If

Photo by: Khushbo

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

– Rudyard Kipling

Viktor Frankl: Meaning of Life

Viktor Frankl talks about how accepting ourselves as we are is perhaps the biggest precursor to failure. We must aim to be better than we are in order that we become who we were meant to be. It is an interesting short lecture, a must watch! Let your spirits soar my friends, be all you can be!

The Liebster Award

It seems I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by a fellow blogger (Ashley Cameron’s Writing).

Thank You Ashley! Yeaayyy 😀

To be honest I am not completely sure about how this award is won but from my research it looks like an interesting way to interact with the blogging community at large and give the new guys (myself included) a helping hand! It’s based on links for each person who gets nominated and in turn nominates 11 other people. Great PR.

So, why not?

Liebster Award Rules:

1. Post 11 things about yourself
2. Answer the questions given to you by the nominator
3. Nominate 11 blogs (newer, up and coming blogs, with less than (or thereabouts) 200 followers) and inform them
4. Compose 11 new questions for your nominees
5. And don’t forget to post of the Liebster Award Badge to your page (grab it from the internet)

11 Facts about Khushbo:

1. Hugs are my Kryptonite. No matter how wildly upset I am, if you can manage a hug, you win!
2. I spent Valentine’s Day chilling with my gold fish (The three of us get along fabulously!)
3. I want to be a writer (novelist), although I never start the book that is waiting to be written.
4. I am extremely lazy, it takes a lot of effort to pretend not to be.
5. If I had to choose between a nice car and a home, it would be nice car!
6. I love traveling!
7. I love surprises and surprising people on birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations, that’s my drug!
8. I deplore cooking! Although I do have “instances” of temporary insanity where I take enjoyment in this task.
9. I love making new friends.
10. I believe seniors are the most under utilized resource on earth. They are a walking, talking library of experiences!
11. I love kids! I love them because I can be “me” around them, no need to wear the mask of socially acceptable behavior suitable for an adult.

Questions from Nominator:

      1. What is your favorite book?

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I had hoped to find a Mr. Darcy, sadly found Mr. Collins instead (Sad mix up indeed!) :s

2.  What would you do for the rest of your life if money was no object?

• I would hide out and finally write. Read loads too!

      3. What is your favorite meal you like to cook?

• Chicken roasted in the oven with potatoes, onions, garlic, lemon and a gazillion herbs. I do not know the name of this recipe its my own concoction! 

 4. What is your most favorite scene from a movie?

• The only one I can think of right now is more a line from a movie. “Life of Pi” the writer asks Pi at the end which story was true and he responds with:
  “Which story do you prefer?”
  “The one with the animals”, he answers.
  Pi responds, “And so it is with God.”

 5.  How do you like having a blog?

• I find myself quite addicted to it. I enjoy reading people’s blogs and as a new blogger you will find me publicly jumping for joy if someone actually posts a comment! Ahhhh!!

6. What object in your life could you never live without?

• Objects are almost all replaceable, sadly so are people sometimes. If I absolutely had to choose, it would be my passport.

7.  What/where has been your favorite vacation?

• A short trip to the beach half an hour from our house when I was younger with my parents and siblings. It was pretty simple. It was the last time I remember my heart completely full. Joy, happiness and contentment all at once. Those couple of hours together was worth a lot.

8. If you could go anywhere in the world..where would you go?

• I would go to Spain! The castles, the landscape, the mish mash of cultures from centuries of old not to mention the language and food. I think I would completely enjoy it!

9. What is your biggest pet peeve?

• Forced conformity.

10.  What movie are you most excited to see this year?

• Man of Steel.

11.  I will also steal a question from my nominator…If you could share one thing you learned from this year what would it be?

• Take the risks. There never was a reward for anyone who did not take a risk.

11 Questions for Nominees:

1. If you were awarded one wish, what would you ask for? (Anything.)
2. Do you have a hobby? What is it?
3. What made you want to write a blog?
4. If you had the power to change only ONE of these three things which would you change? (Poverty, Racism, War)
5. If you could write a book would it be Fiction, Science Fiction, a True Story or Philosophy?
6. What was an embarrassing moment in your life?
7. Who is the most inspirational person in your life?
8. What is your favorite movie?
9. What is your favorite music band?
10. What’s the song stuck in your head? (No you don’t have to like it, but its there and we both know it!)
11. Would you ever run for President?

