April blogging #A-Z 2018-Z

This post is written for the April blogging #A-Z 2018.

I have chosen the theme Books and Authors for this year.

ZERO TO HERO BY HEDWIG LEWIS

Today is the last post of April A- Z challenge and I am glad I have finally made it till the end; today is also birthday of David. I am glad for the gift of him in our lives and all that he is and does for us as a family. It’s a day of gratitude for me and our family to appreciate him and let him know how much he matters. 

This book Zero to Hero I picked up from St Paul’s publication which is a popular book store wherein a lot of Christian literature is sold; there are also other books for inspiration, self help, for children and novels too. This place was one of my favourite in my younger days, I used to visit this place regularly looking at the new arrivals and picking up a lot of books for myself and also for gifting to my friends.

After my marriage I shifted to another area of residence so with kids coming into my life and managing home, work and kids in between I lost touch. I feel happy whenever I am surrounded with books. I will not even keep track of my time as I go around looking at the different types of books.  I saw this book in one of the shelf and I felt this book will be good for the letter Z and so here it is in my hands.

This book has only 143 pages and this book is divided into 3 parts. This book has short stories of men and women who have started their life in a very humble position and later on transformed themselves into heroes and heroines.

The first part describes people from different parts of India. These stories have been collected over a period of time from newspapers and magazines and retold. The second part is a collection of historically well known personalities with physical limitations around the globe. The third part contains stories about overcoming limitations and hurdles that are part of life from various authors.

I am sharing two real stories from this book, hoping to inspire myself and you:)

Palsied Painter

Chirag Shah, 22 held an exhibition of his paintings in September 1998. His 30 sketches and five oil paintings are childish, but undoubtedly monumental. A victim of cerebral palsy from his birth. He cannot eat, stand, walk or even lie down without help. His is the story of an abnormally grand will power, undefinable strength and courageous zest for life.

Sightless Chess-Champions

Ramesh and Dinesh were found at a wayside petrol pump by the Vadodara Police. Their parents were poor and abandoned them there. They were shifted to the Blind People’Association hostel in Ahmadabad. At the Blind school they studied 10^th and developed interest in Chess.

They were helped by their teachers and with encouragement of the association; they played chess at the district level and later on at the state level.  They represented Gujarat at the International Chess Championship in Mumbai in August 1998.

The stories presented in this book are ordinary people and disadvantaged in one way or the other and who are living extraordinary life inspiring others and some even at the service of others.

This book can be completed within few hours. It’s a light reading  and lift us up when we are feeling low and challenge us to rise up and move on… enabling us to show how very small our problems are  compared to the stories given in this book.

Thanks for reading this post; hope you had a great time in the challenge… I am happy to have accomplished the task for continuously blogging for 26 days and survived the challenge despite so many hindrances. Hope to visit the other blogs.

Congratulating you and wishing you Happiness and PeaceJ

April blogging #A-Z 2018-Y

This post is written for the April blogging #A-Z 2018.

I have chosen the theme Books and Authors for this year.

“Choice not Chance determines Your Destiny” Jean Nidetch.

While thinking about “Y” I had so many books that came to my mind. The first one was “You can Heal Yourself” by Louise Hay- one of the finest book I have read, and I learnt all the affirmations which I still use; another book that came to my mind was Shiv Khera’s “You can Win” which speaks about establishing goals, developing purpose and lifetime success.

While I was looking at the above books, I found one more book called “YOU CAN” by Myan Subrayan. My daughter liked this book and asked me to buy in the shop. I was happy that she liked this book so I gave it to her. She liked it as the  it  was written using a simple language, easy to read for anybody who can read simple English.. This book has content which Myan used on the Television show learning for Life to inspire viewers achieve their goals. I decided to write about this book as I have already used the other books in my old posts.

“YOU CAN” is a small book which has 75 pages to be read and has two parts – Part 1 and Part 2. In the first part he talks about “Plugging the holes – wherein he gives an example of a boat you are sailing and there is a hole in it, and we can keep removing the water from the boat all day, but until we plug in the leak we won’t be safe from sinking, so this part 1 is all about getting the basic right. Part 2 is evolving a plan of action.

