My A to Z of Life

Life is like a multifaceted prism, which gives different colored images, when viewed from different angles. Look how it appears to different people:

a. Life is a struggle, face it.

b. Life is a brief intermission, between birth and death, enjoy it.

c. Life is a lesson, learn it.

d. Life is not a joke, take it seriously.

e. Life is work, work is life.

f. Life is a dream, to be realized.

g. Life is to be lived, enjoy it.

h. Life, without a wife, is no life.

i. Life is not a bed of roses.

j. Life is an ocean, fathom it.

k. Life is an opportunity, don’t miss it.

l. Life without love is desolate.

m. Life is a goldmine, exploit it.

n. Life is what you make it.

o. Life lies in optimism. Be a positive thinker.

p. Life is like a game of snakes and ladders;
one faces many pitfalls before one reaches the top.

q. Life will be a pleasure, if you love your work.

r. Life without goals, is groping in darkness.

s. Life without trust is a life in turmoil.

t. Life is a journey; make it as pleasant as possible.

u. Life doesn’t mean bread alone.

v. Life is meaningful, only if there is a mission.

w. Life is enriched by good friendship.

x. Life doesn’t mean years alone:
“IT IS THE LIFE IN THOSE YEARS”

y. Life is useful, if you contribute something, that will outlive it.

z. Life lies in diversity, not in monotony.

by M. K. Soni

My Love Affair with Love

I woke up this morning to one of those beautiful messages that makes your heart skip a bit or just smile. But it didn’t make me feel either of the two. I felt guilty. Guilty for not being able to reciprocate the same feelings. Guilty, that I didn’t want to hear from this person ever again. I don’t wanna see their caller ID, I don’t want them talking to me, I don’t want to repair this relationship that actually needs major repairing. But mostly guilty for actually having these feelings towards the one person who’ll always be their for me (or that is what I tell myself, in short I am not sure if they will and I should be). And then I found myself asking “Do I really love this person anymore?”

Anyway, what is love??

Yeah, I know. The most controversial word that can make or break the world you live in. Anyway thanks to my friend Wikipedia (one of those amazing pages that took me through campus) Love is an intense feeling of deep affection (in simpler words). In short love is a feeling. And one thing we know about feelings is that they are fleeting. One time you are happy the next second you are sad. One time you are on top of the world and the next time you just wanna bury yourself in a deep hole.

I think, sitting down and trying to explain the meaning of love is like welcoming poverty to a vast array of words available. it is just one of those feelings one has to experience to understand.

Is love…

The feeling you get when you see her get in the room?

I wonder if it is love when I embrace someone passionately..

Or is it the caress or touch that makes you wanna swim along with the clouds.

They say love is to be heard (in the voice of the special person in my life, in the whisper of the sea breeze), or tasted (in enjoying every tantalizing experience in eating your favorite meal, or cheating your diet and having a candy bar or the warm melting experience when our lips brush against each other), or seen (in the beauty of God’s magnificent creation or in the depth of my lover’s eye as he whispers how much I mean to him) or even felt (with the chills that run down your back when you watch the sunset or when I hold his hand while crossing the street).

I conclude love can only be experienced with the senses available to you (sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell).

Does love mean pain, suffering and sacrifices? No, I don’t think so. Love is caring. Love is going beyond the physical feeling and still knowing you want that person in your life. Love is biblical. Love is not what you read in historical romance novels nor what you hear play on the radio.

In my experience love is enjoying both the taste of your favorite candy melting in your mouth and the tingling feeling of his lips brushing across yours. But the two should never be confused together. And in the world we live in today, we replace one for the other. We cry and accept sympathy when our iPhone screen breaks but say “whatever” or “to hell” when someone you care about is hurting or you hurt them instead.

I wouldn’t be wrong to say, we live in a generation where by almost everyone is addicted to instant gratification.

We treat people like having your favorite pizza delivered at your doorstep. You dial your favorite pizza joint, order for your favorite pizza. Wait up for 45 minutes and it is delivered at your doorstep. You jump and leap and munch while it is still hot and spicy. As you keep eating you get satisfied and you no longer want any more pizza. You either throw it away or stick it at the back of your refrigerator. Your favorite pizza gets moldy and rots. Truth is it doesn’t matter anymore. Is this the kinda love you are spreading?? Is this the kinda love you want??

And with this knowledge, I know I have lied to so many people that love doesn’t exist. I have locked myself up from many wonderful relationships by building walls around me. By hiding my heart so far that no one can find it. By thinking vulnerability is weakness. How wrong I was.. For the people I have lied to I’m sorry.

All I can tell you; love is more than just a feeling. Every relationship has its ups and downs. Love is taking them blow by blow. From the kisses of the warm breezes and the undying flames to the burning tears that put you to sleep or the bottle of scotch that allows you to drift. Love is doing what is right than what you feel, because the two won’t always coincide. Because the amorous feelings at the beginning of the relationship never lasts the entire relationship. And thinking they will, is juvenile.

Love is taking into consideration that anything can happen and we are all human and the body is weak. The key to long-lasting relationships is to give it a commitment period, when the scorching flames start to die. To choose wisely and act wisely and most of all praying about it (unceasingly).

A young man once asked his friend who happened to be an 80 year old man what love is, and this is what he replied…

“You know you’re in love when you have a reason to come back home, a reason to justify your existence. You’ll know you’re in love when you can’t imagine living without this one person and you’ll do anything to have her/him by your side. You cannot see love, you cannot feel love, but you can feel a bond when you’re around this one person, and you just cannot explain it but it makes you feel special and taken care of. Love, my friend, is what makes you want to wake up tomorrow.”

So next time someone tells you “I love you” hold their hands; look them deep in their eyes  and stare directly into their soul and say “Is it the real deal or the candy/pizza kinda love?”

22 Years Later

WOW!!!!! Yeah I know… Who thought… I am officially 22. 

I have never thought of myself being this old and totally clueless on my life’s direction. I have all these plans set out for myself (who doesn’t at this age), but I don't know what to undertake first. Anyway, my existence started 23 years ago when a young couple (madly in love with each other) in Central Province, Kenya decided they were ready to expand their family.

And a year later on May 7th at 3:12 PM after endless hours of labor, out popped me. Beautiful, amazing, stubborn… ME!! And I have never being more glad.

I think I still have God to thank for being on the right side of thirty . (By a long shot, BTW!!).

Well, what’s the big difference of being a year older?? I think I feel a whole lot stronger than I was at the same time a year ago or two years ago. I feel I can conquer more than I had ever thought imaginable in my short sheltered life. I see the strength in my Spiritual life, emotional journey and physical health.

In this past year, I developed this insatiable hunger to know more. To learn more. Maybe, it was there before but it has been so much more this past year. And the more I know, the more questions I develop that are un-answered. And the cycle continues, because I will need answers to the questions I have. But there is something enlightening about all this.. Not to be the all knowing annoying girl, but it gives me a sense of satisfaction to a great length. It has enabled me to develop mercy & compassion at the end of my pointing finger.

Well I guess here is to another chapter of my life.

The Man In the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass.
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

You may be like Jack Horner and chisel a plum
And think you’re a wonderful guy.
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest, 

For he’s with you clear to the end.
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass.
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

By Unknown