11 Nominees:

These are my nominees. Many of them are blogs I enjoy. I am not absolutely certain if they all have under 200 followers (If you have more than 200+ followers enjoy the nomination none the less!)

1. http://ashleycameronwriting.wordpress.com/

2. http://seekersguide.wordpress.com/

3. http://reallynormal.wordpress.com/

4. http://bfanninblog.wordpress.com/

5. http://kristineserendipity.wordpress.com/

6. http://cartoondailynews.com/

7. http://mizakwele1.wordpress.com

8. http://tshoaele.wordpress.com

9. http://lionandpeace.wordpress.com

10. http://pulkit20.wordpress.com/

11. http://disorganisationguru.wordpress.com

Best of luck to all! 🙂

If You Don’t Stop That

I used to live in
A cramped house with confusion
And pain.

But then I met the Friend
And started getting drunk
And singing all
Night.

Confusion and Pain
Started acting nasty,
Making threats,
With talk like this,

“If you don’t stop ‘that’ –
All that fun –

We’re
Leaving.”

-Hafez

P.S. They finally did leave! 🙂

Quiet Harmony

Thoughts are quiet
sounds are muted
the air carries my silence
the soul a symphony
of harmony

I am alone and at peace
at long last the clouds
have shed and the sun
shines bright in the sky
I feel the warmth on my skin

When I see you next I
will be calmer, stiller.
No more restless soul
to taunt you.
No menacing thoughts
to accuse you.

This distance is our solace
the calm of the water
between two lands torn apart
the peace of our nations
with borders at rest
souls at harmony

I wonder what it is
that goes on in your nation
yet for harmony I
try not to ponder

Until our worlds collide
again, old friend
I shall keep this
candle of harmony
alight.

-Khushbo

To Live

Here and now
I breathe, I breathe
Silently yet aloud

I live, I live
My heart paces
Fast yet at a beat

Here it is: the silence
Under the murmurs of
Breath, beat and music

Music you ask?
I hear it deep within
The lyrics of life.

The felicity of love
The symphony of bliss
Contentment its veins

I am alive, I am alive
To see the sky bright and blue
The ocean deep and dark

To see the world around me
To feel the love inside me
To laugh, to laugh

To live, to live.

-Khushbo

Procrastinating for Vitamin D

Haplessly I so often find myself at a battle with none other than: myself. It seems when the lists pile up and there is more and more to do I have a “deep breath” moment, where I need to calm down and it is in this essentially important rudimentary need to breath that I tend to slip. Lost in the everglades of escape, trying strenuously not to think about the mountains of things to do. For now.

Endless cycle of convincing myself this is temporary, it will happen. Ya right!

I think my biggest set-back has become my goals list which quite often seems overwhelming for the allotted time. Endlessly I find myself falling into patterns of thinking about things that are on the list, not the ones I am currently doing now, but the ones I am not doing! Its a bottle neck of things to do, paths to follow to achieve them all. Multi-tasking, sorry to say, an epic fail at this point.

I am going to definitely do all that I have set out to do and it will be done by end of 2013 as planned. Right ho!

Fruitless addiction to stumpleupon, facebook and now wordpress is not the most directive way to resolve this “stopping to breath” state of things. Alright, it is not as fruitless as it seems. I do manage to breath and guess what from my station in the house, I get the optimal amount of sunlight. Which means despite the winter, I have oodles of Vitamin D!

Essentially, never be disappointed by your procrastination abilities, at least you wished your friend a happy birthday on facebook and stumbled upon some amazing poetry by Hafez, was it really such a loss? (Sorry forgot the Vitamin D, very important). No, no, not as much a loss as you may think it. Stop to breath, its not always procrastination, its a vitamin, a medicine too.

Be gone with the conformist defamers of procrastination.

Alright now I am going to leave the house…….

The River Flows In You – Lindsey Stirling

This is such a peaceful piece.

Over the Rainbow – ThePianoGuys