Serenity

Being an only child in a family of three leaves one ample time to ponder, write , read and think deeply from a very young age.(Or maybe I was plain spiritual/philosophical since childhood. Hehehe)

Anyhow, I used to maintain a diary in which I constantly wrote thoughts that struck a chord with me. I also wrote self-composed poems in it, which were mostly pathetic (clearly am no poet). Today, years later, when the art of writing diaries and journals has been swept over by blogging and what have you, I still refer to it time and again. Not only does it renew hope, it brings me a sense of serenity. I shall write some of my favourites, and also lament the loss of a book of poetry I treasured...

Life is a journey on a train,
With two fellow passengers on each window pane,
I may sit beside you, all the journey through,
Or I may sit elsewhere, never knowing you,
But should fate mark us, to sit side by side,
Let's be pleasant travelers, tis' so short a ride.

- Subhash C. Sethi

Does God need your offerings to be able to eat and dress?
Give instead to the poor.

God is in heaven, but his idols are made
by men with petty ambitions.

- Jesus Christ

Love is a fruit in season at all times,
and within reach of every hand.

- Mother Teressa

Love is the extremely difficult realization
that something other than oneself is real.

- Iris Murdoch

Each friend represents a world in us,
A world posibly not born until they arrive,
And it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

- Anais Nin

One kind word can warm three winter months.

- Japanese Proverb

It's such a secret place, the land of tears.

- Antoine de Saint - Exupery

Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love,
Is a waste of time. There are too many mediocre things
In life, and love should not be one of them.

- Anonymous

Phew, that's all for now. Serenity - The Sequel will come soon.

We are the World

I cannot explain what I felt when I first heard this song, many many years ago. 
Today, it still manages to give me gooseflesh. A song of hope, faith and an earnest plea to selfish humanity, the song is all this, and much more. 

There comes a time
When we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can't go on
Pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need

[Chorus] We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[Chorus] We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one

[Chorus] We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

(Probably one of the better things Michael Jackson did with his life. Kudos!)

The week that was

Hmm... Where do I begin? 
The week started with butterflies in my stomach, and ended with  stars in my eyes. This was the week I started working after a hiatus of seven long, painful and  anguishing months. Not only was this my first week at a new job, it was the first week of my first real job!  And what a week  it has been: 

Monday Blues
Monday was supposed to be my last day at home as an unemployed person. Hehehe. Jittery, nervous, doubtful, hyper. I was all this and more. Slept weird.

Swagatam Shubh Swagatam
I chose to go there finally, so what if it is not the start I wanted for my career. Truth is, you gotta start somewhere. The day was exceptionally tiring, we were in for a grand grand welcome (no there was no tika or puja to welcome us). The orientation included a tour of the workplace, meeting a few pertinent people, a brief narration of the company profile, filing up forms and getting certificates etc verified. The highlight of the day was being able to climb 2 floors at once. A first since the accident. :)

Among the new joinees, there were 7 guys and 3 girls, one guy was sumwhat cute but sadly, he was transfered to the gurgaon branch. There were times during the orientation when we were made to wait in the conf room and I started sketching to avoid boredom. I was sketching a girl's face and the cute guy was sitting across the table. A pesky joinee then told him that I was sketching him. EMBARASSING! 

Mother's Day
In march? Yes. Mothers fall ill too. On Wednesday I was not only petrified but also angry. My workstation had not been finalised, I was jumping from one desk to the other for the first half of the day. In the second half I edited some of the worst writing i have ever laid my eyes on. I came home to find that mommy had  been advised rest and cannot   move   her  right arm. 
Our maid was nowhere to be seen. The next few days went on like this, with me juggling  office work, attending meetings and coming home to housework, besides dealing with my foot (climbing two floors was not a good idea after  all)Mommy wore an agonised expression all day, and I hated every bit of it. I can bear almost anything in the world but to see her like this, helpless and hurting :(

Prison Break
I like my workplace. I also like what I get to do there. BUT I HATE THEIR CELL PHONE AND INTERNET POLICY! Why oh why can i not use gtalk or keep my own cellphone with me! Not that I love chattering away the working hours, but it's not particularly thrilling to be inaccessbile for 8 n half hours! Anyways, seems I can get used to it. Besides, everybody here seems to be a chatter box. There is also an internal chat server. That is kind of fun, one needs human contact of some sort. Hehehe.  I made a breakthrough on friday though, logged on 2 gtalk via meebo, but not a soul was online.

