Light of eternity...

Years ago my very practical, but deeply spiritual mother gave me a measuring rod that I’ve found most useful. It happened the day, a maid carrying too many dishes, dropped a valuable bowl which shattered to bits. It was irreplaceable, a prized wedding present. Mother did not scold the woman but quietly told her to brush up the pieces & throw them away. I knew from Mother’s face that she felt badly about her lost treasure & I began to sputter my indignation.


“Yes, it’s too bad”, Mother said,” I can never get another bowl like that”, she paused a moment & then added,” But in the light of eternity, what is one bowl?” That was all; the incident was closed for Mother.

But over the years when disasters, large or small, have arisen, I’ve found myself measuring the circumstances with this rod: What is the misfortune in the light of eternity?

Careless human!

A flood was threatening a small town & everyone was leaving for safe ground except for one man who said “God will save me. I have faith.”
As the water level rose, a jeep came to rescue him, the man refused, saying “God will save me. I have faith.”

As the water level rose further, he went up to the second storey of his house & a boat came to help him. Again he refused to go saying “God will save me. I have faith.”


The water kept rising & the man climbed onto the roof. A helicopter came to rescue him, but he said, “God will save me. I have faith.”

Well, finally he drowned. When he reached his Maker, he angrily questioned, “I had complete faith in you. Why did you ignore my prayers & let me drown?”

The Lord replied, “Who do you think sent you the jeep, the boat & the helicopter?”

Wonderful World

Tim, a small boy of six, dearly loved his pet white lamb. Every free moment, the boy & his pet would play & frolic in the fields. One day the lamb became entangled in a thorny bush. The more it struggled to free itself; the worse became its plight. It bleated mournfully until the child was at last able to free its wool from the thorns. The boy ran to his father carrying the bleeding animal cuddled in his small arms.


“Daddy”, he begged, “please cut down the wicked bush that caught my lamb.”

The father inspected the pet, cleansed the wounds & set the lamb free to play again. Then, taking his son by the hand, he bade the child to point out the bush. Just as the boy did, a small bird came & perched on the offending branch. The bird lifted its voice in song, seemingly serenading father & child, who listened enthralled. Then they watched as the bird gathered in its beak the tiny pieces of lamb’s wool that were caught on the thorns & flew away.

“The thorn bush caught the wool which will be used to warm the bird’s nest,” explained the father. “Do you still want me to cut down the wicked bush?”

“Oh! no.” cried the child as new awareness lit up his face.” It’s a good bush”. And with that he ran off to play again.

Often we ask God to remove obstacles from our path, only to discover, upon listening closely to Him, that what we need is not less hurdles, but more love & understanding of His world.

Life without humor is not only boring & monotonous but harmful for health too! So this post is dedicated to spread smiles in my readers’ faces.


P.S. – My posts are merely an effort to bring a smile on the faces…I don’t mean any harm to anyone!



1.
In one of my flights by Kingfisher Airlines, the airhostess asked me, “Are you a vegetarian or normal?”


2.
In the Japanese Museum there was a small-sized skull & a new guide said it was the skull of a great prophet. On being asked,” how could it be, when it is so small in size & the prophet had lived to old age?” The guide promptly replied,” It is the skull of his childhood”.

3.
It is wrong to say hypertension because it gives the wrong connotation that it is necessary to have a little high blood pressure.
Then my doctor added: “It is better to call it ‘Idiopathic’ (meaning no primary cause known) because idiopathic is that condition when the doctor is an idiot (not knowing the cause) & the patient’s condition is pathetic.”

4.
A person was found in a swimming pool late at night by the guard of the hotel. The guard shouted,” Don’t you know that swimming is not permitted at this hour?” The man replied,” For heavens sake, I am not swimming…I am drowning”, to which the guard promptly said, “Then it’s Okay”.

5.
There was a signboard prominently displayed at a shop which was shown to me when I asked for a discount: “discount given to everyone above 75 years if accompanied by both parents.”

6.
On the grave of a very lazy person the epitaph written was: “He was so lazy that he stopped breathing one day.”

7.
My friend’s mother went to see an optician. The optician examined her & said,” Now read that chart on the wall”. To which my friend’s mother replied,” would you be kind enough as to read it for me? My sight is not very good, you know”!

8.
Father: Don’t you think our daughter gets her intelligence from me?
Mother: She must , I’ve still got mine!


Have a Cheerful life!

God's at work...

In 2006, I had volunteered in a rehabilitation center of alcoholics. I wanted to dedicate myself to help others to achieve sobriety.


One night, at the close of the Tuesday meeting for newcomers, we got a call from the landlady of a transients’ hotel in a part of the town known as Paradise hotel, “would someone come & talk to a woman lying drunk in one of the rooms?”

Two of us volunteered to go. When we reached the hotel, we were led to a squalid little room where a grizzled old woman lay on the bed in a stupor. What’s the use of talking to this woman at all? I wondered. But my partner, an old hand at such visits, patiently talked to the semi-conscious form on the bed. She explained that she herself has once been considered a hopeless drunk- but that by turning her life & will over to a Higher Power, she had gained both sobriety & serenity. “I’m leaving my card”, my partner said. “I’d like you to attend a meeting at this address”.

“That was real waste of time”, I grumbled as we departed.

