Let love be

Love is not about wanting to be with the  person.

Love is about letting the person be.

So be it.

RM

When you don't like a situation then accept it or act on it or quit the scene.
Blaming one's own self or destiny or others is only going to create exhausting negative energy.

Even the potter needs to give a few touches here and there periodically to bring out pottery of the desired shape.

Here the pottery to be beautified is our dear life.

RM

#Buildyourself #Designyourinterior

When was the last time you impressed yourself?
The key to contentment is to impress one's own self. Look at yourself like a third entity and ask would you like to be with this person.

Not yet ? Then find out what you look for in a person, be that, not what you think that other people would love to see you as. You may end up as a way better person.

See if you fall in love with yourself.

RM

#Selfenrichment #Buildyourself

Fear comes from the sense of not knowing, what lays ahead of, or what lays behind, that which is facing us; the antidote is to know; not to avoid.

RM

#Faceyourfears #Buildyourself #Selfenrichment

Only a seeker can be enlightened; the seeking may be conscious or otherwise.

RM

#Questforpeace #Questforknowledge

Quick Sand

The quicksand of happiness holds me only till I stay still and enjoy it's warmth.

It starts giving way the moment I try reaching out to hold on to something.

Be it as it may
I will stay still and prolong it's presence

I will be burried nevertheless
Only the sinking would be elgant and happy

RM

Soothe

Don't create that for others which made you suffer once.

Don't be the creator of restlessness for yourself and others.

Take the poison and give nectar.

The chain of negativity has to stop somewhere.

Be that last receiver, convert it into positivity and release it like a Dove.

#Peacemustprevail #Giveback

RM

Conscious happiness to unconscious happiness

If you have not been feeling happy and elated about being alive then it is a serious issue ;)

It's worth it to sit down and write on a piece of paper all that is going on in your mind.

Then read through all of them and identify the ones which make you feel a little uncomfortable.

There, you have identified the culprit. Now see what can be done about it.
It may call for a change in either your habits or routine, it may need a face to face conversation with someone at office/family/friend circle, may need medical attention, may need a little rest to your mind or body or both, may be a change in your current situation (job/home location/city).

It may so happen that you didn't find anything uncomfortable but nothing that exactly gives you a kick or excitement as well. The feeling would be like "not looking forward to anything :( "

Time to find your happiness.

Make a list of the activities which are considered enjoyable in general (in general cause you are not able to see anything as enjoyable).

Picture yourself doing that and what will be the feeling after you have done it and what are the side effects or incidental benefits that you can think of ...

●Watching a movie/play in theatre - caramel popcorn
●Watching a live performance/concert - being one with the crowd
●Trekking - Better health
●Vacation - New set of profile pics ;)
●Buy a camera and test your photography   skills during your escapades - Discovery
●Draft a new project to make things   interesting and give yourself a challenge at workplace - Better appraisal and Recognition, pride of being an example

If any or many of above make you feel like "not a bad idea, I can try" then do give it a try. Keep experimenting, this will engage you and you won't even realize when you would be smiling at yourself all over again.
From being consciously happy you will become unconsciously happy.

Find what you love about yourself and sharpen it.

#Worktowardsyoursmile #Raiseyourself #Helpself

RM

...but I wanted the best for them

"I can't understand why they don't understand this simple thing " said my friend. He was upset that his parents were not ready to come and stay with him, where they get all modern amenities and comforts; where they don't even have to lift a finger.

They wanted to stay back in the small town with the crowded market place, the weekly vegetable market with muddy puddles, the occasional bull fights on the road.

He was visibly distressed. "I am trying to give them the 'best' life but they are not appreciating it". He almost fumed with impatience.

I said, "It will be alright friend. You know what, I have just the 'best' thing to lift your mood." He looked at me. I said, "I have got 2 full Kilos of Chhenapoda (sweets made of jaggery and soft cheese, a delicacy of Odisha) just for you".
He didn't look happy, "I hate sweets".