At the end of every chapter there is list check points with a heading: Choices to Consider. And just after that there are blank lines left to fill up with the heading: Actions that I Need to take – there is enough space to write our own ideas.

“Within you are seeds of great potential- seeds that I hope will spring to life “

The book has a summary at the end:

1.      Choose to Plan First

2.      Choose to Take Responsibility for my own life

3.      Choose to stop feeling sorry for myself

4.      Choose to let go of past failures and Focus Ahead

5.      Choose My Attitude

6.      Choose my Character

7.      Choose to change for the best.

8.      “Choose to be grateful for what you have,  rather than complaining for what you don’t have.

Thank you for reading my post, just one more day left for the challenge and I am already feeling a bit lost and empty. But I hope to stay connected and try my best to visit as many of the participants I can for the A-Z Challenge.

Feeling like a winner right now, getting the last alphabet ready for Monday as I am expecting a friend from Chennai for the weekend so hope to keep the last Z Post ready.

Have a lovely weekend & wish you happiness and peace J

April blogging #A-Z 2018 - X

 This post is written for the April blogging #A-Z 2018. 

I have chosen the theme Books and Authors for this year.

 EXCELLENT QUOTES  ON BOOKS

I am patting my back and smiling while I write this post, as this month was quite a exciting month as I disciplined myself to write,  post and visit every day couple of other bloggers plus managing work, handling  home, family and myself I am succeeding in accomplishing this challenge.

While I emptied my cupboard removing all the books for the A-Z challenge, I could not find a single book with letter X  J after a lot of brainstorming and browsing in Google I decided to write some EXcellent Quotes. Here are some 26 quotes to motivate and encourage all of us.

Hope you like these quotes and tell me which your favorite one, do you have any other quotes for Books & Authors

1.      “Reading is a conversation. All books talk.But a good book listens as well.” Mark Haddon

2.      “You cannot open a book without learning something.” Confucius

3.      “There is no friend as loyal as  a book” Ernest Hemingway

4.      “Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have ore to teach than the good ones. Stephen King.

5.      “A book is a gift you can open again and again. Garrison Keillor

6.      “A book is kind of like a river; I simply jump in and start swimming.” Melody Carison

7.      “The power of a book lies in its power to turn a solitary act into a shared vision. As long as we have books, we are not alone.” Laura Bush.

8.      “A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.”Henry David Thoreau.

9.      A book is simple the container of an idea like a bottle; what is inside the book is what matters” Angela Carter.

10.  “With every book, you go back to school. You become a student. You become an investigative reporter. You spend a little time learning what it’s like in someone else’s shoes. “John Irving

11.  “A book is a dream that you hold in your hands”

12.  “Books are lives we don’t have time to live”

13.  “I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book” J K Rowling

14.  “Books don’t just go with you, they take you where you have never been.”

15.  “A room without books is like a body without a soul” Cicero

16.  “Books give a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” Plato

17.  “Books wash away from the soul the dust of everyday Life”

18.  “ Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body”

19.  “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

20.  “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are” Mason Cooley

21.  “Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light”

22.  “Any one who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book” Author Unknown

23.   Great book help you understand, and they help you feel understood. John Green.

24.  “A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it” Edward P Morgan.

25.  The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you” W Somerset Maugham.

26.  “I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once. “ C S Lewis

Thank you for reading my post, would love to hear your thoughts.

Have a blessed day!

April blogging #A-Z 2018 - W

This post is written for the April blogging #A-Z 2018. 

I have chosen the theme Books and Authors for this year.

The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen was a Dutch Catholic Priest, Professor, writer and a theologian. He was eager to learn more about himself and the people he counseled. He studied psychology to explore the human side of faith, which he felt was neglected. He published 40 books and authored hundreds of articles. The Wounded Healer is a small book with 87 pages and has 4 broad chapters, the author treats each chapter as door to enter and respond to how do we minister in a contemporary society. Nouwen believed that what is most personal is most universal. He wrote,“by giving words to these intimate experiences I can make my life available to others.

