, pride, career, satisfaction blah blah… Its OK to run behind all these as long as we know for sure that we are getting something that is valuable and eternal. Else, its time for us to think.

What is the legacy we leave behind? What happens if I die tomorrow? Will I leave any kind of legacy for my kids, my husband, community, country? Will it be just some memories that will be lost after some years? The legacy we leave should be useful for the next generation and for those who are in need. Its time we really think and use the moments in our life.

What legacy did Heath Ledger leave after his death? Compare this with the legacy left by Martin Luther King Jr.

Live each day as if it were your last – well, at least try?

What happens when you are disconnected with the world?

sangeethajames — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:55:17 +0000

Today there is a major snowstorm here in GTA. I know that there has been some outages due to internet cable being cut from Egypt to India. Here I am, during the snowstorm staying at home with my 2kids and my husband went to work during afternoon. I was behaving like a sweet lil wife who was worried about my husbands decision. While I was bidding bye to him, and started browsing the internet, the connection was as slow as the infant who is trying to walk. While I was typing this, it is stilllllll trying to get connected.

Then I was wondering about the consequences of what might happen if the internet doesnt get connected… the phone connections are lost… my mobile phone doesnt work and pickup any signal… Will I know whether my husband reached work safely during this disastrous weather with bad roads… Will my mom in Abudhabi,UAE know that our family is safe n sound in Canada? What happens if the same issue is going on in the entire region? How will we know that our loved ones are safe… After all the depth of life is always getting connected to someone we love eh! It might be our school/college/work friend, our dear spouse, kids, parents, neighbour etc… It all revolves around with the people we love and who love us…

The major innovations in technology had made us to live in a virtual world of continuous communications via internet, mobile, IMs, chatrooms and the list goes on n on n on… But, the reality is when all this is blacked out due to various different reasons, we have to understand that WHO WE REALLY ARE is that matters… Imagine just for a moment, there is a major power outage in your cold region… No heater on, no lights on, stove, refrigerator not working, toilet not flushing, your mobile is dead, your blue tooth doesnt do anything, your computer lost the battery power… What will you do? You cant blog, cant podcast, cant make a call, you just need to be happy

You can cuss everyone in the world, but whatz going to be the outcome… You are the one who is impacted by all your words and nothing changes… Whether you have all the comforts in life, or you dont have anything its upto you to determine your happiness. WHO YOU ARE is determined by your thoughts and they ultimately bring the Happiness.

Well, I got my connection back now and my hubby reached work safely. Thank God!