Another year of life. Or the first year of the rest of my life.

Wow!!!

It's been a roller coaster of an year, this 2012.

So much action. So many people. So much learning.

Life was kind. Life was cruel. Life was friendly. Life was bitter. Life was a myriad of everything. 

  

Turmoils. Happy moments. Sad occasions. Terrible times. Terrific recovery.

Rough relationships that brought a whole lot of fresh insights.

And of course, the world didn't end :) and here we are beginning another rotation in our our habitual orbit around the sun with the same naughty inclination of axis in the ever repeating elliptical path. Jai Ho!

2013 must rise above all the previous years as the best year yet. I am committed to making it the best year of my life. Didn't go to office today on purpose. Because I wanted spend the last day with myself. 

Spent the whole day today, introspecting on the past year and the many years before that. Opened my favourite shelf in the house and fondly surveyed all the books waiting there deceptively innocuous. Wondered what a fraction of their lessons I had internalised. Wondered what if I were able to assimilate all of them and use the wisdom at the snap of a finger. Nay, life was never meant to be that easy, isn't it? 

Whatever it may hold, 2013 will be the year where I get better control of my life.

  

This blog post from Paulo Coelho for this new year simply rocks.

 

No one can go back, but everyone can go forward.

And tomorrow, when the sun rises, all you have to say to yourselves is:
I am going to think of this day as the first day of my life.

I will look on the members of my family with surprise and amazement, glad to discover that they are by my side, silently sharing tha little understood thing called love.

I will pass a beggar, who will ask me for money.
I might give it to him or I might walk past thinking that he will only spend it on drink, and as I do, I will hear his insults and know that it is simply his way of communicating with me.

I will pass someone trying to destroy a bridge.
I might try to stop him or I might realise that he is doing it because he has no one waiting for him on the other side and this is his way of trying to fend off his own loneliness.

Instead of noting down things I’m unlikely to forget, I will write a poem.
Even if I have never written one before and even if I never do so again, I will at least know that I once had the courage to put my feelings into words.

I will keep smiling, because it pleases me to know that people think I am mad. My smile is my way of saying: ‘You can destroy my body, but not my soul.’

If it’s sunny tomorrow, I want to look at the sun properly for the first time.
If it’s cloudy, I want to watch to see in which direction the clouds are going. I always think that I don’t have time or don’t pay enough attention. Tomorrow, though, I will concentrate on the direction taken by the clouds or on the sun’s rays and the shadows they create.

Above my head exists a sky about which all humanity, over thousands of years, has woven a series of reasonable explanations. Well, I will forget everything I learned about the stars and they will be transformed once more into angels or children or whatever I feel like believing at that moment.

For the first time, I will smile without feeling guilty, because joy is not a sin.
For the first time, I will avoid anything that makes me suffer, because suffering is not a virtue.

I am living this day as if it were my first and, while it lasts, I will discover things that I did not even know were there.

Even though I have walked past the same places countless times before and said ‘Good morning’ to the same people, today’s ‘Good morning’ will be different. It will not be a mere polite formula, but a form of blessing.

And if I’m alone when the night falls, I will go over to window, look up at the sky and feel certain that loneliness is a lie, because the Universe is there to keep me company.

And then I will have lived each hour of my day as if it were a constant surprise to me, to this ‘I’, who was not created by my father or my mother or by school, but by everything I have experienced up until now, and which I suddenly forgot in order to discover it all anew.

And even if this is to be my last day on Earth, I will enjoy it to the full, because I will live it with the innocence of a child, as if I were doing everything for the first time.

Appreciating the days in between

Here comes another year which unleashes a deluge of emotions ranging from nostalgia to sense of achievement or a resentment. It's also the time for the annual ritual of looking back and looking forward.

I was looking for a positive thing to start this year when a very simple message landed in the inbox. It is so simple yet hits hard. I am sure to come back to this again and again just to get reminded to appreciate the in-between days.

Sometimes I need to see my life differently. Like stepping outside it and seeing it from a different angle. Maybe walking around it, underneath it or climbing on top. Better yet, through the eyes of a child. There is nothing complex about what I am about to share with you. In fact, the beauty of it lies in the simplicity.

I was talking to a friend about all the things I've been going through lately. We were sitting at a table in an open coffee shop located in the center of a mall.

I love coffee and I love conversation.

Just as we began speaking a woman with two teenage girls took the table just behind us. They were rowdy and unsettled as they were talking about all the shopping they were doing. Mom reminded them to sit quietly while she placed their order at the counter.

Remarkably, they quieted down immediately.

"All I want to do is to get through it," I said as we continued our chat.

"I know what you mean," my friend replied.

Then I said, "When I look back over my life all I see is me dealing with a problem and sooner or later another one pops up."

Without hesitation I heard, "What about all the days in between?"

I looked at my friend and he shook his head as he said, "I didn't say that."

"I did!" a young voice replied.

Then from behind him one of the girls turned around, smiled, and repeated, "What about all the days in between?"

I smiled. I thought it wonderful that she felt she had something to offer us.

"Explain." I said.

"Well, this is just my opinion, but people always think about their problems. What about all those days in between? Those days we throw away worrying about what happened and what might happen," she said.

"Those days are good days, probably more of those than the bad ones!" the other girl added.

Just then the woman returned. "Are they bothering you?" she asked.

"No, they helped me see my life differently," I said. "Now I see the days in between."

"More of those than the bad ones!" my friend added.

What do you see?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob's signature story, "I Wish You Enough," has circled the globe via the Internet. His inspiring true stories are based on the people he meets in his travels. In the mall, the airport, the park, or sitting in a restaurant, a simple word or phrase will often catch his attention; hook onto his heart-and from it a story blooms. Bob's unique perspective on life makes him "the philosopher of everyday moments."

http://www.IWishYouEnough.com
perksblog@hotmail.comSent as a courtesy of...Jeff KellerAttitude is Everything, Inc.Motivational resources to help you succeedhttp://www.attitudeiseverything.com

The last week - 2007

...Hi! Wish you a wonderful and a delightful year 2008..

Some motivation for my new year resolutions!

:: Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it, it's only good for wallowing in - Katherine Mansfield

:: It takes a strong man to swim against the current; any dead fish will float with it.

:: We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them. William Arthur Ward

:: Speak when you're angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret. Lawrence J. Peter