Even though this book is popular among the religious priests and sisters, there is learning for all those people who are in helping positions like counselors, service providers, teachers and all those who desire to serve. This book  has powerful illustration of the fact that we can help each other not from our supremacy but especially from our own weakness.

Acknowledging our weakness helps us to be in contact with ourselves and thereby helps us to be compassionate to another human being who feels weak in some way. In this way it helps us to have a heart to heart empathic contact that is highly satisfying. Our wounded ness can help us acknowledge our need for God and present ourselves humbly to others.

I am happy to have read this book and was part of a small group that reflected on Wounded Healer concept. I felt like sharing two very reflective tales- one from ancient India another incident of a fugitive both of which evokes a lot of questions and thoughts for discussions and reflections.  I felt like sharing these two… to get an insight about this book.

Old tale of ancient India

Four royal sons were questioning what specialty they should master. They said to one another” let us search the earth and learn a special science, so they decided and agreed they would meet again and each of them set off in a direction, and they meet again to know what each of them have learnt. One son says he has mastered a science, which makes it possible to create flesh for the bone; another says he has learnt to grow skin and hair if there is a flesh on that goes with it; the third says he is able to create its limbs if there is flesh, skin and hair and the fourth concluded that he learnt how to give life to the creature if its form is complete with limbs.

Thereupon the four brothers went into the jungle to find a piece of bone so that they could demonstrate their specialties. Each one found something to create; the bone they found was a lion’s they did not know that, they picked up the bone. The second and third, added what they have found and the fourth gave the lion life.

Shaking its heavy mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators. He killed all four brothers and vanished into the jungle. This tale is the predicament of the nuclear man characterized by historical dislocation, fragmented ideology and the search for immortality.

There is another incident in this book about a fugitive trying to hide himself…

A young fugitive was trying to hide himself in a small village; the people were kind and gave him place to stay. But the soliders came looking for him and the whole village gets frightened as the soldiers threaten that they will burn the village if they don’t reveal the truth about the fugitive. The villagers approach a Minister, a religious man who goes inside and says his prayers and opens the bible to get some help in order to make a decision whether to handover the young fugitive or save the village.

He gets the verse in the bible that says” It is better for one man to die than the whole people be lost” so he calls the soldiers and shows where the fugitive is hiding, the soldiers take him to kill him. The whole village celebrates as the Minister saved all the people of village. But the Minister is sad. That night Minister has a dream and the angel asks him, what have you done?  He says I have handed over the fugitive to the enemy. Then the angel said, don’t you know that you have handed over the Messiah?  He says, how could I know? Then the angel replies, if instead of reading your bible, you had visited this young man just once and looked into his eyes, you would have known. It’s a powerful example how we fail to recognize the Messiah in today’s context.

In the other two chapters of the book Henri Nouwen brings together creative case studies of ministry with stories from diverse cultures and religious traditions in evolving a new model for service, which is balanced with the realization of Woundedness in humans. The wounded healer is a thoughtful and insightful guide that will be welcomed by anyone engaged in the service of others.

The last chapter the author talks about an old legend in the Talmud which suggest that the Messiaiah  is sitting among the poor, binding his wounds one at a time, waiting for the moment when he will be needed. In the service of reaching out to weak; we must bind our own wounds carefully in anticipation of the moment when we will be needed. We are called to be wounded healers, the one’s  who must look after our own wounds  and at the same time be prepared to heal the wounds of others.

It is said that this word wounded healer is taken from Carl Jung’s idea who believed that wounds of counselors and soul physicians help them to discern and care for the wounds of the people who seek their help. But he also cautioned that this is hazard for the wounded healers because the distress that is brought to them may re open their old wounds, or trigger repressed inner conflicts. If counselors and pastors don’t continue their own journey of self awareness and receiving soul care from God and trusted counselors they may fall into compassion fatigue and depression, and lose their capacity to help others.

I tried my best to keep the post shorter; there is so much more to reflect, I exceeded the word limit and feel a little more reflections is needed to do justice to the book. Despite my efforts to shorten and cut down words –  I still made it  long post.