Office Duds n Dames
Sadly, I have been seated with programmers and I don't even have an LCD. The guy next to me seems weird and married. The girl next to him, seems my age, but doesn't talk much. Simply because there is nothing to talk about.
Then there is  the  gawker  who sits  a few seats ahead  across the aisle. He just can't seem to get the smug smile off his face or stop gawking at ze girlies. Maybe he is trying to devise a means of communicating wid bizzare facial expressions. Fab dimples though.  There is  also Mr. Confident, what a strut, but with  an air of arrogance. These  folks don't seem  particularly friendly to newbies, everybody  has  a  clique. Gets boring at lunch. Couldn't care less at other times.

Corporate
This experience is quite different from what I have witnessed so  far (work-wise)There's a healthy mix of male & female colleagues, everybody is punctual (coz there are actual cash awards for it! talk about motivation!) There is a lot of international stuff happening. International projects, clients and it was only my 4th day at work when my official mailbox was flooded with messages from various employees and team heads celebrating the finalisation of a branch in Bangkok. Cool!

Regrets
Come to think of it, there aren't any. It's surely not my dream job or a dream start. Far from it. But I am just 22 and the world is my oyster :)
Do I miss staying at home? Not at all, surprisingly. The  timings are cool, conveyance is  simply not a  problem, courtesy  papa.  However, mom's illness is ill-timed, but then again, when are diseases well-timed? And of course, I do miss my time with my grandpa :)

All's Well, that Ends Well
The week ended well, with a diagnosis of mom's illness. It's not osteo-arthritis as I thought.  And I won't have to exert myself much coz domestic help has been arranged. Both me n mommy will get the rest we should. I am beaming :)

Spiritually Materialistic

O-ZONE
The Devil wears Prada when God is not in Gucci

Who says you need to give up your designer tags and exotic lifestyle in order to pursue happiness or spirituality? As all metrospirituals will vouch, you can find God within your Gucci togs if you only look inwards! It’s when you start doing things divorced from normal life that the Devil takes over… by VINITA DAWRA NANGIA

WHY does the movie The Pursuit of Happyness spell happiness with “y” and not “i”? Maybe it was a quirk of the film director to create intrigue. Or, perhaps there was a deeper meaning there. The Times of India edit page recently reduced all capital “I”s into small “i”s – a step possibly towards keeping the ego in check. Could the removal of this pesky letter from “happyness” be for the same reason? Because you can be happy only when you remove the “I” or ego! And now, our new column, God in Gucci (right) invites people who seek their own brand of spiritualism, to write about inward journeys that helped them reduce or remove their “I”s.

What did these journeys involve? What kind of experiences did these metrospirituals undergo? Did they have to give up Gucci to attain God? How did they resolve the conflict between materialism and spirituality? Did they forgo the pursuit of happyness?

Those who have been there and done that, point out that the paradox is in the word “pursuit”! How can you pursue a state of being like happiness or spirituality? You just can be happy; you can’t go looking for it. Like Will Smith says in the movie, “Maybe that’s all there is to happiness, just the pursuit!” Similarly, you can just be spiritual; you can’t go seeking spirituality! For, what you seek is not without, but within you. The paradox seems to be that we insist on having all our material comforts as well as a state of bliss and spiritual equanimity! Can this conflict be resolved? Most gurus say it can. The answer surprisingly is – indulge! For, it’s a happy, satisfied mind that can be meditative and spiritual – not the other way round. The trick is in being YOU, not trying to become something else.

A friend recently said, “Everybody looks at the world, eyes wide open. Have you ever tried looking at it with eyes closed?” Everyone hears with ears open. Have you ever tried to listen with your ears closed? To the silence within? That’s where you will find God – He is with you, you don’t have to seek Him in a temple, you don’t have to indulge in any religiousness to achieve Him; you don’t have to destroy any temple or mosque to prove your devotion.

One of the quickest ways of taking anyone away from God or spirituality is to assign templates and rules, rights and wrongs. Take off your footwear; cover your head; T-shirts and necklaces with religious symbols are fine, but when Roberto Cavalli designs a line of innerwear with images of Ram, his bikini bottoms raise the top off the lid! Who is to say you cannot wear your God where you want to? Why is it acceptable to hold Him in the deepest recesses of your heart, but taboo to wear Him intimately next to your skin?

