story

quest for greatness!

It seems only fearless achieve greatness. Everyone else is always looking forward to being great. Stopped only by the fear of failure or something unknown! Quest for greatness is never ending. But…

You achieve greatness
when you are oblivious of the dignity
of those above you,
and make those below you
oblivious of yours.
When you are neither haughty with the humble
nor humble with the haughty!

Being fearless and purely duty-bound behavior will make anyone great, like our guard out here:

A recruit was assigned to guard the entrance to the army camp and was given instructions to let no car pass if it did not have a special pennant.

He had an occasion to stop a car bearing a General who promptly told his driver to ignore the sentry and drive on. Whereupon the recruit stepped forward, rifle at the ready, and calmly said, "Pardon me, sir, but I’m new to this. Whom do I shoot? You, sir, or the driver?

It is time to be a sentry of self set principles of life – to be truly passionate = self imposed discipline to achieve something!

Good to stop the quest and start the journey!

~

Don’t change, Repurpose!

I was neurotic for years. Anxious, depressed, selfish. And everyone kept telling me to change.

And I resented them, and agreed with them, and wanted to change, but simply couldn’t, no matter how I tried.

What hurt the most was that, like the others, my closest friend kept urging me to change. So I felt powerless and trapped.

One day he said “Don’t change. I love you as you are.”

Those words were music to my ears: “Don’t change. Don’t change. Don’t change. I love you as you are.”

I relaxed. I came alive. And, suddenly, I changed!

Now I know that I couldn’t really change till I found someone to love me whether I changed or not!

Is this how you love me, god?

(~ Anthony De Mello)

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Natural transformation like that of a caterpillar is sustainable. Everything else is just yet another attempt to please someone!

If we can’t change naturally, it might be worth repurposing – finding new meanings, application or value for what we are/have, right?

Repurposing is sustainable!

~

What’s stopping?

Learning is a tough act! Doctors advice a patient post triple artery  CABG that it is normal to have such a surgery and all he has to do is – “slow down” to be healthy for rest of his life! But what is “slowing down?” – not an easy one to understand and institutionalize!

One doctor explained – accept half the load as before and take double the time to complete – never compromise on quality but it is fine to reduce the quantity. If one continues to follow the advice, naturally the system will slow down and achieve the new level of tolerance – good enough to ensure similar quality of life as before!

But is this good enough for this world where  the speed god rules? Yes, says the parable:

The animals met in assembly and began to complain that humans were always taking things away from them.

“They take my milk,” said the cow. “They take my eggs,” said the hen. “They take my flesh for bacon,” said the hog. “They take me for my oil,” said the whale.

The snail was the last to speak. “I have something they would certainly take away from me if they could. Something they want more than anything else. I have time!”

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Wonder what’s stopping us….from having all the time in the world..?

I guess we have it but, are not giving it to ourselves… wonder what’s stopping us?

~