Thank you for reading this long post and I appreciate you patience J Have you heard about this book? I love to hear your thoughts.

May you be filled with happiness & peace.   

April blogging #A-Z 2018- V

This post is written for the April blogging #A-Z 2018.

I have chosen the theme Books and Authors for this year.

V – Victor Frankl’s book: 

Man’s Search for Meaning in Life

Victor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist/psychiatrist and a Jew; who lived through and survived the Second World War.  He was noted for treating people prone to suicide. During the World War II. He along with his wife and family were deported to the concentration camp.

I recall attending a workshop which was based on the book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey” in Bangalore. In one of the session the facilitator mentioned about Victor Frankl’s book “Man Search for Meaning in Life”.

Stephen Covey uses Victor Frankl's insight in developing the first Habit One – Being Proactive. Covey talks about Victor Frankl’s experiences in the concentration camp as to how “one night, cold, naked and alone in a small room, Victor Frankl began to realize that there were things that Nazi’s could never take away from him – the last of the human freedoms- his “freedom of choice”. So he says we can always choose our response, no matter what happens to us.

Victor Frankl quotes Nietzsche who says “A man who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how” having something to live for, Frankl says, was the only reason anyone survived in such conditions. For him it was the thought of seeing his wife again, returning to his work, and reconstructing his lost manuscript.

Frankl’s shares about other prisoners who had completely lost their “why” and quickly lost their life as a result. He says that we have stop asking about the meaning of life and think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life- daily and hourly. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each of us as individuals.

I was so impressed that the first thing I did was to pick up this book from St Paul’s Publication – those days online purchase was not popular and I started reading. I was very inspired by Victor Frankl who endured the horrors of the camps and used the power of imagination on his very own situations imagining himself giving lectures to the students. Frankl says that we may not have a choice in our circumstances and environment. But we always have a choice in how we react to those imposed upon us.

Victor Frankl is founder of Logotherapy, a belief that the primary motivating and driving force in humans is to find meaning in one’s life.

Some very popular quotes of Victor Frankl:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”

“In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of sacrifice”

“So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now”

“A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how”

I would recommend this book and wouldn’t mind reading it another time…. Have you heard or read about Victor Frankl’s popular book “Man Search for Meaning” … Thank you for reading this post, appreciate you for stopping by..... would love to hear your thoughts.

Be Blessed & Be Happy!

April blogging #A-Z 2018- U

This post is written for the April blogging #A-Z 2018. 

I have chosen the theme Books and Authors for this year. 

U- UNLIMITED POWER BY ANTHONY ROBBINS

I purchased this book on recommendation of one of the senior medical doctor, practicing homeopathy, acupressure and open for alternative healing methods. He was our Resource person for training on wholistic health & alternative systems of medicine two decades ago.  He was sharing with us as to how he used   NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming for children in his clinic. I was quite fascinated to listen to him and he suggested me to read this book by Anthony Robbins for better understanding of  the subject ie., NLP.

I am glad I read this book which has 423 pages with 3 major sections – Section 1 is on Modeling of Human Excellence, Section 2 on The Ultimate Success Formula and the last Section 3 on Leadership: The Challenge of Excellence. Each section has sub chapters, in total this book has 22 chapters to read.

He speaks about his personal story of success- also defines his own understanding of success and give a lot of examples from his personal life and shares a lot of information and inspirations from great personalities who have shown that the quality of our lives is determined not by what happens to us, but rather by what we do about what happens.

Anthony Robbins speaks about the Power of Modeling – a concept he learnt from the founders of NLP, John Grinder and Richard Bandler, the most successful persons who were helping people in the world change and achiever results of what they wanted. He talks about modeling as the pathway to achieve excellence. Which means that if I see anyone in this world producing results I desire, I can produce the same results if I am willing to pay the price of time and effort?  By modeling their beliefs, thoughts and behaviour and the strategy an action steps they have taken to achieve the results. It means to learn from the coaches, mentors the principles they used and apply in our lives reminding us the quote of Jim Rohn who say “Success leaves clues”

He shares about how US army approached him to help its soldiers improve their shooting accuracy; he instantly took the job, knowing well that he knew nothing about shooting guns. When he arrived 70% of the recruits passed the final test, when he left 100% passed.