Why can’t you be wearing a Cavalli bikini and still be deeply religious? What stops you from being sexy as well as religious; materialistic as well as spiritual; happy as well as sad? Why must one state preclude the other?

The very idea of one of these states with the complete exclusion of the other seems totally unrealistic. These are not contradictions, but complementary activities. You can’t put life on a pause and go off in pursuit of happiness or even spirituality outside the realm of daily concerns, as a kind of separate activity.

Spiritualism is all about finding God when you are in your Gucci. You may see him in a bar, in a pub, on the road, in your garden…The idea behind this column is to be comfortable with your own notion of spiritualism. This is the genesis of the concept of God in Gucci.

vinita.nangia@timesgroup.com

My comments: Totally agree with the lady. One can be spiritual and materialistic, note that there is a difference between materialistic and greedy or self-absorbed. The trick lies in striking a balance, without indulging in some kind of whimsical hedonism.

The much-married Adam

For a very long time, TimesLife! has been bringing out great articlesevery sunday. The write-ups are witty and on diverse themes. Kudos to the team for thinking out of the box. 

Here is a good one by Suhel Seth:

MAN POWER by SUHEL SETH

The much-married Adam!

IN today’s hurly-burly (and this has no reference to some British leggy who got married twice within seven days) of weddings, have you noticed how the man is conveniently left out? In the good old days, men were consulted as to who they wished to marry; how they wanted to get married; where they wished to honeymoon and so on, but in today’s troubled gender-equality times, all of this has been thrown out of the window. Men are like test-tubes: experiment and wash. Simple. The man must protest. He must demand his rightful place under the sun.

The Indian wedding is guiltier of discrimination than any other type. In a research I conducted many years ago, called the MALE ANGUISH study (administered by a feminist research organisation in this country just to get the balance right), the critical factor for male anguish was Marriage, followed by the Type of marriage, which in simple English means, that most men were anguished they were married and their second reason for anguish was the manner in which they got married! Upon further probing, the following factors emerged:

• Most men were going through post-marital early depression: The cycle has now shrunk. In 1997, most men exhibited marital fatigue after three years of conjugal harmony; this has now shrunk to about 14 days. So, we now have fortnightly assessments of marital health. which is defined as that period where the man and woman don’t fight or abuse each other’s parentage and/or talk to each other while dining in public places.
  
• 
  
• Most men confessed to suffering acute torment and/or insult during the marriage process: Some complained that they were forced to wear designer clothing on bodies that were as Gothic as the columns of Victoria Memorial; others were told that the girl’s side put enormous pressure on their grooming skills, and some men had to, for the first time in their lives, experience metrosexual acts such as facials and pedicures.
  
• 
  
• Most men experienced a rare bout of amnesia post-marriage, and this began to affect their work: We discovered this amnesia was forced upon them by their wives. Men were expected to remember the birthdays, death anniversaries, wedding anniversaries of their in-laws and the extended family, which many a time included domestic help. Men complained that given the limited memory storage gigabytes in their head, this was forcing them to forget important things such as where they worked; and who their boss was. This resulted in about 93 per cent men not getting promoted post-marriage for at least the first five years, causing a loss of income and respect.
  
• 
  
• Most men said that marriage did nothing for them in terms of societal acceptance: Single women would stay away as they were married and the married women, who they used to earlier flirt with, began questioning their income and status now that it was all divided between husband and wife, resulting in further erosion of the attraction index (a measure of how men consider themselves in terms of brand worthiness).
  
• 
  
• Most men also noticed an increase in their ADD (attention deficit disorders) levels: They stopped responding to female voices as almost all the voices sounded alarmingly similar to that of their wives. However, most men continued to respond harmoniously to their mothers. This is a good signal for mankind as the mother is the invention of modern man.
  

Finally, our research firmly concluded that marriage was an effective pause in the lifecycle of men. In the days gone by, it was an encouragement for men to start families and create legacies, but given the advances that IVF and adoption have made today and the track-record that Angelina Jolie has established (of being the international baby adopter), men say that the rules of engagement have substantially changed which minimise the need for marriage. In a way, the research arrived at what I have always believed.

Men are like the proverbial Adam and would prefer the sinful apple to a healthy marriage. Thankfully, nothing dramatic has happened except that men, given gender equality, have been able to articulate their woes in a more refined manner (such as through columns like this), so that the larger universe can both empathise with them and share their enduring plight!