I said, "but I tried doing the 'best' for you, the way you are trying to do the 'best' for your parents!!"

#Breatheandletbreathe #Letbe #Setfree

RM

When in doubt

When in doubt about a certain action /step/decision, think long term.

5 or 10 yrs down the line when you look back at this action /step /decision

Are you going to be proud of it?
Are you going to be glad about it?
Are you going to be okay about it?
Are you going to regret it?
Will you be able to share it proudly with others or atleast look at the mirror and say it to yourself without feeling embarrassed or stupid or angry with yourself?

The goodness or the feeling that you are getting out of it now, is it going to remain in your memory as goodness when you look back at it.

You will find your the haze clearing out and your path clear in front of you.

RM

#Theansweriswithin #Helpself

Learnings from the Moon

The Moon kept boasting over its brightness till the dawn knocked.

It got a new to do list; as it could never beat Sun at brightness. It chose the alternate part time career option as well, of being a muse to Poets, and like many it realized that we may pursue, and be best at something, rather than just running after something that we are just good at, like many others. Find that skill or area and accept with humility, when you learn that there are certain greats. And even if we manage to push and surpass the greats, humility is indispensable, since there is always going to be someone who thought the same way as we did.

Give your best. Stay humble. Accept Life

RM

#Raiseyourself #Designyourinterior #Belifeready

Carve the best you

SWOT

A little underrated I guess when it comes to us.

Take it up for a happy, better you.

Easy steps:

Create or learn something new everyday. It may be something as simple as below

A small drawing on a random piece of paper

An original one liner by you

A small article made of waste box or paper

A new recipe

A new thing added to routine

A timetable or routine for yourself noted down on paper

Trying to adhere to the time table created by you

A new word

A new concept

Before you go to sleep remember what you did or learn newly Today and what did you learn about yourself from that.

Do your own SWOT analysis

Strength - Inherent

Weakness - Inherent

Opportunity - External

Threat - External

Basis the SWOT do course correction on the way you are taking life and work on yourself.

Every different task and your response to the tasks picked by you will introduce you to yourself anew. Thus identified you can work on polishing yourself to be a better version of you. Keep ironing out the creases one at a time.

I have heard to achieve greatness we must put behind the "Me"... but this "Me" is the thing that has to be dealt with now..... only when I have dealt with me can I think about "You".
Work on being best "Me" you know.

#Raiseyourself #Designyourinterior

RM

The moments which make you feel like you can't walk further are the milestones that you will look back at and feel proud of when you have long since crossed them.

RM

#Raiseyourself #Lifeiswonimoments

Soothe. Heal. Be kind.

It costs nothing, all you may need is a little patience and a little control on words and monitoring of your thoughts.

But the rewards include:

1. A peaceful sleep - nothing like it as precursor for a great new day.

2. Good will - we never know whose good will comes handy when we are stuck in tough situations but all of us have such moments of miraculous relief when least expected at some point in our life.

3. Friends for life

If we have not come across relief, peace and positivity and peace in past few days, months or years then it may probably be because we have not given the same to the surroundings.

Don't be tough on people in emotional situations, have a heart. Choose when to advise a person to toughen up and when to just caress his/her forehead with an intent "it's alright", "am there", "everything will fall in place".

The world is like a sea, what reaches the shore is something added to it by someone in some far off shore. Let's add good things from our end and start a trend and hope that others also add good things to the shore. Then all of us will end up getting only goodness, when we need.