What he did was to take the top performers, analyze their beliefs, thoughts, and behaviour and then told the other recruits to model their behaviour in what he calls the 5 step modeling process:

·         Find the top performer and study their exact movements and actions

·         Practice imitating these movements

·         Visualize the top performer in excelling their craft

·         Imagine yourself as that top performer, executing it perfectly

·         Step up and go for it.

It’s quite a big book with lot of illustrations, personal stories, examples and even exercises for those interested in personal development.

1. I like the seven keys that need to be built in the belief system according to him:
2.  Everything happens for a reason and purpose and it serves us.
3. There is no such thing as failure, only results
4. Whatever happens, take responsibility You do not have to understand everything to use everything
5. People are your greatest resource
6. Work is play
7. There is no abiding success without commitment.

This book is a good resource for reference – despite its thickness and heavy content; we can still read it for learning and helping ourselves and others. One has to be very patient to read this book as there is so much to learn, I took a long time to read giving myself short breaks so that I can internalise some of the learnings:)

A few quotes to inspire from this book:

“Nothing has any power over me other than that 
which I give it through my conscious thoughts”

“Create a vision and never let the environment, other people’s beliefs, 
or the limits of what has been done in the past shape your decisions”

“The path to success is take massive, determined action”

“It’s what you practice in private that you will be rewarded for in public.”

“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships”

Thank you for reading my post - do share your thoughts, I am happy to connect with you here.

Be Blessed & Be Happy !

April blogging #A-Z 2018- T

This post is written for the April blogging #A-Z 2018. 

I have chosen the theme Books and Authors for this year.

The GREATEST SALESMAN BY  OG MANDINO

The book “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino is one of the bestselling book. A favorite book which I have preserved kept it safely till date-  in order to keep reading as many times as I want. I never get tired of reading this book.  I have always used some of the thoughts for reflections in small groups and also for youth meetings.

It’s a small book and one can read it continuously and complete it easily within two or three hours if read slowly. Better to read it twice or thrice to get full insights, its also  full of meaning and highly motivating and you will never for once regret having read this book.

I bought this book two decades ago and I still love to glance through and read it again and again. This is a beautiful and profound book that has only 112 pages with 18 chapters and every chapter has something to speak to our hearts. It’s written in a clear, simple and readable.

This book is a parable about a young man Hafid who learns the secret of success from a successful trader. The trader treats Hafid like his son and shares his secrets before dying –  He tells Hafid about his past as to how as a young man, he was given 10 scrolls by an old rich man, with a promise to guard them with his life, and to pass them on before he died and preserve the secrets of success for another generation.

Each scroll is a Masterpiece  

A few of my favorites :

“I will greet this day with love in my heart.

For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures…

I will greet this day with love in my heart.

And how will I do this?  Henceforth will I look on all things with love and I will be born again.

I will love the sun for its warms by bones; I love the rain for it cleanses my spirit.

I will love the light for it shows me the way; Yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars…

I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul.

I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; Yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge."

"I will persist until I succeed

I was not delivered unto this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins.

I am not a sheep prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. The slaughter house of failure is not my destiny.. "

"I am nature’s greatest miracles. 

Since the beginning of time never has there been another

With my mind, my heart, my eyes, my ears, my hands, My hair, my mouth. …..

I am a unique creature of nature. I am rare, and there is value in all rarity; therefore I am valuable, I am the end product of thousands of years of evolution;"

"I will live this day as if it is my last. 

And what shall I do with this last precious day which remains in my keeping? First, I will seal up its container of life so that not one drop spills itself upon the sand. I will waste not a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortune,  Yesterday’s defeats, yesterday’s aches of the heart, 

for why should I throw good after bad?"

 Have you read this book, what your thoughts ??….. 
Thank and appreciate you for stopping by here and  reading my post:)

May you be Blessed !!