(Suhel Seth is the managing parner of Counslage India and a happy bachelor)

My Comments: LOL, a thoroughly amusing read, though written with a slightly female-bashing  attitude. The Jolie bit had me in splits!

Wish you were here . . .

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.

Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?

Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

Note to self

I am just 22.

I am only 22!

Butterflies . . .

Today as I stand on the brink of a new chapter in life, I feel like a child of three about to leave mommy, daddy and her cocoon to go to school. So scared am I that I am actually thinking of quitting before I begin. Jeez! :-s

Give it back to me!

I want my strength back!

I want it! I want it! I want it!

I want to be able to go walking from green park to ring road.

I want to be able to go from south ex 1 to 2 to khel gaaon marg on my feet!

I miss the occassional aerobics, the frequent dances and what have you!

Plz god plz goive me my strength back.

Discalimer: I know this blog is pointless and god won't read it or anything, but makes me feel better somehow to beg and rave and rant.

This is going to hurt just a little bit...

A trip to the dentist is a harrowing experience for the average petrified soul. However thanks to this poem a lot of people are shit scared of the dentist's chair. Just to clear things, let me tell from my own experience that there is nothing life-altering about visiting the dentist and getting your teeth in prime condition. Stoopid Ogden Nash! His poem should be taken out of the school curriculum. It's about time! This dramatic poem (perhaps intended to be funny) creates an excruciatingly painful impression on the reader. Jeez!

One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a
dentist chair with my mouth wide open.
(A dentist chair is one of the most comfy things to sit on you jerk!)

And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.
(You are neither invincible dude, nor resistant to decay!)

Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
(Like reading your poem)

But the one that is both is dental.
(For the sake of rhyme!)

It is hard to be self possessed
(Especially for you)

With your jaw digging into your chest,
(Hardly the truth)

So hard to retain calm
(Freaky bundle of nerves you!)

When your fingernails are making serious alterations in your life
line or love line or some other important line in your palm,
(PHHHH!)

So hard to give your ususal cheerful effect of benignity
(I doubt cheerful is the word to be associated with you)

When you know your position is one of the two or
three in life most lacking in dignity
(You crazy lunatic)

And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on
(Hope a road roller goes into your mouth) 

And it is cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and drills and steam rollers and there isn't a nerve on your head that aren't being irked on.
(Relax fella!)

Oh some people are unfortunate to be worked on by thumbs,
(Are you talking about accupressure?)

And others have things done to their gums,
(Again, for the sake of rhyme)

And your teeth are supposed to being polished
(What's wrong with that?)

But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.
(Drama queen)

And the circumstances that adds to your terror
(Hmmm...)

Is that it's all done with a mirror,
(How else then, Einstein!)

Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say,
only they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,
(What have the Romans got to do with it?)

But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one hand and mirror in the other he won't get mixed up, the way you do when try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, and forget that left is right and vice versa
(They have had practice!) 

And then at last he says, That will be all, but it isn't because
he then coats your mouth from cellar to roof
(Rolling eyes)

With something I suspect is generally used to put shine a horse's hoof,
(Am sure a dentist would be furious by now)

And you totter to your feet and think,
Well it's over now and after all it was only this once,
(Sometimes it is)

And he says come back in three months.
(Don't come if it bugs you so much!)

And this O Fate, is I think the most vicious that thou ever sentest,
(Again, drama queen)

That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition
(You want to go to a dermatologist instead?)

When the chief reason he wants his teeth to be in good
condition is so that he won't have to go the dentist
(Get over it, you creep!)

The Foundation of Foolishness

Do unto others, what you would have them do to you.

Jesus Christ

These words perhaps built the foundation for emotional foolishness; a distinct part of my personna. Often I have tried to give a cold shoulder to people who have been unkind to me. Often I have tried to be indifferent to those people in their hour of need who have been indifferent in mine. No success have I gathered.

Somehow I can't help being driven by these words. Reaching out comes naturally to me, so does giving folks the benefit of doubt or a second chance. While it's not so bad most of the time, but at times this accomodating emotional foolishness lands me in trouble. Now I have even given up trying to be different than what I am. That's me I guess.

Invisible Worlds (2 philosophical, dont read)

The sky is roaring with thunder outside. It's pouring too. 

I just had to get out of bed to type this out.

We live in a segregated world. Apart from the borders that divide nations, there are other lines too. Lines of distinction. Humans are judged the world over by their performance, appearance, grades, lifestyle, wealth, education... How quick we are to shun one that does not look, think or talk like us. One must snigger at or pity the forms of the ones that are different, in order to quickly establish the difference.

