Play your own instrument!

I guess this poem is a good reminder that we all have a role to play in this life and lets not complain about our perceived luck. If the symphony of life has given you a violin to play, play it well and play it fully. Don't complain why you have not been given the harp to play.

I am humbled and moved by Maithri's gesture, nominating me for "Thinking blogger award". Thank you for making my day and letting me know that this blog have inspired you.

Power of Family!

"Families not only reflect who we are , they show us who we will be. Perhaps the greatest power any of us has is the power to pass along our beliefs, values, and traditions to a child. This is not a new thought. While you may not have heard of the 19th century American poet William Ross Wallace, I'll bet you've heard the last 2 lines of this excerpts from his most famous poem:

Infancy's the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mother's first to guide streamlet,
From them souls unresting grow-
Grow on for the good and evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the Hand that rules the world.

This is poetry that speaks a truism: Those people who pass along their values to the next generation have a disproportionate effect on the future."

~Excerpts from Laura Ingraham book called, "Power to the people". There are so many foods for thoughts in this book and how individuals can bring change to the society.

Looking younger!

I just finished reading a funny article by my favorite journalist, Christopher Hitchens. His editors are trying to give him a makeover by sending him to a restorative/makeover resort, and this article is about his experience with facials, mud masks, yoga, etc. It's so funny. Here is his last comment:
"I also take the view that it's a mistake to try to look younger than one is, and that the face in particular ought to be the register of a properly lived life. I don't want to look as if I have been piloting the Concorde without a windshield, and I can't imagine whom I would be fooling if I did. "

Hmmm.... "properly lived life"...why do we try so hard to look younger?

He is a heavy smoker and drinker, so this is what he had to say about exercise:

"The trouble with bad habits is that they are mutually reinforcing. And, just as a bank won't lend you money unless you are too rich to need it, exercise is a pastime only for those who are already slender and physically fit. It just isn't so much fun when you have a marked tendency to wheeze and throw up, and a cannonball of a belly sloshing around inside the baggy garments. In my case, most of my bad habits are connected with the only way I know to make a living. In order to keep reading and writing, I need the junky energy that scotch can provide, and the intense shortterm concentration that nicotine can help supply."

Read the whole article here

Leave your past behind

Does your past experiences seems to be calling the shots in your life? If you are stuck in your past, I urge you to read this article by Dr. Nancy Zapolski:

"Trying to resist, change, or avoid the enormous influence of the past keeps us foolishly focused on it. Yet we’re reluctant to leave it behind, reluctant to transform the pervasive hold it has on our present-time lives. Not doing so, however, results in an endless continuum of living a “now” that is littered with the detritus of the past. There’s no better arena to watch this play out than in our relationships."

Read the complete article here or watch this animation.

Ayn Rand

New York Time had a great article on Ayn Rand (1905-1982)this last weekend. 25 years after her death, she still has influence on people and inspires many in the business world. I usually give her book, Atlas Shrugged, to new graduates. This book is about the power of human will and it is celebration of life and true happiness. I have blogged about her before, Ayn Rand was one of the smartest women in America and is one of my favorite writers. Here is an excerpts from NYTimes article:

"It (Atlas shrugged story)begins in a time of recession. To save the economy, the hero, John Galt, calls for a strike against government interference. Factories, farms and shops shut down. Riots break out as food becomes scarce.

Rand said she “set out to show how desperately the world needs prime movers and how viciously it treats them” and to portray “what happens to a world without them.”

Rand’s free-market philosophy was hard won. She was born in 1905 in Russia. Her life changed overnight when the Bolsheviks broke into her father’s pharmacy and declared his livelihood the property of the state. She fled the Soviet Union in 1926 and arrived later that year in Hollywood,

When they read the book, often as college students, they now say, it gave form and substance to their inchoate thoughts, showing there is no conflict between private ambition and public benefit.

There is something in your inner self that Rand draws out,” Mr. Stack said. “You want to be a hero, you want to be right, but by the same token you have to question yourself, though you must not listen to interference thrown at you by the distracters. "

Happiness is a Warm Electrode

Can science bring happiness to people? They can, according a research done by a neurosurgeon, Ali R. Rezai. Patients receive deep-brain stimulation, a procedure in which two electrodes are implanted in the head. This is how a patients describes her situation the moment after receiving the electrode treatment,

"The room looks brighter to her. The faces, the big, circular lights overhead, the ceiling—they all seem clearer. Malone asks her how she feels. "I'm really happy," she replies, clearly surprised. "I feel like I could get up and do all sorts of things." But even more telling than her words is the look on her face. For the first time in 20 years, with a halo bolted to her head and two freshly drilled holes in her skull, Hire smiles."

I am all for it, if it will give them a permeant feeling of happiness.

Balance

Too much on my plate lately, and when I saw this beautiful painting from French Toast Girl, I had to post. She has captured a mothers life in the picture perfectly.

Please go to her site and enjoy her fun blog. Click

Good News! World faces brighter future.

Believe it or not, the world faces a brighter future with fewer wars, higher life expectancy and improved literacy, despite many challenges according to a report released Monday by the American Council for the Tokyo-based United Nations University, a global think tank. Here are some highlights:

• The average world per capita income by 4.3%. At this rate world poverty will be cut by more than half between 2000 and 2015.
• The world’s average life expectancy is increasing from 48 years for those born in 1955 to 73 years for those who will be born in 2025.
• Although great human tragedies like Iraq and Darfur dominate the news, the vast majority of the world is living in peace, conflicts actually decreased over the past decade, dialogues among differing worldviews are growing, intra-state conflicts are increasingly being settled by international interventions, and the number of refugees is falling. The number of African conflicts fell from a peak of 16 in 2002 to 5 in 2005.
• The number of free countries grew from 46 to 90 over the past 30 years, accounting for 46% of the world's population, and for the past several years 64% of countries have been electoral democracies.
• Since democracies tend not to fight each other and since humanitarian crises are far more likely under authoritarian than democratic regimes, the trend toward democracy should lead to a more peaceful future among nation state.

Now, do you think you will hear this on your local news channel? There are some bad news in the report but overall it was an inspiring report and makes you hopeful for the future of our mother earth.

Well, then I should not mind that I will be 44 great years old today!

Are we supposed to feel our age? I don't feel any number, strangly, I like to grow older or I should say I like to grow wiser. I am enjoying my 40's. Every age has it's blessings, if we allow ourself to look for it. After all we really don't change much, as Eric Butterworth used to say, "We don't change what we are, we change what we think what we are."

Kite Runner Movie

I can't wait to see this movie. It will be released in theaters on Friday, November 2nd. There is no one that I know, who has not been moved and inspired by the book. The author Khaled Hosseini is very pleased with the outcome of the movie. So it must be true to the book.

Watch the trailer here.

Inspiring Song

A group of Pakistani pop artists has collaborated on a song with an anti-terrorist message that has become an anthem among Pakistani youth.

Yeh Hum Naheen, or This is Not Us, is being played thousands of times on the pop channels, was No. 1 for four weeks on MTV and 8 out of the 10 biggest Pakistani music stars participated in the project. There have been 60,000-70,000 downloads which is an impressive figure for a poor country like Pakistan.

Read more here & and watch the video here.

An amazing show

Last weekend, we took our kids to see the Cirque du soleil's show called KA , and what an Amazing show it was. It was so magical, please, if you can go and see it. Worth every penny!

Watch here.