“You never know”, my partner said cheerfully.”God’s at work”.

At our next meeting, a shaky but sober young lady came up to us.”Thank you for coming to Paradise hotel that night”, she said.”You saved my life”.

We stared in astonishment. “We saw the old woman on that bed very clearly”, my partner replied, “It wasn’t you”.

“That’s right”, the young lady said holding out the card we had left,” But I heard every word you said, I was under the bed”.

Seize the day

Just a moment in this lifetime,

Just a tragedy ahead,

Not knowing where each turn will lead,

Within seconds we might be dead,



Live each day to the fullest,

Do not stop to wonder why,

Do everything what your heart desires ,

In dreams, reach for the sky,



Surprises at every stop sign,

With its share of wrong ways & dead-ends,

Statistics don’t help you with the future,

They only tell you where you‘ve been,



With so many people among us,

There are no certainties,

& all it takes is just one person,

To reroute history,



Don’t waste one single moment,

How very precious that they are,

What seems a long way off,

It is really not that far.

             - By Teal Henderson


Teal is one of my favorite poets. She lived every day to the fullest & inspired everybody else to do the same.
Hats off to her...!!!

One leaf left...

I noticed one special thing on my birthday morning. The tree outside my bedroom window stood stark & bare, its leaves shriveled & dead, had fallen to the waiting earth. Except for one. Pale, taut, sapped of its nourishing juices, it clung tenaciously to the very top of the tree. One leaf left. One leaf alone against the wind & the chilling snow flurries, hanging on for its life, refusing to give into nature’s persistent invitation to die.


There was something poetic about the way that leaf resisted as long as it did, high at the top, long after the others had gone the way of millions of leaves before them. Day after, as we watched the little drama through me bedroom’s window, my mother openly cheered the leaf’s courage, “Hang in there!” she’d say. And my brother would say, “What’s the matter with you? It’s just a stupid leaf?”

Then one quite moment, as I stood by the window alone, I gleaned an invaluable lesson from that pathetic little leaf. Illuminated by lights from nearby apartments, it still clung stubbornly to the top of the naked tree & watching it, I was suddenly filled with hope – warming, uplifting, healing hope.

It was as if the Lord were telling me that when everything grimly crumbles, when the crowd drifts away without me, when every element seemed to oppose & torment, I can turn to Him for hope & strength to cling to the top & refuse to be defeated.

The next morning, the leaf had finally fallen & been blown away. I knew it eventually would, of course. And like many last hopes, perhaps it was crushed by a careless passerby.

But there would be more in the spring, I thought. There’s always hope.

I love it into him...

I was shopping in a drug store one day. I noticed a small boy taking jars from a low counter & playing 'train' with them on the floor. The clerk saw him & shouted, "Leave those things alone, you'll break them." The child turned a puzzled face to the clerk. At that moment, I noticed that the little boy was not completely normal. After a pause, he began playing with the items. The clerk scolded him again; his voice was louder this time.


Suddenly, a girl about 7 years old appeared from around the end of the counter, ran to the boy & bending on her knees beside him, put an arm about him & began to speak softly. I couldn't hear what she said to him. But the boy slowly & carefully began to replace the items on the shelf.

The little girl then rose to her feet & faced the clerk," He doesn't understand when you talk that way". She said," He understands what I say because I love it into him".

Scorpions sting, humans ...?

A man saw a scorpion floundering around in a puddle of water. Spontaneous desire to save arouses in his heart, and without hesitating he stretched out his hand, lifted out the scorpion from the puddle & put it on dry ground. The scorpion stung him. The scorpion resumed its walk & headed straight again into the puddle.

Seeing it floundering & drowning again, the man picked it up the second time & was again stung. Another man who came along & saw all that happened said to him,” Why are you so stupid? Now you see you have been stung not once but twice! It’s a silly thing to try to save a scorpion!”

The man replied,” Sir, I can’t help it. You see, it is the nature of the scorpion to sting. But it is my nature to love. Why should I give up my nature to love just because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting?”

True, the man could have exercised the same wisdom & used a stick to lift out the scorpion. But then he might have thought threat a scorpion in such dire straits would not sting him. Whatever it might be, the moral of the story is in spontaneous response of the man in wanting to save another living being, even though it may be an insect. It also shows that a truly compassionate man is such that even though he may receive ingratitude from a person whom he had helped, it doesn’t matter to him. It is just his nature to help & if he could help again, he would. He doesn’t know how to harbor any bitterness or grudge.

Compassion, then is the language of the heart. At the time when we are motivated by love & compassion, we reach out to help without discrimination as to the race, creed or nationality of another. In the light of compassion, identification to race, creed etc, becomes secondary; they become insignificant.

Don’t give up loving. Don’t give up your goodness even if people around you sting.

Christmas love...

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3 year old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight & he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning & said, “This is for you, daddy”.

The man was embarrassed his earlier overreaction but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present there is supposed to be something inside?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes & cried, ”Oh! Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They’re all for you”.

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl & begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is said that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years & whenever he was discouraged , he would take out an imaginary kiss & remember the love of the child who had put it there.


In a very real sense, each & every one of us as human beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love & kisses…from our children family members, friends & God. There is simply no other possession anyone could hold, more precious than this.