One never sees these 'abnormal' souls in the 'normal' realm. They live in their own world, where their reality defines their sense of normalcy. Perhaps where they don't feel different or outcast. They go to their own schools, have friends of their own kind, basically mark their own corner in this huge thing we call the world. 

The physically handicapped, the eunuchs, the mentally impaired, the beggars, all live in their own worlds. They have ridicule and pity to fear, apart from feeling unaccepted, not understood. 

Their worlds never mingle with ours. Neither will know the alternate version of reality. 

Sad but true.

The Book of Love

One doesn't need to be in love to enjoy a great love song.
Presenting, The Book of Love, by Peter Gabriel:

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts
and facts and figures
and instructions for dancing
But I.....
I love it when you read to me
And you....
You can read me anything

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb
But I....
I love it when you sing to me
And you....
You can sing me anything



The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know
But I....
I love it when you give me things
And you....
You ought to give me wedding rings
And I....
I love it when you give me things
And you....
You ought to give me wedding rings
And I....
I love it when you give me things
And you....
You ought to give me wedding rings
You ought to give me wedding rings

My days are numbered?

Seems like I will soon be joining an organisation I had no intentions of joining in the first place. A make-shift arrangement of sorts, the job means to me more of a source of income and killing time rather than a career. It's a compromise for sure and that is evident by the fact that I have begun dreading the damn thing even before experiencing it. It could turn out to be quite spectacular, but for now am just dreading it. Is it a big mistake or will I be able to move on to better and more desirable things? Am being too negative perhaps. 

Come 2oth and it will be the same ol' drill again. This would be the third workplace for me, I beleive that makes me look like a rolling stone on my CV. It's such a royal pain to find your way around with newbies. Where is the water cooler? Where is the accounts office? Blah blah blah. Hope my boss is good. The person who interviewed me was too cute and we had a great convo chemistry, though I know I won't be working directly under him.

Who knows, I may decide not to join at the last moment. That's me I guess.  

But since I didn't hear from the publishing lady, am left with no other alternative. So if my days are numbered, so be it. Am too busy living it up to the hilt!

Here's to good times :D

Baharon phool barsao . . .

What lovely lyrics, what delightful expression and what a marvelous blend it makes with rafi's voice. I know this song has been raided by wedding video makers but it hasn't lost its appeal.

Bahaaron phool barasaao,
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai

Hawaao raaganee gaao,
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai

O laalee phool kee mehandee lagaa in gore haathon mein

Utar aa aye ghataa kaajal lagaa in pyaaree aankhon mein

Sitaaro maang bhar jaao, meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Bahaaron phool barasaao,
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai

Nazaaro har taraf ab taan do ek noor kee chaadar

Badaa sharmilaa dilabar hai, chalaa jaaye naa sharamaa kar

Zaraa tum dil ko bahalaao, meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa mehaboob aayaa hai
Bahaaron phool barasaao,
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai

Sajaayi hai jawaan kaliyon ne ab yeh sej ulfat ki
Inhe maaloom tha aayegi ek din rut mohabbat ki
Fizaaon rang bikhraao, meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Hawaaon raagini gaao, meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Bahaaron phool barsaao, meraa meheboob aayaa hai
Meraa meheboob aayaa hai

Of Ageing, Living and Ageing Gracefully

Since I am perpetually confused or depressed now-a-days and have nothing much to write about, I shall paste a fwd mail here abt ageing, with my personal touch :)

Perhaps am too young to think much about ageing, but I can't help my thoughts flowing in that direction. So here goes:

George Carlin's Views on Ageing

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is
when we're kids?

If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about
ageing that you think in fractions.
"How old are you?"
"I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half.
You're four and a half, going on five!

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next
number, or even a few ahead.
"How old are you?"
"I'm gonna be 16!"
You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16!

And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21.
Even thewords sound like a ceremony .
YOU B ECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there?

Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the
brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams
are all gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!
So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day
thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch;
At 4:30; you REACH bedtime.

And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."
Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little
kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

Stayin' Alive & Stayin' Young

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them."

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,
whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
And the devil's name isAlzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is
with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets,
keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home i s your refuge; a world within a world.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,
improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next
county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10.Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

And Always Remember

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments
that take our breath away.