I wish you enough

Recently at chennai I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the
mother said "I love you and I wish you enough." The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together
has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom."
They kissed and the daughter left.

The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she
wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by
asking, "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?"
"Yes, I have," I replied.
"Forgive me for asking but why is this a forever good-bye?"
"I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is the next trip
back will be for my funeral" she said.
"When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?"
She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents
used to say it to everyone." She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in >
detail and she smiled even more. "When we said 'I wish you enough', we were wanting the other person
to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them."

Then turning toward me she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory:
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

She then began to cry and walked away.

Then i came to know the meaning of it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them,a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them . . .

Think

A man came out of his home to admire his new truck. To his puzzlement,
his three-year-old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny paint.
The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy’s
hands into a pulp as punishment. When the father calmed down, he rushed
his son to the hospital. Although the doctor tried desperately to save the
crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the boy’s
hands. When the boy woke up from the surgery and saw his bandaged stubs,
he innocently said, “Daddy, I’m sorry about your truck.” Then he asked,
“but when are my fingers going to grow back..?”
The father went home and committed suicide.

Think about the story the next time you see someone spilled milk at a
dinner table or hear a baby cry. Think first before you lose your patience
and become angry with someone you love. Trucks can be repaired.
Broken bones and hurt feelings often cannot. Too often we fail to recognize
the difference between the person and the performance. People make mistakes.
We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a rage
will haunt us forever. Pause and ponder. Think before you act. Be patient..

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE ANGRY, BUT YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE CRUEL . . .

Life Goes on....

A TRUTH WHICH I STILL WONDER

In every human life,
there are some moments when one is sad and depressed
Frustrated from every zone of life,
And feel like leaving everything & going away
And Life Goes on..

Some moments in which
one is wrapped with tensions
one wants to get out of them
and fly high in the sky
But cant run away, and life goes on..

Some moments in which,
one who adores hurts sentiments,
one needs a support, a shoulder to dry on,
But doesnt find one, and life goes on..

Some moments in which one gets tired of life
or so intensely hurt that one wants to die
one wishes to end up with
life at that very moment, and life goes on..

And in every human life on day arrives
When there is a big halt to one's life.
And then the people cry
and show that they were concerned

Then the question arises
Do they wait for one's death..,
To care, To understand the one
If so, then wait till death and until then

Life Goes On . . .

Stress Management

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "how heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it."

"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."

He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on." "As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."
"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can." "Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is yours. Enjoy it!

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour . . .

Never judged anyone by their appearance.....

One beautiful spring day a red rose blossomed in a forest. Many kinds of
trees and plants grew there. As the rose looked around, a pine tree nearby
said, "What a beautiful flower. I wish I was that lovely." Another tree
said, "Dear pine, do not be sad, we can not have everything."

The rose turned its head and remarked, "It seems that I am the most
beautiful plant in this forest." A sunflower raised its yellow head and
asked, "Why do you say that? In this forest there are many beautiful plants.
You are just one of them." The red rose replied, "I see everyone looking at
me and admiring me." Then the rose looked at a cactus and said, "Look at
that ugly plant full of thorns!" The pine tree said, "Red rose, what kind of
talk is this? Who can say what beauty is? You have thorns too."

The proud red rose looked angrily at the pine and said, "I thought you had
good taste! You do not know what beauty is at all. You can not compare my
thorns to that of the cactus."

"What a proud flower", thought the trees.

The rose tried to move its roots away from the cactus, but it could not
move. As the days passed, the red rose would look at the cactus and say
insulting things, like: This plant is useless? How sorry I am to be his
neighbor."

The cactus never got upset and he even tried to advise the rose, saying,
"God did not create any form of life without a purpose."

Spring passed, and the weather became very warm. Life became difficult in
the forest, as the plants and animals needed water and no rain fell. The red
rose began to wilt. One day the rose saw sparrows stick their beaks into the
cactus and then fly away, refreshed. This was puzzling, and the red rose
asked the pine tree what the birds were doing. The pine tree explained that
the birds got water from the cactus. "Does it not hurt when they make
holes?" asked the rose.

"Yes, but the cactus does not like to see any birds suffer," replied the
pine.

The rose opened its eyes in wonder and said, "The cactus has water?"

"Yes you can also drink from it. The sparrow can bring water to you if you
ask the cactus for help."

The red rose felt too ashamed of its past words and behavior to ask for
water from the cactus, but then it finally did ask the cactus for help. The
cactus kindly agreed and the birds filled their beaks with water and watered
the rose's roots. Thus the rose learned a lesson and never judged anyone by
their appearance again . . .

SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN ISOLATION

There was a farmer who grew superior quality and award-winning corn.
Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won honor and
prizes.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learnt something
interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the
farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors'.

" How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your
neighbours when they are entering corn in competition with

yours each year?" the reporter asked..

"Why sir, "said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up
pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my
neighbors grow inferior, sub-standard and poor quality corn,

cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn.

If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbours grow good corn."

The farmer gave a superb insight into the connectedness of life.

His corn cannot improve unless his neighbour's corn also improves.

So it is in the other dimensions!

Those who choose to be at harmony must help their neighbours and
colleagues to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help

others to live well.


The value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.

SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN ISOLATION. IT IS VERY OFTEN A PARTICIPATIVE AND COLLECTIVE PROCESS

8 Toxic personalities to avoid

Although we like to think that the people in our lives are well-adjusted, happy, healthy minded individuals, we sometimes realize that it just isn't so. Personally, I've had moments where I'll be skipping through my day, happy as can be, thinking life is grand and BAM, I'll be blindsided by someone who manages to knock the happy wind out of my sails. Sometimes it is easy to write it off and other times, not so much.

Maybe you are a positive person, but when you are around a certain individual, you feel negative. Or, maybe you have an idealistic view of the world and when you are with certain people, you are made to feel silly, unrealistic or delusional. Or, maybe you pride yourself in being completely independent and in control of your life, but when you are around a certain family member, you regress into a state of childhood.

Some of these situations, and yes, these people, can have a tremendously negative impact on our lives. And, although we are all human and have our 'issues,' some 'issues' are quite frankly, toxic. They are toxic to our happiness. They are toxic to our mental outlook. They are toxic to our self-esteem. And they are toxic to our lives. They can suck the life out of us and even shorten our lifespan.

Here are the worst of the toxic personalities out there and how to spot them:

1. Manipulative Mary: These individuals are experts at manipulation tactics. Is a matter of fact, you may not even realize you have been manipulated until it is too late. These individuals figure out what your 'buttons' are, and push them to get what they want.

* Why they are toxic: These people have a way of eating away at your belief system and self-esteem. They find ways to make you do things that you don't necessarily want to do and before you know it, you lose your sense of identity, your personal priorities and your ability to see the reality of the situation. The world all of a sudden becomes centered around their needs and their priorities.

2. Narcissistic Nancy: These people have an extreme sense of self-importance and believe that the world revolves around them. They are often not as sly as the Manipulative Marys of the world, but instead, tend to be a bit overt about getting their needs met. You often want to say to them "It isn't always about you."

* Why they are toxic: They are solely focused on their needs, leaving your needs in the dust. You are left disappointed and unfulfilled. Further, they zap your energy by getting you to focus so much on them, that you have nothing left for yourself.

3. Debbie Downers: These people can't appreciate the positive in life. If you tell them that it is a beautiful day, they will tell you about the impending dreary forecast. If you tell them you aced a mid-term, they'll tell you about how difficult the final is going to be.

* Why they are toxic: They take the joy out of everything. Your rosy outlook on life continues to get squashed with negativity. Before you know it, their negativity consumes you and you start looking at things with gray colored glasses yourself.

4. Judgmental Jims: When you see things as cute and quirky, they see things as strange and unattractive. If you find people's unique perspectives refreshing, they find them 'wrong'. If you like someone's eclectic taste, they find it 'disturbing' or 'bad'.

* Why they are toxic: Judgmental people are much like Debbie Downers. In a world where freedom rings, judgment is sooo over. If the world was a homogeneous place, life would be pretty boring. Spending a lot of time with these types can inadvertently convert you into a judgmental person as well.

5. Dream Killing Keiths: Every time you have an idea, these people tell you why you can't do it. As you achieve, they try to pull you down. As you dream, they are the first to tell you it is impossible.

* Why they are toxic: These people are stuck in what is instead of what could be. Further, these individuals eat away at your self-esteem and your belief in yourself. Progress and change can only occur from doing new things and innovating, dreaming the impossible and reaching for the stars.

6. Insincere Illissas: You never quite feel that these people are being sincere. You tell a funny story, they give you a polite laugh. You feel depressed and sad and they give you a 'there, there' type response. You tell them you are excited about something and you get a very ho-hum response.

* Why they are toxic: People who aren't sincere or genuine build relationships on superficial criteria. This breeds shallow, meaningless relationships. When you are really in need of a friend, they won't be there. When you really need constructive criticism, they would rather tell you that you are great the way you are. When you need support, they would rather see you fail or make a fool of yourself.

7. Disrespectful Dannys: These people will say or do things at the most inappropriate times and in the most inappropriate ways. In essence, they are more subtle, grown up bullies. Maybe this person is a friend who you confided in and uses your secret against you. Maybe it is a family member who puts their busy-body nose into your affairs when it is none of their business. Or maybe, it is a colleague who says demeaning things to you.

* Why they are toxic: These people have no sense of boundaries and don't respect your feelings or, for that matter, your privacy. These people will cause you to feel frustrated and disrespected.

8. Never Enough Nellies: You can never give enough to these people to make them happy. They take you for granted and have unrealistic expectations of you. They find ways to continually fault you and never take responsibility for anything themselves.

* Why they are toxic: You will spend so much time trying to please them, that you will end up losing yourself in the process. They will require all of your time and energy, leaving you worn out and your own needs sacrificed.

All of these personalities have several things in common. 1) the more these people get away with their behavior, the more they will continue. 2) Unfortunately, most of these people don't see that what they do is wrong and as a result, talking to them about it will fall on deaf ears, leaving you wondering if you are the crazy one. 3) Most of these people get worse with age, making their impact on you stronger with time.

Frankly, life is too short to spend your time dealing with toxicity. If you can, avoid spending mucho time with people who are indicative of these behaviors and you'll feel a lot happier. Have you encountered these personalities? What have you done? Any personalities you would add?