The world is getting chaotic, some of us need to volunteer to bring in order and peace

RM

#Raiseyourself #Self-Enrichment 

1. A to do list for Tomorrow - Check

2. A list of things/states still desirable and to die for - Check

3. A list of favourite food items that cause your mouth to water literally - Check

4. A list of destinations you dream to visit some day - Check

5. A friend(s) you really mean to catch up with and blurt out all that is stacked within - Check

6. A favourite song play list - Check

7. A list of books still to be added to the list of already read and digested books - Check

8. A face that increases your heart beat - Check

9. A secret wish of changing one aspect of physical form (loose weight/gain weight/increase glow) - Check

10. A desire to learn something - Check

11. A capacity to wonder at things with wide eyes - Check

12. A little warmth in heart - Check

13. A little courage to experiment - Check

14. Enough available space in heart - Check

15. A flexible mind to accept and appreciate differences - Check

Perfect !!

You are rightly packed to embark on this journey called life with a young heart.

RM

#Liveallout #Raiseyourself #Breatheitharmsnoone.

P.S. Pls do add if I have missed out anything

This is all I can say ....

From where I am looking at it now, I don't know where to look to be able to see something. May be my life's going to be like a dream come true. May be my life's going to be miserable; but who can stop me from making it less miserable. I am not going to give up. I am fighting.

I hear and I listen too, but yes I want only to be heard not listened, so I talk and not speak.
I am going to fight with myself and the coward, the hypocrite in me, to earn every single penny that will help me earn, what people presume that I deserve, but I know within that I don't. Not yet.

She unlocks the door and comes home..
Switches on the lights...thinks of all the couples she saw at the super market buying grocery together... The picture of perfect lives; it must be nice to have someone to discuss how much and what to cook and shop together as per each other's liking? But then, she has herself too. She asked herself, "sweetest love, what do you feel like having for dinner ?" Then she really gave it a good thought and said "well how about Biryani...yumm? ". She smiled at herself and said "Biryani it is going to be. Let's Google it".

Love yourself, there is nothing that you can't do for yourself that a partner would have done. You are special. Make yourself feel special.....make that effort to prepare that elaborate Saturday dinner or Sunday lunch for yourself. Take yourself out for an ice cream or shopping.

Treat yourself.

Focus on this very moment, focus on what will give you peace and take you smoothly to the next moment. Life is lived in moments.

Give yourself a chance. The best part is you can always be sure that no one is going to spoil your plan by a "no show".

Love yourself. Take care of yourself. You can always count on yourself.

Pray to the power within you.

RM

#Raiseyourself #Designyourinterior

Is the world still a good place to live in?

This thought struck me while sipping ginger tea and biscuit in a bustling tea stall during my evening walk.

I saw a man who had lost his legs walking up to the nearby stall to enjoy his Set Dosa. Aw. ..the zeal to live fully. These are small battles for life, for self and then there was the shopkeeper lady making sure nothing to this man's  taste is left wanting. A human helping another to live fully.

I saw a guy keeping biscuits for an ageing dog. One life trying to preserve another.

A young couple caressing a dog who looked at them with longing eyes to be petted. Two lives sharing from their overflowing cup of love with a third life, thus multiplying their own love. And increasing the life of their love by sharing more than an admiration for each other; sharing an admiration for life with its small and big blessings like the reciprocation of love from an innocent animal.

Strangers making sure that you are not uncomfortable as a woman in a crowded tea stall and making space for you to place your tea cup so that you can enjoy a dip of your biscuit in tea.

People defending authors on social media against hate comments. Thousands of motivational quotes.

I got my answer. World is worthy :)

RM
#Wearetogetherinthis #powerofgratitude

The Eternal Love Story

When they fight and separate
They burn; they drown
They bring drought and deluge

When they come together
They bring saplings of vitality to life

Seven colours come into play when he runs his bright fingers through her diamond coloured hair.

When they do a show of strength
She sends her soldiers to captivate and arrest his light.
And he grins with the pride of one upmanship when he makes silver linings around the very same flagbearers of the proud queen.


