What does freedom mean to you?

What does freedom mean to you?

The other day I saw this and started thinking about it. Just recently India celebrated Independence day, August 15th and US celebrated its independence day on July 4th. To my grandfather who walked in freedom marches with Gandhi against British Raj, it meant a very valuable thing. Early on he taught me to never take my FREEDOM for granted. I am not sure that back then I fully understood what he meant. But now, the more I live, I realize its meaning each day more and more.

Look around you or just listen to the news. You hear about ISIS killing Yejidis, persecuting them, Israel striking Gaza etc.. You hear about women and children being sold into slavery for sex trades. Makes you realize that some of the basic rights we take for granted, to be FREE!!!!!!!!! Of course there are some sorts of dependence or addictions that some are in bondage of, ex: drugs etc and they too are not free.. Each human being struggles with this definition of freedom.

But one thing for sure with freedom comes individual responsibility. What are we doing with this responsibility. Are we making sure, we are carrying our responsibilities or are we just existing and occupying space? Are our actions in someway helping release some captives?

Gifts and talents

 Each individual on this earth is unique and is endowed with set of gifts and talents. The talents vary from creative such as writing, painting, drawing, crafts to practical skills such as business skills, counseling, serving etc. We are responsible for what we do with our skills. We can let them go to waste or we can use them for our benefit and for others. I often see so many people that are working in professions that they are unhappy in and always complain that they are not using their talents. Let me ask you, "Do you try to take a class to encourage those talents?" "Do you try to volunteer in the area of your talents?" Granted that may not make you money, but try doing something towards the area of talents, that will in due time provide you with a contentment that you never knew. Wishing and hoping doesn't make room for your talents. Taking a step towards and devoting a little time from your life will not only give you the contentment but also bring joy and relaxation. So, today take a step in exploring what your talents are and start thinking, "What can I do more to be good at this talent and how can I use it to be a blessing".

R.I.P Taddy

This morning my cat suddenly died. One moment I was watching her eating her food, happily smiling at me. In a next hour or so, I saw her sudden death. A reminder, how life is so fragile! One moment we are here, next minute are we gone. So take a step back and cherish the people,things and pets in your life. Always be amazed at the beauty of what you have at this moment!! Never take anything for granted, for you may not have it again. R.I.P my friend, taddy............

Education

Last week, a friend of mine Doug posted this tweet about a young boy in China going to school. Not only was he walking to school but he was also carrying his chair and desk. That picture touched me. I was reminded of my times growing up in India. I was a very fortunate child who went to a decent school. We had chairs and desks to sit on and never had to carry anything besides our backpack and eagerness to learn. More and more lately I have seen that kids take education for granted. I remember that when I went to school, it was considered a privilege to get education. We were told that we had the choice to make it the best we could. We could use the opportunities that were given to us and make our lives better or we could choose to waste our opportunities. Growing up surrounded by various sort of income classes in India, I learnt quickly that education and hard work are 2 important tools in your arsenal. Early on, I knew I wanted to make something out of my life, I had to do so on basis of those two. I don't believe I would have learnt the work ethics that I have now, if I had not dedicated myself completely to studying and working hard when I had the opportunity to do so.

Picture credited to ChinaDailyUSA

Story about Peter..

This is a story about man named "Peter". I met Peter in my early 20s at my first job. Pete used to be a NASA engineer who had transferred to this part of country to retire. He was a software engineer and I was a fresh out of the school employee. I worked in a lab and was supposed to design this lab based data management system. But I have never had any training in software design or databases. So, I started collaborating with Pete on database designs. We used to meet once every week. In our conversations I realized Pete was a genius in investing and stocks. He started talking to me about my financial future. Have I started setting aside my contributions to 401K? Do I have a Roth IRA etc? You realize until that point I never even knew what the difference in stocks and bonds were. He pointed me in the direction of different books, and sites such as yahoo and msn boards. This is way before we had our social media networks. What a huge blessing to me it was to run into someone like Pete. I always had a desire to learn more about investing and trading, but never had any guidance. He took the time and effort to guide me. He would regularly stop in to see if I had any questions or if he could help me. All it took was a little bit of his time and my eagerness to learn. Pete is retired and long gone and I have moved on too. But I will always cherish my friendship with him and what he has taught me.

How often in our lives we see someone with a need and just ignore it? How often do we take a minute of our time and help them? Sometimes we miss out on opportunities to develop new connections because we are in hurry. When I look back at my life it was Pete who had sown this seed in my life. Now, I try to be on the look out of sowing some seeds in someone else's life whenever I can. In the long run it all pays off.

Tillie Monster

Today, my dog of 8 yrs, my best friend "Tillie" died. The reason I am writing this post is to celebrate the gift that she gave me. In April 2004, she came in my life. She was a rescue dog abandoned because she was too energetic and the owner could not keep up with her. When I got her, she was just a small puppy dog of 4 months. She had a lot of energy, enough to tire me out in few minutes. None of my past dogs prepared me for the experience that I was going to have with her. I had to learn pretty soon, that she was not going to fit in my "Box" of ideal dog. I had to make a decision right then and there, can I keep her and be flexible enough and change my definition of "ideal" dog. Or will I give up on her? Pretty soon I realized I could take her hiking,swimming, walking and teach her obedience through properly chanelling her energy in the right direction. What I want you to see is many times, we have a defined "Box" in life our ideas of what life should be, what ideal career should be, who our friends should be etc. What Tillie taught me is to be open. Open my box up and accept the unusual. Cause most of the time, that unusual will enrich our lives and make us live our life to the fullest. So, here is to my "Tillie Monster", thank you!

Don't be afraid to look around the corner.

I have been in the process of selling a house. This house sits on an intersection of a main road and a side road. I always thought the side road was a dead end road, as the town map showed it to be leading to private way after a 1 mile public access. Since I am coming close to selling this property, I decided I wanted to take a drive down and see that house again and also drive down that side road. I told myself, "I can turn around if it indeed ends up in private way".

After driving for 5 minutes and passing through some old houses on the way, this road becomes much more scenic than I ever imagined. There are big evergreens lining the road, I almost feel like I am going into a beautiful magical forest, and of course the road ends into private access only at that point. But, then I see a side trail, which says "open to public". I stopped, parked and started walking this trail. The trail ended up on the ocean, a beautiful coastline of rocks and shells.

On my walk, I realized this, "I have been on this property quite a few times since I owned it. But I never even tried to take the side road to explore, just because I thought it was a dead end". How many times in our lives have we done that?? We think its a dead end! What is the point of even going that way?? Just around the corner, when things look like they are

hopeless, we say why even bother trying. Why should we take that extra risk, because the risk looks to be too much?

So I think its a good challenge to ourselves to take that extra step of faith, be more bold and look around the corner. We will never know what doors will open up, what types of beautiful relationships we could cultivate, what improvements we could make in our lives. If we don't look around the corner, we might just miss out on the beauty of life..