Fireworks and Storms galore
Their love story like all others
Brings joy and tears
They paint the town in rainbow colours
They complement and contest each other
They burn and quench each other

Eternal love story of the Sun and Rain
The story of separation and evenings spent in vain
The story of meetings and songs sung in pain
The story of creation and Sun and Rain

RM

Lying to a person,  who can take the truth, is an insult to that person's strength of character

The beautiful glass

The smokey,  Blue,  intoxicating, sparkling,  fragrant drink;

This vast,  beautiful, wide rimmed glass;
The stem lies in the hands of the Alpha
While the cold, white,  brilliant ice tinkers around;
The silver particles form beautiful shapes.

He shakes the glass a little for His amusement;
What churn out are stories,
of lands far and wide, emotions soft and lucid;
Stories told next to orange cinders throwing forth warm rotis in a mud hut;
Stories told at a tall table with two  glasses in two hands;
Stories told lying under the shade of the same sky, to the soldier lying next,
Of not going to see the cute child again,
of not caressing the forehead of the beloved ever again,
While fireworks continue behind the sand bags,  across the barbed wires,
And the man holding the stem of the glass calls the soldier near,
His hands pointing at the stars glitter gore.

Stories told at a nukkad (square) with a kulhad (clay tea cup) in hand
Of past romances when the head still bore hues of black
Of past matches where he scored a century and bowed to a crowded stadium

Stories told by a defeated heart to his wife lying next,
of the dreams of playing in a band,
Of holding the strings of a guitar,
In the same helplessness hands that could not  hold anything more than the stick of a night watchman,
of whistling and alerting people to stay on guard,
In the same night,  which like many others,  tells him he is one more night farther from his dreams.

This man though, with the stem in His hands, of this beautiful wide brimmed glass, stirs it a little at times ;
The stirrer of His grace,
turns fates upside down,.
brings the ones down to the top and pushes the proud ones down;

Sits back and enjoys another sip

Till the contents settle again and tell similar stories into the darkening liquid

(Metaphor -  Evening as the smokey liquid in His hands)

RM

Photo courtesy -  https://goo.gl/images/FHKhV1

Pain can be beautiful but all beautiful things don't necessarily be a joy forever. Some wax and wane like the moon :) :) Some come forward and recede like the waves...
RM

Where did I lose my light
Floating with the clouds, suddenly a little too laden with water
Is it the water or is it the little bit of salt in the water which was the undoing
Was it the water in the cloud or was it a little too gladdened heart which burst empty

Walked all day to reach a bright fragrant evening
May be a little too late
May be the lamps have been blown out
The fragrance exhausted
May be the lawn is long since deserted
May be the lamps were never lit
May be lawn was never inhabited
May be I lost my way

I see some glow worms
I will sing the ballad of the nomad lass
Heard some fellow in Hamlin had drawn bundles of pure joy
I will summon a million glow worms
Flicker by flicker the glow of life
I will captivate it,
Gather it in my eyes
Line my eyes with the rainbow
The water in the clouds will then but only add to me
My gaze will colour the world
The world will colour my view
With the wings of dreams my feet will leave the brown beneath
The heart will sail till the toes graze the dewed greens
Till the fragrant breezes push the wings of dreams higher up
Soaring so high that the drops of Manna on the toes sparkle like diamonds
Breaking the light behind the mountains into a seven coloured fan
Will keep soaring high till the air around is cool to my heart's content
So light, when I close my eyes I can feel the weight of my lashes
When I open my eyes, all I see is the green brightness
Clean brightness
The quiet and warmth of His kingdom
Solace, Soothing, healing warmth
Bright, light laughter
Rhythm in gait
I close my eyes again
The warm lids soothe my eyes
The clouds anoint my forehead
I go into a slumber
With the promise of this sleep being reality
Not to be woken up by the cacophony of a different reality
I will walk towards this land, His land

Our cradle, His creation around us

RM

The risk of no risk

Discover your full potential. Do it one step at a time if it scares you to leave the oars. Do it one inch at a time if it scares you even to get up from the bank and step into the river of life. But don't remain still. Stillness will bring you face to face with the scariest consequence, an inconsequential life.
RM